Kōra
The context
Kōra's first game had a finished art direction; the studio behind it had none, and press kept lifting in-game screenshots as the company logo. The identity deliberately steps away from the game so the studio can ship a second, different title without a rebrand.
The reasoning
The studio is not the game
The identity uses no illustration and none of the game's palette. It is a wordmark, a grid and two weights, which lets the games be loud while the studio stays quiet behind them.
Press kit first
The first artefact designed was the press kit page, because that is where every journalist meets the studio. Everything else was derived from what that page needed.
Two weights, no more
A light text weight and a black display weight cover every case from a storefront page to a business card. Fewer weights means fewer decisions for two people with no designer on staff.
What shipped
Halcyon