Tencent Games

Challenge

Tencent Games is the world’s biggest video games developer and publisher, with hundreds of titles and millions of players. After an era of exponential growth and a shift in the industry from niche gaming to mass adoption, they needed a brand that represented their evolution and positioned them for the future of play on an international stage.

Process

Working with Tencent’s leadership and design teams in China, we ran a series of workshops to set the strategic direction for the business. We defined a clear mission statement and supporting values to clarify Tencent Games’ role within the Tencent Group – as well as its positioning within local and international markets.

Brand Strategy

We built the brand around Tencent Games’ belief in the potential for play to connect people through shared experience, to help us understand the world around us and to bring joy and happiness through original creative experiences.

“DesignStudio travelled to China and worked together with the Tencent Games team to discover the possibility of games and create a polished, forward-looking new brand expression for Tencent Games.”

Mars Hou
Vice President, Tencent Games

Brand Identity

We set about bringing the mission to life with a concept not only designed to be familiar to gamers, but also appealing to a mainstream audience. At the heart of the visual identity is a sparkling monogram inspired by the visual language of positive moments in games: the Tencent Games Spark.

The Spark symbolises Tencent Games’ core values: the spark of a new idea, the spark of connection, and sparking of a moment of happiness. We gave the symbol different forms for different environments. From 'minimum to maximum sparkle', it comes to life across all touch-points big and small. Showcasing the creativity and imagination of Tencent Games in our wider graphic system, we champion original IP, with iconic games characters emerging from theme-based colour worlds.

Impact

The Spark has appeared on millions of apps around the globe, and continues to signify the positive value of games wherever it's seen.

“Tencent Games’ refresh journey is a story of in-depth cooperation between Chinese and Western teams to define the future of gaming. DesignStudio's process created a surprising spark for Tencent Games. The internal creative design team, TGideas, has benefited greatly from the collaboration with DesignStudio and looks forward to the next cooperation.”

Lava Li
General Manager, Creative Design Department, Tencent Games