Repositioning Publisher Collective through a scalable and culturally aligned brand system
A full-scale brand refresh repositioning Publisher Collective around a more expressive, scalable and culturally aligned visual identity for the games and digital entertainment space.
Overview
Publisher Collective is a games-focused advertising and technology company operating within the gaming and digital entertainment space. I led a full-scale brand refresh designed to reposition the company’s visual identity around the culture, energy and expectations of that audience.
While the existing logo was retained to preserve recognition, the wider identity was completely redefined to create a more expressive, scalable and future-facing brand system.
The challenge
The existing brand leaned heavily into a more corporate visual style that no longer reflected either the industry or audience Publisher Collective worked within.
Key challenges included:
- An overreliance on a single primary blue
- Limited flexibility across campaigns and digital assets
- A visual style that felt flat and overly corporate
- A lack of scalable brand guidelines for wider rollout
The goal was to modernise the identity while retaining existing brand recognition and creating a system that could evolve long-term without becoming creatively restrictive.
My role
As the sole creative on the project, I led the refresh end-to-end from concept through to rollout.
Responsibilities included:
- Creative Direction
- Brand Strategy
- Visual Identity Design
- Design Systems
- Asset Creation
- Photography & Image Direction
- Stakeholder Communication
- Brand Guidelines
- Rollout Support
I worked directly with the client throughout the process, helping align the refreshed identity around both business goals and the visual culture of the gaming industry.
Approach
The refresh focused on building a more flexible and scalable visual system rather than simply updating the surface aesthetics.
Key elements of the approach included:
- Moving away from a single dominant brand colour
- Developing a multi-colour gradient-based identity system
- Creating equal-weighted colourways to increase flexibility and longevity
- Naming colour palettes to help embed shared internal brand terminology
- Establishing a more energetic and gaming-focused photography direction
- Using geometric forms from the logo as modular framing devices and image containers
- Creating a scalable visual language that could work consistently across multiple asset types
Alongside the visual refresh, I also established new brand guidelines to help ensure consistency across future rollout, internal usage and digital applications.
Outcome
The refreshed identity was rolled out across the wider company and adopted across presentations, social content, marketing assets and digital communications.
The new system provided:
- Greater creative flexibility across campaigns and platforms
- A more culturally aligned identity for the gaming and ad-tech space
- Stronger consistency across brand touchpoints
- A scalable framework for future growth and digital expansion
The visual direction established through the refresh also became the foundation for the creative direction of a completely redesigned website, extending the identity into a broader digital experience.