This week Wizards premiered a new Magic logo, just one more of many major announcements that have come out over the last year. From announcing Magic the Gathering Arena, to the very large presence at Hascon, all the way down to the small clean-ups that Wizards has been making to the new rules over the last year, WotC has been hinting at a change going on behind-the-scenes. After the outcry on Twitter over the weekend about the new logo, I wanted to share my thoughts on it from a different perspective.
For those of you who don’t know, my (mostly) muggle career is in marketing and social media and my current job is the Marketing and Community Relations Coordinator for a science and nature museum. My college degree is in Public Relations (and theatre design, because I was a nerd and needed to double major) and it’s a subject I have studied extensively. It’s one of those careers that ends up seeping into all aspects of your life. You can’t look at anything without seeing the brand and what you think is wrong or genius about it. With the premiere of the new MTG logo I had so many thoughts and got extremely excited.
Despite the mixed response on Twitter—it seems to be getting a very love it or hate it type of reaction—I couldn’t help but think this new logo was pure genius and said so many great things for players regarding WotC’s goals. For their 25th anniversary, Wizards has been bringing in some major change, almost all of which have been direct responses to player complaints. They’ve changed how the blocks rotate, brought back old planes that were much loved, and have begun work on MTG Arena. Those decisions just show a smart management team making great decisions.
Last April a new president was put in charge at Wizards of the Coast and I chalked a lot of it up to him, but when they announced an official re-branding on Twitter over the weekend I lost it. I was so excited! For most people they probably think of re-branding as a fairly simple: the old logo is out of date, lets make a new one and replace it. Re-branding though is so much more complicated (and expensive) than that. It involved major internal changes to how a company thinks and the start of things to come.
The old MTG logo hasn’t changed drastically over the years, mostly just shifting color of the word Magic, in a classical font. It very much spoke to the era in which it had been created, the days of the early ‘90s when games like Magic and D&D were gaining popularity in the “nerd” community. Until recently that logo fit their brand fairly well. They prided themselves on being that game, but in response to the community Wizards is quickly transforming into a company that is making better decisions for it’s players. It wants to step away from that image that has been drawn of the typical gamer that is often associated with non-gamers (and some gamers as well) and that stereotypical toxic community. By doing so Wizards empowers itself to welcome more people into the Magic world, something no Magic player should be upset about. It also pushes it from the world where they have products like MTGO that leave many players upset about bugs and clunky interfaces, into a world of polished products like MTG Arena.
This re-branding is a sign of great things to come for the community. Wizards is showing us they have been listening to what we’ve been saying and they’re doubling down. I know some people already miss the old logo and find this one ugly; but lets be real, as existing players we won’t notice this logo much and it isn’t really going to affect us. But for new players this modern logo might catch their eye more, and for existing players its signals things to come. Fellow Hipster Ryan Sainio talks today about how Magic’s flavor has shifted over its history. Wizards themselves said they’re in the process of turning the corner from looking back on Magic’s past to looking into it’s future as part of it’s 25th anniversary celebration. I think this re-branding is an important step in that process.
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH.