Microsoft - Xbox Brand Refresh
Partnering in the future of gaming.
Always keeping the player at the center, Xbox has grown into an entire ecosystem encompassing a family of product experiences, subscriptions, services, and devices. Xbox continues to push the boundaries of gaming, where the future lives beyond consoles, and fans can play wherever they want, whenever they want. As close partners, we worked both upstream and in the trenches—years ahead of launch to help visualize this shift in position and a giant leap of experience.
- Identity
- Visual Language
- Guidelines
Casting a shared vision
We bounced new thinking off internal teams and executives to shape the external-facing brief for go-to-market communication. Once the outward-facing phase began, we designed and delivered a platform of assets, tools, and systems to inspire and guide global design and production studios.
An iconic brand made more iconic
A meaningful simplification in the logotype and symbol set the foundation for a more iconic expression. The Xbox Sphere stands alone without the Xbox typography lockup—a shift meant to elevate the logo’s role as a portal device into the content-rich world of Xbox. This update also simplifies the brand communications of Xbox services like Game Pass while still building equity in the Sphere as a hero asset for the brand.
Building a simple signature style
We pushed type to become bolder, more systematic, and quickly recognized as Microsoft, but with Xbox character and tone. A signature headline style and graphic device inspired by the logo kept things fresh and consistent.
A system made for marketing
Understanding how Xbox goes to market was critical in drafting a system that could flex from content-led to brand-led touch points. Added versatility for building composition combined with an increased impact of key art and the Xbox color green was thoroughly considered to provide marketers with an effective and easy-to-use communication tool.
Art Directing physical products to attract
The need to visualize the family of consoles, controllers, and accessories in a premium and coherent way was solved by using a dynamic grid to hero physical products as a solo, in a group shot, or paired with content.
Extending the system
The strength of any design system is the expression it inspires, not the limitations it sets. When using intelligent geometry to build portal-inspired stories—things like animation, illustration, and iconography become critical ingredients to delight and engage audiences.
The next twenty years begin now
Because of the significant efforts across multiple teams and the true collaboration it took to get there, the launch of the next generation of Xbox brand and consoles received rave reviews from the industry and has grown momentum in the market.
Lastly, and perhaps the perfect way to cap off this breadth of work, we designed the 20th-anniversary logo for this amazing group we’ve been partnering with since day one.
