The best gaming logos have to convey an idea of the mood and theme of a game while also creating a strong, recognisable identity that stands out in a crowded market. When it's a major brand like Marvel, the design also has to fit into an existing universe of titles while also showing this release to be distinct.
So how does a designer approach the challenge of creating an identity that ticks all of these boxes? Stephane Perez AKA Mardoch has provided a detailed breakdown of how he approached the brief when he designed the Marvel Cosmic Invasion logo for the beat 'em up developed by Tribute Games and published by Dotemu.
He created a wide range of assets for the game, from key art to packaging and merchandise, but the logo design marked the start of his involvement and creates a base for the game's identity.
"I believe that logos shouldn’t merely complement a brand with a specific style; they need to tell a story and that’s especially true for video game logos," Mardoch says of his philosophy when it comes to logo design.
"A good gaming logo embodies the game’s spirit by conveying a narrative, referencing specific themes, and projecting a distinct personality. It serves as a promise that the game’s true essence awaits the player."
Mardoch knew from the outset that the Marvel Cosmic Invasion logo needed to evoke several things: space adventure, the Marvel comics universe, and the threat posed by the game’s main antagonist, Annihilus.
He quickly defined the three parts. Marvel's existing mark was already given, tying the game to the established Marvel identity, but then there were the two words specific to the game: 'Cosmic' and 'Invasion'.
"I had several starting directions, but very quickly a texture language took over: something dynamic and futuristic for COSMIC, and something raw and organic for INVASION," Mardoch explains in the breakdown on his website.
A few quick exploration passes got him fairly close to the final direction (see the iterations above).
Taking inspiration from the fonts used for sci-fi movie titles from the ’60s and ’70s, from Forbidden Planet to Barbarella, he decided the word Cosmic needed bold shapes, slightly rounded corners and a perspective effect for a retro futuristic look. To get just the right shape, he designed a custom font, Marvel Cosmic, which would go on to give the marketing campaign a unique asset.
'Invasion' needed to provide a contrast, so Mardoch sought something rougher and more organic. He wanted connecting elements between the letters to create a "sticky, slightly grimy feel" as a reference to Annihilus's insectoid origins. The resulting wordmark has a distinct "gooey" feel that remains in keeping with comic traditions.
Once these main concepts were in place, it was a question of making finer adjustments and tweaking the scale and perspective of each element to create the perfect harmony.
Mardoch tried a version with a star as a reference to Nova, but found that it made the design too busy and difficult to read at smaller sizes: a game logo still needs to comply with many of the rules of logo design.
That said, as this is a game rather than a corporate identity, there's room to add some creative flair. A gradient outline across the whole logo creates a slight glow, intended to echo the saturated colours of space-themed comic books.
Mardoch also added a classic halftone print pattern as a texture to push the comic panel feel further. "I built it first in Photoshop, then separated the texture from the letterforms so I could rebuild everything as vector art in Illustrator," he says. "That way the logo could scale cleanly across pretty much any format, from packaging down to a single icon."
"What I like about the final result is that it works on almost every level. It nods to the comics, alludes to the villain, keeps a sci-fi reference, and still reads clearly in black and white and at small sizes," Mardoch says.
Work on the logo wasn't quite finished, though. The game logo also needed a motion version, and animated logos involve considerations of their own.
Mardoch wanted to maintain the sci-fi mood and decided to animated the two words as separate beats. For 'Cosmic', he was inspired by the trailing echo effect in the opening of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie. For 'Invasion', the inspiration was the title reveal from The Thing. "Reusing it works both as a tribute to the film and as a way to anchor my logo firmly inside a well-defined genre," the designer notes.
The finishing touch is a light sheen sweeping across the outline, followed by a small starburst flare going back to that idea of including a nod to Nova‘s star (never abandon an idea completely!)
For more inspiration from the Marvel universe, see our interview with Lee Garbett.
