Interns of the Coast — Logo Design by Paolo Vacala

Interns of the Coast

2023 Wizards of the Coast | Paolo Vacala

My Wizards of the Coast recruiter approached me with the idea to conceive a symbol or mark to represent Wizards interns and to print on merch. The objective is to design something that can be universally appreciated and loved by interns across all of the company's teams and studios.

SKILLS

Identity Design, Typography

CLIENT

Wizards of the Coast

DATE

Summer 2023

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To start, I gathered relevant design and artwork, and WOTC IPs that we identify with I was thinking of calling out to those in the design somehow, either directly or through the overall vibe. Emphasis on portraying the fantasy tabletop gaming experience through the solution, and less on traditional intern-like clichés.

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Initial ideas were primarily marriages between one or two iconic symbols or simplified characters. My recruiter and myself really gravitated towards the type dominant solutions, and after consulting their team we got the go ahead to pursuit the 'interns of the coast' idea. A typographically relevant and catching solution embodying the fantastical 'genre' of WOTC.

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After experimenting with the chosen type-dominated approach, I ended up going with the center slanted design. Through critique and feedback, I removed the Magic: The Gathering planeswalker symbol, as it is not representative of interns across ALL of WOTC's IPs and teams. Moving forward, I sunk a lot of time into perfecting my letterforms and optimizing kerning.

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Now I had to learn how to keep within the WOTC brand architecture, Interns of the Coast has to corporately and professionally look and feel like a part of WOTC, like D&D and Magic: The Gathering, Secret Lair, D&D Beyond, etc. I was asked by HR and the franchise team to develop solutions with 'Wizards' or the 'W' included. I then developed possible routes for the new sub brand integration.

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My final handoff consisted of a short style presentation showing off all the assets located in the provided asset folder.

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This project was really rewarding and time efficient for me. I learned how to juggle multiple big projects at once during my second summer internship at Wizards. I remember feeling like I wasn't struggling or stressing out over the completion of this project, it felt like a soothing walk in the park. Very happy with how the letterforms turned out.