In this final project, I redesigned the branding for The Fantasy Shop, my local board game and comic book shop. The branding was dated, disorganized, and inconsistent across the four shop locations. My goal was to update the branding in a way that would appeal to modern fantasy fans, utilizing a style inspired by classic American comics.
The Original Branding
The existing branding for the store varies wildly from one location to the next, with no unifying elements except for the name. Even the dragon mascot from the logo shown on the website only appears at one of the four shop locations. The typography is generic and outdated, and overall the branding does little to set the shops apart from the other stores in their areas.
The Rebrand
The Fantasy Shop was founded in the 80’s, which was a golden era for both comics and fantasy media. I knew I wanted my rebrand to emulate the feeling of classic 80’s fantasy, in a style inspired by classic 80’s comics. However, I wanted to do this in a way that updated the brand into something more modern. With the recent revitalization of the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons and other role-playing games, board games and fantasy media are exploding with popularity once again, and I wanted the branding of this shop to reflect that modernization of a classic genre.
I started by creating the logotype with a mixture of Adobe Illustrator and hand-drawn type, and from there I added a wizard mascot to bring in the comic book art style and give a face to the brand. With my color palette finalized, I then created a versatile repeating pattern that could be used in many different contexts across the brand. The pattern features polyhedral dice, which are iconic to role-playing games.
The Deliverables
The four store locations had one consistency within their original branding: all four of the stores had artwork and decals plastering the windows. I wanted to keep the idea of artwork on the exterior of the store, but updated into something a little more indicative of the brand. So, I designed a wall mural in a comic book style, featuring the mascot wizard, that could be painted on the wall of the store building. I also added to the brand by creating branded merchandise to sell in the stores.
