Gears Esports — Season 3 Rebrand & Visual System
This design case is from my experience at
The Coalition
Role
Visual & Motion Designer
Industry
Gaming
Active team
Date
2019
Outcome
Rebranding a competitive legacy at a franchise milestone.
The release of Gears 5 in 2019 marked a defining moment for the franchise, and with it, the opportunity to reimagine Gears Esports Season 3. This was a high-stakes rebrand that needed to modernize the competitive identity while staying deeply rooted in the gritty legacy fans loved. My goal was to create a bold, unified visual system that could scale across in-game screens, live broadcasts, social media, and physical merchandise without losing impact or clarity.
My role
Starting from an existing logo, I led the end-to-end rebrand for Gears Esports Season 3, defining the full visual identity system and delivering assets across branding, screens, merchandise, and motion. I designed a scalable system that extended the logo across digital, broadcast, and physical touchpoints while balancing creative ambition with real production constraints.
Collaboration
I partnered closely with logo designer Tiz Beretta, The Coalition’s UI team, licensing, and esports stakeholders to align creative vision with broadcast, in-game, and merchandise needs. Acting as a connective layer across teams, I shared concepts early and adapted designs to support live events, marketing, and production realities.
Tools & methods
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Figma Methods: Community observation, competitive analysis, mood boarding, concept sketching, design systems thinking, iterative critique, production handoff
The challenge
The core challenge was to create a single visual identity that captured the intensity and grit of Gears Esports, stood out in a crowded esports landscape, and scaled seamlessly across screens, social, broadcast, and physical merchandise. Under tight timelines and live-event pressure, the focus wasn’t on isolated assets, but on building a cohesive system that could evolve without losing clarity or coherence.
The process
Research & ideation
I grounded the rebrand in both community insight and industry context by observing fan behavior across Twitter and Twitch, analyzing branding approaches from esports and traditional sports organizations, and identifying gaps in cohesion, hierarchy, and emotional impact. These insights were synthesized into a clear visual direction that became the project’s north star—gritty, intense, energetic, and unapologetically Gears.
Exploration & conceptualization
During concept development, I explored dynamic photography from past Gears events to capture player emotion and competitive intensity, pairing imagery with bold typography and gritty textures rooted in the game’s aesthetic. I refined the iconic red, black, and white palette by pushing contrast and saturation for a more modern, high-impact feel, while sketching multiple layout systems to test scalability across formats.
Iteration & refinement
Iteration was driven by real feedback and real use cases. I reviewed early concepts with stakeholders to refine hierarchy, contrast, and pacing, pressure-tested designs across broadcast, social, screens, and merchandise, and gathered input from the Gears community to validate emotional resonance. This process helped shape a system that remained flexible without fragmenting the identity.
Delivery & implementation
The final system shipped as a complete, reusable toolkit spanning hero imagery, social templates, live event and broadcast graphics, venue signage, and merchandise designs aligned with licensing and production constraints. Designed for adaptability, the system maintained a strong, consistent identity across platforms, events, and ongoing seasons.
Visual work & highlights
Brand system
The brand system included hero visuals, typography and color usage, and consistent texture and imagery treatments that unified the identity across all touchpoints.
Screens & broadcast
The identity was applied to tournament screens, in-game HUD elements, and on-air graphics used during live broadcasts.
Merchandise
Designs extended to merchandise such as bandanas, pins, lanyards, and caps, including event-specific collections created exclusively for LAN tournaments.
Motion & promo
Motion work supported Fight Night promos, LAN tournament videos, and custom motion slates and transitions, reinforcing the brand in dynamic contexts.
Reflection & impact
This rebrand was a pivotal moment in my career, requiring me to balance creative ambition with real constraints—tight timelines, live-event pressure, and the responsibility that comes with working on a franchise supported by a passionate, vocal community. Owning the visual system pushed me to think beyond aesthetics and focus on decisions that could scale, ship, and hold up across screens, merchandise, and broadcasts. One of the most rewarding outcomes was seeing the identity adopted across in-game screens, live broadcasts, and sold-out merchandise booths at LAN events. Designing exclusive collections for over ten major tournaments and watching fans wear and share the work reinforced how powerful community-driven design can be, especially in esports where emotional connection matters as much as visual impact. This project solidified my belief that the strongest esports branding lives at the intersection of emotion, systems thinking, and execution discipline. While my time on the project has ended, both the game and its community remain close to my heart, and the lessons from this work continue to shape how I approach branding, UX systems, and live products today, building strong foundations, listening closely to audiences, and designing systems that can grow without losing their soul.
