New Branding!

I was having a coffee the other day and started thinking about all the different things I work on in my personal time:

---

My Games - My Tools - Quick Dev Insights - Quick Dev Tips

---

They’ve all grown a lot over the years, but as I looked at them together, I realised something… they felt disjointed and some of them had no real branding at all. It makes sense in hindsight. I started each of them at different points in my life and was just doing them for fun. Back then, branding wasn’t even on my radar. I was more focused on making stuff than on how it looked as a whole. But after doing over 100 Quick Dev Tips and building a real series out of it, it suddenly felt a lot more relevant.

This led me to think about how I can change that. I wanted each project to have its own individual branding, but also to feel like part of a bigger family. Having a consistent look and feel that ties everything together under the CB Game Dev umbrella.

Below you can see some of my original brandings:

I think the real catalyst for all of this came when I started moving my Quick Dev Insights series from my blog over to Substack. Substack just made more sense for what the series had grown into and where I wanted to take it: a place to browse the full archive, read in a clean format, and subscribe to get new interviews straight to your inbox.

While setting it up, something became immediately clear: my original logo wasn’t up to the standard I wanted anymore. I’d made it very quickly when I first started the series, and although it did the job at the time, it didn’t really reflect the standard of what I wanted the project to be now.

You can see the old Quick Dev Insights branding below:

Like I said, it did the job, but it was very plain. So I got to designing and making some new stuff. First off, I looked around a bunch for design ideas and also asked Chat GPT to generate some initial ideas, which you can see below:

The GPT stuff was interesting, but it wasn’t right. However, it did get my creative juices flowing. I sat down one Saturday and started playing, no strict plan, just exploring shapes, fonts, and layouts until something started to click.

Here was my first attempt:

I liked elements of this, but something still felt off. I’m colourblind, so colour is always a tricky part of the process for me. I could tell something wasn't working colour-wise, but couldn't put my finger on it. So I asked my wife what she thought (she does illustration). We sat down and started experimenting. Quickly picking and mocking up some more interesting colour combinations, trying to find something which would give the design more life.

You can see those early colour tests below:

After that I started incorporating these colours into the design more. It immediately started feeling better, brighter, more alive.

You can see the colour changes below:

Something still wasn’t quite clicking. I showed my wife again, and we talked it over; it was now more of a layout problem. She pointed out that I was designing for a vertical banner that didn’t really have a purpose or specific resolution in mind.

In hindsight, it seems obvious. I should have been designing for a format I would actually use. So I started working in banner form, building layouts I could actually use on my site and Substack, etc.

That shift made a huge difference. I focused first on my Quick Dev Tips series and worked through a bunch of iterations, slowly refining the composition, spacing, and overall feel until it started clicking.

You can see those iterations below (1 being where I started and 5 being the final design):

Once I was happy with how the Quick Dev Tips banner was looking, I took that same look and style and began applying it to the other topics.

I wanted each one to have its own identity and colour, but still clearly feel like part of the same family; unified through layout, font, and structure.
Below you can see how they came together:

I played around with a few designs, Centered, Left aligned. Keeping in mind potential uses (banners, headers etc). Which you can see below:

Then I figured I should probably make some icon-specific versions of the branding too, as I knew I’d likely need them at some point. They’d be useful for smaller spaces like social posts, thumbnails, or profile icons on things like Substack. Having a consistent set would help everything feel that bit more cohesive. Because I had already put in the design work, this was a pretty simple process; it was basically size and layout.

Below you can see the icons:

While it’s not perfect, and I’m sure I’ll keep tweaking things over time, I’m really happy with the outcome. It feels far more coherent now, with a sense of professionalism while (hopefully) still keeping that indie feel that runs through everything I do.

Most importantly, it finally connects everything: my games, tools, tips, and insights, under one consistent look and identity.

You can see a before and after of my branding below:

Funny thing is, even after doing all this work, I quickly realised that every platform wants something slightly different. Different resolutions, banner ratios, and file sizes.

So I still have to rework things for pretty much every site. But the difference now is that I’m not redesigning each time; I’m just adapting. Having a high-quality, high-res base PSD file and a clear design principle makes the process so much easier. It’s more about shifting things around rather than designing on the fly.

A good example of that was for Substack I needed a banner that was wider and less tall. So I just re-framed my existing design and adjusted the layout, rather than needing to start from scratch.

You can see the Substack adaptation below:

I guess I could’ve hired someone to do all this branding stuff for me, but honestly, I think you grow by doing the things you’re not already good at. And since this is all for my personal projects, it felt right to figure it out myself.

One thing I realised though, is branding’s never really done. It evolves as your work does. But this feels like a solid foundation for me to build off of. Everything now shares a clearer identity, a bit more personality, and feels connected in a way it didn’t before. It’s a small thing, but it makes a big difference in how I think about and present everything I create.