This page is a history of graphics and logos I’ve both made and used on the website since it began. Most everything has been in reference to something I either love or am looking forward to. Since the look of this website changes often, I’ve posted galleries of previous iterations below. This is sure to be updated with every new overhaul, so feel free to come back again and see what’s new!
First Logos
Pretty simple look, but creating the R was hard to decide on. Eventually, I made some swoops and the R turned out by accident. I was never wild about the Header design because it looks more like signage for a bistro instead of a writer’s website. Still, it was a solid first attempt and I’ve kept some remnants of what I first made that are still in use (like the footer of the site).
I also didn’t quite understand pixel and resolution sizes, as you can tell with the header image.
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Final Fantasy VII
This was a first attempt at a homage to Final Fantasy VII, and figuring out what this website was going to become. Why make a personal logo as a homage to something else? Because this website represents what I’m into and Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite games. Ever. And it was a ton of fun to find the font and illustrate.
And…I still struggled with resolution sizes, so it looks MIGHTY blurry.
This one felt right. After this, the website felt ready.
And what better background graphic than the green glow of the Lifestream flowing across the screen?
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Monster Hunter Rise
The art style of Monster Hunter Rise’s logo was half calligraphy, half font magic. All the layering that went into making the font (including hand-drawing the letters) was complex but very fun to make. Monster Hunter World was a big deal for me when it launched back in 2018 and I was looking forward to the Nintendo Switch sequel. It did not disappoint! Such a great game.
Oh, and the extra graphics were inspired by the Monster Hunter Rise edition of the Nintendo Switch. The Kamura pinwheel was a new addition after the game launched, but I thought it worth adding here.
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Mortal Kombat
With a new Mortal Kombat movie being released in 2021, and the franchise being one of my favorites since I was a kid, the MK logo was the next to be showcased on the site. Making the MK Dragon into the swoop and tail of the R of the logo was easy enough, but it resulted in the dragon losing some of its ferocity. I can’t stop seeing a seahorse in place of where the iconic dragon once flared its tongue before.
In spirit of the new movie poster, I also attempted a bronze dragon, but had no idea how to replicate metal or 3D textures at the time. So, the result was a very chocolatey looking MK Seadragon Dragon.
Looks tasty, don’t you think? And it was a neat take on the logo in its own way. Reminds me of 90’s pallet cartoons, especially Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm.
The top graphic was a cartoony take on the promotional posters of Sub-Zero and Scorpion from the 2021 movie. The bottom graphic was an added easter egg if anyone opened up the website on a larger monitor. It was just something simple, a torn banner featuring the new and old MK Dragon logos.
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New Pokémon Snap
One of the most iconic games from Nintendo 64 was Pokémon Snap. With the release of New Pokémon Snap in 2021, it was time for a new overhaul based on one of my favorite game series. Turns out, designing the traditional Pokémon logo with the lettering from one’s name is harder to arrange than it looks. After a few attempts, I landed on something resembling a proper homage. The rest of the logo was quite the challenge. The chalk-like outline of ‘Writes’ was hand-drawn, while the wooden plate background was a lesson in color pigment. Overall, the logo felt chunkier than New Pokémon Snap, but sometimes that’s the nature of having too many letters and spacing it out properly.
The background pattern was hand-made from the faded orange triangle design inside the ‘Writes’ lettering. Adding some navy coloring made the whole thing pop.
The top illustration was inspired by the Nintendo 64 box art from the original Pokémon Snap (The font, the lens, the film strip), while the photos of Pokémon were inserted in the style of New Pokémon Snap‘s box art. So, combining a bit of old with the new.
Fun fact: the Pokémon pictures are cut-outs of my own illustrations, which you can find posted on my Instagram here.
The second illustration was another Easter egg graphic if anyone opened up the website on a larger monitor. The film strip cutouts feature my personal illustrations as well, and a bubble lighting effect just for fun.
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Guilty Gear Strive
Guilty Gear Strive was the fighting game to play in 2021. The hand-drawn animations, frantic combat system, and a bevy of characters with unique personalities makes it one of the most notable fighters ever. I loved the art style of the newest iteration and overhauled the website to celebrate the game’s launch.
The font is just ‘Impact’ with some triangle additions and hard-erased lines throughout. The original logo for Strive doesn’t have the greyed icon in the background, but I thought adding more flare would make the header pop. And, replacing my R in place of the G in the title was fun to reproduce.
The background image with the symmetrical gears was a decorative take on the art style from the game.
The About Author graphic was a reproduction of the countdown fight screen. Guilty Gear Strive has a hard rock influence behind its art style and trying my hand at making graphics like it was challenging. There are lots of speckled effects throughout and finding the balance of a weather gear that appears calligraphic was fun.
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Phantasy Star Online 2
As I mentioned in a Weekly Post-Ed, I can’t tell you how many hours I poured into Phantasy Star Online Ep. I and II. It was my first exposure to loot-grinding and there was no better game than Sega’s mega hit back in 2002. Searching for Red Boxes dropped from enemies in tight corridor levels was the thrill, but so was this strange, futuristic world that needed saving from every subclass. The combat was repetitive but fulfilling once levels were gained and new abilities unlocked. Maybe some would have considered playing hundreds of hours of a video game a waste of precious time, but I am still in love with the series all these years later.
The logo for Phantasy Star Online 2 has always been a favorite of mine, and with the release of Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis in 2021, it was an obvious choice to redesign my website. The main logo is directly from PSO2. This was one of my earliest logo attempts, so I wasn’t aware of the font, so I hand-drew everything you see. Replacing the red and opaque 2 with my signature R was a nod to the series, and in all I think the logo looks sharp.
The graphic behind my Author Photo was the original background remade from PSO2, while the background to the website was a chart of the colorful array of spells and status effects to cast as each character in the game. The colorful yellow, orange, and light blue symbols cast magic, while the green symbols are healing items/spells. The imagery is distinctive and made for a colorful background. In all, one of my favorite sets of graphics made to date!
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Metroid Prime
With the launch of Metroid Dread, I thought it prudent to use one of my first successful 3D ventures into logo making, a take on the original Metroid Prime for the Gamecube. Not only was it the first game where Samus roamed the terrain of a planet in three dimensions, but it was also one of my favorite video game logos of all time. It opened up the series in a way that breathed life into the lore of Metroid and who Samus was to a new adience. Along with the original Super Smash Bros. series, the game helped cement the Metroid series as a staple in the Nintendo catalogue.
The logo itself was interesting to recreate. The original used much sharper colors, so I opted for a more weathered Morph Ball-look, complete with textures, something I hadn’t attempted before. Since this was one of the first logos I made, I can see some sloppy work on the font, but it doesn’t detract from the logo in the background, which included a reconfiguring of the famous Screw Attack icon into the trademark R logo of my website. In all, this is still one of my favorite finished logos despite being in the early processes of figuring out how to make them.
The About Author illustration paid homage to Metroid Dread with a nefarious E.M.M.I. robot ready to strike my picture, just as in the box art for the game. It was drawn with a 2D-flat look, which I think made the whole thing pop. It’s also missing a left leg, which was sloppy, and in hindsight I should have finished the illustration, but I also liked the mystery of why an entire leg was missing; perhaps it was rising up to attack after Samus had dismantled it?
The Background Image consists of two Morph Ball designs with more flat coloring, including the original on the right (from Super Metroid) and one of the new designs on the left (from Metroid Fusion).
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Saturday Night Live
This was the first non-video game theme design for the website. It came at a time when a new Covid (omicron) was discovered and spreading quickly and the season was transitioning to winter, the world a little grayer and colder. It felt like a time to laugh and there is not better source of laughter on a weekly basis than Saturday Night Live. The 2021-2022 season has been very strong (especially with the addition of the comedy trio Do Not Destroy featured every week) and worth the watch.
The logo was a variation on the modern blue/black/white look complete with scuffed paint lines throughout the font. SNL often uses photographs of New York City as backdrops, which are lovely, but not very functional in a logo, so I incorporated a flat-style look to the Chrysler Building to match the font, which worked out pretty well.
The background graphics used older SNL stylings from the mid-2000 run and older, and I kept the color scheme of blue/black/white throughout. This theming felt like winter, albeit a bright and warm one, and it was a perfect addition for the holiday season.
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Mario Galaxy 2
I chose Mario Galaxy 2 as the theme to start the New Year in 2022. It was around the launch of the James Webb Telescope (that successfully opened its arrays and is being calibrated as this is written) and I kept thinking about the universe and how wondrous it is. Funny enough, that’s how I felt playing the Mario Galaxy Series, a game that took the sandbox model of 3D Mario titles and introduced the gravity-induced planetoids set in space. If the concept wasn’t wild enough, the game delivered on its score, which is what I based the other graphics on while making them.
I’m amazed by how much detail goes into 3D logos. Truly, video game logos have the most character and thought behind them. Since Mario logos use the same font for each title (besides the Mario sports titles), finding new variations to put together the lettering is much like developing a new Mario game: to take a character that’s familiar and that everyone loves, but find a new way of presenting him.
My variation of the main logo was arduous at times (I was lost with the layering and shading effects). Making the ‘R‘ 3D with ridges and shadow effects was a test in visualizing how light produces edges in 3D objects. In all, the logo turned out great and I enjoyed making it (yes, for nearly 10 straight hours). The Luma at the top appears to be a little sunburnt compared to the original, but I think it gives my rendition a little backstory–my Luma tried tanning and it didn’t go well!
The Mario Galaxy Soundtrack that was released alongside the first game and had some of the best art from the series. I chose this as the background to my Author Image. The above image is my rendition of the printed art on the physical CD that was available to Club Nintendo members in Europe and Japan, and I’ve always loved how simple and colorful it is.
This mirrored graphic, which was the background of my website, was the silhouetted cover of Mario and Yoshi from the Mario Galaxy 2 Soundtrack. I added some tiny effects, made the stars and galaxies a bit more pronounced, and so illustrated a faithful rendition of the original artwork. In all, this was the most detailed my website ever looked and set a precedent going forward!
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Kirby Star Allies
Has there ever been a more satisfying Kirby beat ’em up game than Kirby Star Allies? The game is beautiful, packed with a roster of all-star allies from previous Kirby games, and the music is so damn good. It was so good that I make it a yearly play-through just to experiment with different combinations of characters and combo systems. Kirby Star Allies is one of those games that was, perhaps, unintentionally deep in terms of gameplay potential. Plus, it was packed with so much content after launch that it became the seminal game to own on Nintendo Switch for a while (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate notwithstanding).
If not for the gameplay, then the graphics and imagery of Kirby Star Allies sticks out as something eye-popping and catchy. Menus are filled with 2D backgrounds with psychedelic color pallets, while the main logo for the game has a shimmering 3D effect that you can’t help but want to check out what Kirby Star Allies is all about.
I think my rendition of the logo was pretty faithful, even if having to customize the font because I never discovered what was being used as a stencil. This was also a great lesson in how shading gives 3D objects depth and roundness (such as letters and even the crystal flourishes in the background of the logo)–much like the pink balloon itself. And no logo is complete without the hidden R of this website conspicuously placed in one of the stars, just a small marker for fun.
This header background was the most fun I’ve had illustrating for the website. I had this idea to have all the icons for Kirby’s power-ups trail behind the Warp Star as he zipped across the cosmos. The stars and particle effects made it all shine and this is still one of my favorite things I’ve made for the website to date.
This illustration was a 2D remake of the poster art that showcased all the Dream Friends from the game. Sadly, I never used it as intended since I went through a redesign of my website at the time, but this image would have slotted behind the About Author section with my headshot square in the middle. I ended up using the Dream Friends as a background to the website, but it never felt as front-and-center as it should have been. It lives on in this collection, so I suppose that’s something!
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Bioshock Infinite
Bioshock Infinite was the game that epitomized great video game storytelling when it launched in 2013. The dystopian world that had existed under the sea in the previous two Bioshock titles was taken to a city in the skies, Columbia. A city stuck in time – in metaphysical ways, too – the setting was riddled in classical American propaganda–a vessel (quite literally) of American ingenuity and tradition. The patrons of the city idolized the inventor of the flying engines propelling the city above the sludge of the surface world. This founder was their God, now, and he would be the savior and ultimate demise of our hero answering a mysterious message to “save the girl”.
Could there have been a better website redesign in time for the summer holidays when American exceptionalism runs rampant with the 4th of the July? The game is a sprawling epic of what it means to truly take hold of the American dream and the diverging paths of our destiny. Plus, the logo is one of the most memorable and haunting emblems in gaming history, which was impossible to resist making my own version of. The metal plate was an exercise in texturing, while the small grooved teeth of the border presented shadowing conundrums that turned out fine for a first try. What proved most difficult was the blending of paints on the face of the main plate which had to appear layered and weathered. It’s simple in theory, but matching the colors proved difficult to find gradients for should one layer rub away.
An American patriotic theme ought to have an American flag. Naturally, in the world of Bioshock Infinite, that flag should be in tatters in front of the menacing eye of the Songbird. The image on top was the background image, and below is the background without the flag. As an Easter egg, the Songbird is watching the falling Elizabeth and Booker Dewitt from afar.
