CHALLENGE
Create visual branding that stood out from the crowd of competition and was flexible enough to refresh each season.
RESULTS
Vibrant and fun visual branding that relied on color blocks inspired by title and seasonal color palettes, tone-on-tone panel art featured in each color block, and the use of quirky fonts with an unexpected mix of caps and lower case characters
SPECIALTIES
Branding • Creative & Art Direction
• Hands-On Design • Freelance Design Management • Digital Collateral • Print Collateral
Sometimes a successful visual direction develops from misses. In this case, my initial concepts to use featured campaign title art as the grounding visual direction missed the mark for expectations.
The RH Graphic visual branding would be used for marketing campaigns only; all stakeholders wanted a visual direction which represented the perception that graphic novels were fun, colorful, and exciting. Marketing stakeholders wanted a visual direction that could be refreshed each season but still be recognizable as the RH Graphic brand. Additionally, the visual branding needed to be distinctive from the competition who all used a dot screen background to represent the graphic novel medium.
The final solution (shown above) featured blocked layouts utilizing hand-drawn panels, a color block background with tone-on-tone panel art, a limited seasonal color palette, and a quirky font showcasing an unexpected mix of caps and lowercase characters.
Recognizing that graphic novels are an exciting way to engage kids in reading, RH Graphic has made it their mission is to put a graphic novel on every shelf. Age ranges from early readers to young adult.
While the age range for RH Graphic is wide (early readers to young adult), the majority of the marketing focused on the growing and profitable Early Readers to Middle Grade audiences. As a result, the visual branding leaned into a vibrant, colorful, and fun approach.
Each season the color palette would draw from the featured titles while still leaning into traditional colors for the season. Highlighted titles were featured as tone-on-tone art showcased in the color blocks for the brand design.
Role: Creative & Art Director/Designer • Contributing Designer: Allie Z., Michelle R. • Marketer: Nicole V. • For: Random House Children’s Books / RH Graphic • 2019–2023