Abridged brand guidelines
TruPlay Brand Identity
The brief
TruPlay is a startup company creating Christian-themed games for kids. They asked us to establish a brand identity system for them and gave us a short briefing that included their tagline, “play in the light,” and adjectives like “enchanting,” “inspiring,” and “celestial.” They wanted to focus on blue as a main color, but were open to exploration when it came to secondary colors.
The chosen concept
“North Star." Inspired by the wonder of the cosmos and its connection to biblical themes. The stars represent heavenly guidance, like the star of Bethlehem guided the wise men, so we encourage our kids to look to God for direction. The color palette and usage conveys the idea of finding joy and truth in the light of the gospel.
The development and execution
The final deliverables for this project were a style guide, all of the pieces of the brand toolkit (logos, patterns, gradients, app icon and favicon), and social templates.
The North Star concept had started with a more whimsical, calligraphic logotype, but by the end was shifted to a sans serif look for legibility and to better appeal to children, who might not be familiar with cursive writing.
The color palette is inspired by light, sky, and sea—the first things God created in Genesis. The patterns are derived from the logo — the stars of course from the end of the word mark, and the confetti pattern is created from the custom arced crossbar of the “T.” That arc is carried into social and digital advertising, where it becomes a framing device, as well as a CTA button.