Crunchyroll is one of the largest anime streaming websites that has expanded to producing its own original content, merchandise, and events. As someone who watches and loves anime, I have often run into the issue of people who have never seen a single anime associating it with being weird or nerdy. This really bothered me, so I created a platform––vibrant and fun––in order to invite new viewers and invigorate the old ones. Through this rebrand, I wanted to represent what I believe anime to be about: story, art, and depth.
First, came my display typeface, Vibro. The layers and bold lines in the font inspired the rest of my graphic elements to come later on in the rebrand. The numerous lines reminded me of layers and it was also fun.
The tagline is a play on the brand name "Crunchyroll." It is meant to be quirky and fun to go along with the tone of the rebrand I imagined: high-energy, fun, and bright. As I hope to expand to new audiences with this re-brand, "Keep it Rolling" is meant to be a call to action for the veteran viewers to bring to light.
Then, came the logo. Incorporating the idea of layers and rolling taken from the name, I wanted to create a logo that looked like it was moving. My logo initially looked more corporate than it did fun, so I landed on my final logo keeping energy and quirkiness in mind.
The first graphic element was established early on. I then created variations of that and thought how I could show layers and what form it should take to be used throughout my rebrand.
Because anime is full of color, I wanted to expand the color palette to be used based on genre of anime. The darker palette for the heavier themes and the lighter palette for the light-hearted themes.
Crunchyroll's digital platforms and streaming are the main features––it is what Crunchyroll started with. I wanted my viewers to be greeted with a platform that reflected the spirit of anime. I felt that the existing site would benefit from having a platform that matched the content it was hosting.
