Black Girl Gamers.
As part of the D&AD New Blood Awards 2022, the Black Girl Gamers set the challenge to create a new brand identity and graphic-led campaign to showcase the Black Girl Gamers ambition and vibe. Founded in 2015, the Black Girl Gamers are a community-powered organisation that advocates for diversity, inclusion, and equity in the gaming industry. The Black Girl Gamers strive to empower black women in gaming.
The Problem.
The problem the Black Girl Gamers face is that many in the gaming industry think BGG are just a community, rather than a community-powered business on a mission to change the gaming world. Using primary research methods, I discovered that over half of female gamers don't know that the Black Girl Gamers exist, let alone what their purpose is. There was also a misconception where people believe that the Black Girl Gamers is "backwards thinking" and that they are segregating themselves from the rest of the gaming community.
The Challenge.
How can I help the Black Girl Gamers make their mark by raising awareness and educating the gaming world about who they are, what they do, and why they do it?
The Logo.
The new brand identity was inspired directly by its members and the gaming community. In my research I discovered that many gamers see gaming as an "escapism from reality". One of the reasons the Black Girl Gamers was created in the first place was to help form a safe space for black female gamers to have fun online. It only made sense to combine these two messages together to help form the new brand. The logo refers to the Black Girl Gamers escaping into the future of gaming whilst also remaining in that much important safe space.
The Social Media.
Throughout my research I discovered that the Black Girl Gamers current branding and material was inconsistent, lacked excitement, and struggled to reflect their brand's message of ambition and vibrancy. As part of the rebrand I made it my mission to bring consistency to the brand, as well as energy and excitement to help gain the attention of potential members, the rest of the gaming community, and help attract business opportunities for the Black Girl Gamers.
The Website.
Another change I wanted to implement to help the Black Girl Gamers was to rebrand their website. Although the foundations of their current website were good, the lack of brand consistency needed changing to help attract business opportunities and help the Black Girl Gamers stand out as a professional and approachable community-powered business on a mission.
The Campaign.
The campaign was created to help educate the gaming world and raising awareness of who the Black Girl Gamers are and what they do. Each tagline was inspired by the iconic Playstation controller buttons and refers to one of BGG's messages. For example, the triangle refers to positivity, reaching potentials and going up in the world, hence the tagline "top of our game". Each poster also has a short message that briefly explains the tagline in context. For example, "showing the world that anyone can play".
Since a circle is always connected, the circle icon is a reference to the Black Girl Gamers acting as an inclusive platform for gamers to come together in peace and unity. "Escaping reality and making friends along the way" was a friendly and eye-opening message used in one of the designs.
The square is a reference to BGG acting as a safe space for black female gamers to have fun whilst playing online, hence the message "keeping black female gamers safe online". The final part of the campaign was inspired by the famous phrase "X marks the spot". The X icon refers to the Black Girl Gamers making their mark on the gaming industry, with "Changing the way people think about gaming" being the message.
