The challenge of redesigning a classic esports logo

When Sunny Bonnell and her workforce at branding company Motto began working with Ninjas In Pyjamas (NIP), a 20-year-old esports workforce seeking a brand new look, they did numerous analysis. The workforce had by no means labored in gaming or esports earlier than, they usually needed to know the house. They talked to followers and other people on the workforce, and sketched out tons of of doable brand concepts over the course of greater than a yr. When NIP revealed their new visual identity final month, the response was quick — and far of it was unfavourable. “I don’t suppose we actually knew on the time that the followers would have such a tough time with it,” says Bonnell.

NIP was based in 2000, and the Swedish group presently operates groups in Valorant, FIFA, and Rainbow Six, although it’s most well-known for its Counter-Strike squad. Its earlier brand was a gold shuriken with numerous curves and sharp factors. The brand new iteration maintains the identical idea however streamlines it, with neon yellow set towards a black backdrop, and an angular shuriken that encompasses a stylized model of the kanji for “nin” inside. It’s brighter, easier, and extra simply recognizable.

Bonnell says that the brand new brand was vital for just a few causes. These embody the pliability to scale throughout totally different platforms, in addition to the shortage of distinction between the black-and-brown coloration scheme. “There have been simply numerous technical points with the present mark,” she says. The problem, she provides, was making a brand that not solely retained the traditional iconography related to the workforce but in addition felt contemporary and labored throughout a wide range of mediums. “That mark needed to do an entire lot of lifting.”

When the workforce began engaged on the challenge, they actually zoomed in on the ninja a part of the NIP identify. There’s the kanji, in addition to a coloration scheme impressed by the streets of Tokyo, and even an audio ingredient; the designers got here up with a signature blade swooshing sound for the workforce to make use of in movies and on social media. “I felt that was one thing they might actually personal,” Bonnell says of the ninja parts. “They have been missing one thing to say. They’d cool attire and nice groups, however they didn’t actually have the rest that was giving them a narrative to inform.”

One of many challenges of contemporary brand design is creating one thing that may work just about anyplace. It’s particularly tough in esports. The NIP brand is used as a Twitter icon, a badge on jerseys, and even a digital sticker that gamers can placed on in-game weapons. When in-person tournaments return, the emblem shall be blown up on massive LCD shows on stage. (Bonnell is especially excited concerning the final one. “It’s going to be so cool.”) To make one thing that works in all of those contexts, designers typically resort to one thing flat and easy. The result’s logos that tend to look the same.

“It will get trickier over time,” Bonnell says of the method. “The extra you add, the extra sophisticated it turns into.” The brand new NIP brand makes an attempt to get round this in just a few methods. For one, the shuriken is ready on its aspect to create a way of movement, as if it was being thrown. And whereas the emblem is comparatively easy, it’s imbued with which means, just like the hidden phrase contained in the weapon. Principally, each ingredient is supposed to scream “ninja!”

Photograph: Motto

Giving an current workforce a brand new id is a tough proposition. Identical to in conventional sports activities, esports followers are hooked up to groups and their histories. In actual fact, when Dignitas and Evil Geniuses, two long-running organizations, launched dramatic redesigns, the uproar was so intense they ended up reverting again to their authentic logos.

Regardless of all the preparation, Bonnell says she wasn’t fully prepared for the quantity of blowback the NIP redesign obtained. “There’s numerous hate in esports that I don’t know if I used to be ready for,” she says. “I needed to cease studying the feedback, as a result of I used to be like ‘Oh my god, I wish to cry in my cornflakes.’ That is actually dangerous.”

That has mellowed over time, she says. “The primary day was tough,” she admits, however says that as time handed and the emblem was displayed in additional contexts — on jerseys, in precise video games — she began to obtain optimistic suggestions from followers who modified their minds. Whereas different organizations might have struggled with the preliminary blowback, Bonnell doesn’t suppose that can occur with NIP.

“First they’ll be ridiculed,” she says, “then they’ll be revered.”