MODERN STORYTELLERS

Whether you have heard of Troy Baker or not, you’ve probably heard his voice at least a few times. Troy is one of the world’s top voice actors. From Batman Animated Feature Films to industry-changing game titles like Bioshock and The Last of Us, Troy’s voice has graced the eardrums of millions of people for over a decade. Troy came to me looking to create a vision and identity for his Online Community/Podcast Network, “Relater”. Together we crafted a brand built around telling deep, meaningful stories while maintaining a clean and timeless esthetic that he can implement from his HQ in Los Angeles. This brand is designed to fit every piece of content that Relater’s community creates, from interviews with gamings best writers like Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross, to down to earth podcasts with comedian Pete Holmes. Relater’s brand is a flexible storytelling toolbox.

DEPTH & UTILITY

The brand’s core icon is an abstraction of the Hegelian dialectic, representing the two sides of a conversation and the place in the middle where we meet and find understanding. This mark gives a great definition of what Relater is all about – bringing people of different backgrounds together to have a meaningful conversation and turn that into meaningful stories. Troy also happens to have this mark tattoed on his forearm, which gives this approach a much deepen humanity and meaning.

As a secondary definition, the 3 circles of the mark also represent the 3 distinct ways that Relater aims to tell stories. Conversation (Talk), Video Games (Game) & Play (Music & other creative mediums). The icon was designed to transform between its core form and 3 variations that each represent one of these core communication methods. This transformation gives the icon a huge amount of depth while still being fairly simple visually.

Accompanied by wordmarks inspired by utilitarian typefaces and hand-drawn scripts throughout the decades, The brand balances modern minimalism with engaging storytelling character.

DEPTH & UTILITY

While the brand is designed to be elegant and simple, I also intentionally built the brand to be flexible and expressive when necessary. Video thumbnails and modern smooth animation create a beautiful visual language that ties everything together distinctly and recognizably.

My partners and I took on a huge project that had no business working out. That we made it out of the gate is due to the support, creativity, and general wizardry of Zach Silver. Zach was there for anything and everything our project needed, including marketing and business advice outside the realm of his contract. While we hired Zach because of his impressive portfolio and passion for design, we were completely unprepared for him to become one of the most influential people to touch our project. If I was thinking of doing another project, Zach wouldn’t just be a call, he’d be my first call (then the bank to beg for money).!

JESSE ROBERTS – CO-OWNER

Brand Photography by Dariynn Silver of Reflect Design Co. & Morgan Turner of MTurnerPhoto

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