Rogue Deckbuilder Branding
Even YouTube channels need strong visual identities. The Rogue Deckbuilder is a Streamer and YouTube Content Creator focused on the Magic: The Gathering card game. He's what the community calls a brewer - focusing on creating and developing innovative decks and ideas. He's been creating content for a solid six years now, but up until I started working with him, he didn't have any real branding.
Back in 2014, he reached out to me looking for help (I also happened to be a long-time fan - it's really awesome to get to work on a project you enjoy so much!). He wanted to grow the channel and the brand, and he needed a strong visual identity to do that.
The Branding
The Rogue Deckbuilder barely had any branding to start with; for the last few years he had just been operating under the words "Rogue Deckbuilder" in a piratey font. While, sure, there was nothing inherently wrong with that, it didn't speak to what he did.
We went through a few different variations - a tattered flag, a traditional badge icon, until we finally landed on the current version. The fish-and-barrel logo nicely ties together the "rogue" and "pirate" themes with the concept of a "brewer." I also created two lock-ups: one that was the true logo with the Rogue Deckbuilder name, and another that read "Gone Rogue!," a kind of motto of the brand. For a background texture, I settled on stylized waves, to tie back in the original pirate theme.
On a side note, I decided not to use any Magic branded elements in our design (unlike most of the sites or content producers that create Magic content). This choice set us apart, as well as gave us the opportunity to use this branding on a wider scale, such as in a game store (which is something that we later did - the Gone Rogue! game store is currently operating in Richfield, UT)
We introduced the logo and branding across the YouTube channel, as well as a refreshed website, Twitch stream, Patreon, and Facebook page.
The Business Cards
Having a way to point people toward your business is integral, and these cards aim to do that. The cards are tied into the store - both online and physical, but reference the site and the YouTube channel. They are meant to be shipped out with online orders, given out at events and conventions, or just available at the store.
Most importantly, this is so it's a business card with a purpose - it can be used as a token to play Magic! (Check out my project Tokenmancy for more about this). On the face of the card was artwork I created specifically for the occasion, an interpretation of the rogue fish drawn coming right at the viewer (drawn digitally and touched up in Photoshop). It's a fun way to bring the branding to life.
The back of the card had all of the relevant information - location, website. As well as icons for various eCommerce and social media sites that the Gone Rogue! games store is operational on.
You also may notice that the cards themselves aren't a typical "business card" size. These are actually printed on playing cards - 2.5" x 3.5."
The Merchandise
To help bolster the brand a bit, we decided to create and sell merchandise both from the eCommerce part of our website and from the Gone Rogue! store. Working with a variety of vendors, I've created playmats (essentially oversized mousepads), plastic card sleeves, t-shirts, team jerseys, posters, stickers, and other merchandise that bears the Rogue Deckbuilder brand.
