A hundred names were thrown out before KSV Esports landed on its new branding, Gen. G Esports.
The international esports brand with teams in League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Heroes of the Storm, and Overwatch has a new name, logo, and color scheme—to “focus on establishing a gold standard of excellence in esports,” according to the press release. The League, PUBG, Heroes, and new Clash Royale teams will all don the new logo on branded jerseys, while the Overwatch League team, Seoul Dynasty, will remain untouched.
But the new Gen. G branding aligns Seoul Dynasty more closely with its parent company.
Branding for Gen. G was created by New York–based design agency Emeht. Led by creative directors Jiae Kim and John Lee, the Emeht team typically works in fashion and sports branding—esports was a first for them.
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“We landed on the idea of Gen. G because it came from Generation Gaming, but also created an acronym around ‘GG,’ which stands for good game,” Kim told Dot Esports.
“GG” is a sign of respect—a symbol that rose to prominence in the era of StarCraft and Quake. It’s universal across games and languages, which was important to Gen. G, a global organization with ties to South Korea, China, and the United States. But it was Korean excellence in esports that drove the brand’s mission, Emeht’s Lee said.
“The guys over at Gen. G really wanted us to think about how the Korean teams are very different from the other teams that play,” Lee said. “They’re superbly good at specific positions, but the idea that they play truly as a team was the North Star for them. I think the culture of how they play is really important to what our perspective was going into the naming as well as the graphic behind Gen. G.”
The logo itself is a nod to the individual roles played in esports, Gen. G co-founder Kent Wakeford said. The two “G”‘s facing each other form the Gen. G shield—a recognizable symbol for tank players. Look closely and a sword, for DPS, appears in the middle. Together, the logo is shaped like a heart, symbolic of support players, Wakeford added.
The new logo will be worn by Gen. G’s newly signed Clash Royale team, which will participate in Supercell’s Chinese Clash Royale League. Before Gen. G and esports, most of the leadership was involved with a mobile game company, Kabam—making mobile esports a natural fit for the brand, Wakeford said.
“We’re bridging the gap between east and west, ushering in a new generation of esports entertainment for teams and spectators around the world through unrivaled fan engagement, premier athlete development, and strategic business partners,” Gen. G CEO Kevin Chou said in a statement.
