Legends of Runeterra is a new digital collectible card game developed and published by Riot Games. Launched in 2020, the strategy card game is the first spinoff of League of Legends, the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that is one of the most widely played video games and biggest esports in the world. The new game is set in Runeterra, the world of League of Legends, and extends the franchise in an exciting new direction.
Pentagram has designed a bold visual identity for Legends of Runeterra that is rooted in the world of the game. Details in the logo link it to the universe of League of Legends—offering Easter eggs for fans—while the branding establishes LoR as a new game that stands on its own.
Riot wanted to elevate the genre and make LoR the best card game possible, crafting a strategy game that captures the excitement of a role-playing game. (After completing the LoR identity, Pentagram redesigned the logo for League of Legends with a more modern presentation.)
Legends of Runeterra brings the champions, creatures and regions of its namesake land to a completely new game, deepening the experience of Runeterra as its own distinct world. The characters in the game hail from different regions of Runeterra, and players build a team of champions from the deck and begin to create their own legends. The Pentagram team traveled to Riot Games HQ in Los Angeles to try their hand at LoR before developing the identity and were able to incorporate graphic details from the game into the logo.
The challenge for the designers was creating a logo that looks like it hails from the world and period of LoL but is different enough to give LoR its own profile. The identity echoes the imaginative visual style of the game, while also being simple enough to work in a wide variety of applications.
The logo puts “Runeterra” front and center in customized typography (modified from the font LHF Factory). Within each letter, the Pentagram team illustrated intricate, filigree-like linework to represent the different regions of Runeterra. Inspired by the graphic crests of the LoL factions, these lines glow with light in the animated version of the logo.
At the top of the logo, “Legends of” appears in more streamlined type that anticipates the updated League of Legends identity next designed by Pentagram. Below, a baseline echoes the frame-like motif on the LoR playing cards.
The three-dimensional rendered version of the LoR logo features gold texture and dramatic lighting inspired by the artwork of the game. The logo functions just as well in 2D, appearing in different colors or with a metallic sheen.
