Witness Identity

Branding for a new investigations hub from USA TODAY

ART DIRECTION, VISUAL IDENTITY, PRODUCT APPLICATION

Visual Identity

CHALLENGE

Our task was to create a compelling brand identity for USA TODAY’s new true crime hub, a collection of long-form investigative content. The new identity would appeal to a true-crime audience without relying on the usual visual tropes for sensationalized entertainment shock value. Instead, we were asked to capture the gravitas of service journalism while honoring the real people at the center of the stories.

APPROACH

The film noir inspired wordmark plays with depth and shadow, calling upon the recognizable visual cues of the genre to speak to a true-crime audience. The letters are slightly turned as if there is more to see behind them—representing a journalists’ detailed investigation and inviting the viewer to read between the characters of the mark. In motion, the shadow extends from the letters, revealing more to the story.

COLOR PALETTE

In the brief, the stakeholder asked us to stay away from red and yellow, as they bring to mind to overused, sensationalized tropes of blood and caution tape. They also did not want the palette to feel too dark or scary.

We chose green tones, inspired by a dark forest, as a nod to a familiar true-crime setting. The brown and cream tones allude to old sepia photography and aged newspaper clippings from a case file.

25-USATN_001_Witness_marquee_desktop_1366x650_skew_v2

In supporting assets, we wanted to visually show the breadth of content on the platform, which is aggregated from over 200 publications.

PRODUCT APPLICATION

In developing the color palette, we focused on accessibility and extensively tested the color combinations to create both light and dark options. Light mode satisfied the stakeholder request to make sure the identity did not feel too dark. The product team also wanted flexibility to implement dark mode, so we developed that as well.

We also created a simplified version of the logo that would be more legible at a small scale, which was especially important on mobile.

25-USATN-001_Witness_iPadProductMock_v4_Light

25-USATN-001_Witness_iPadProductMock_v4_Dark

PROCESS

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL COLLABORATION

In the process of developing the brand, we met with the Head of Product & UX to discuss technical needs and ensure the logo would work well within the product. We shared an early draft of the wordmark to test within their designs and they gave us feedback on how to optimize it while staying true to our vision.

Since the brand and product were being developed concurrently, I asked the product lead to share his work-in-progress mocks to get a sense of what modules and applications to consider. Using a copy of his Figma file, we were able to test our color palette with real components and content—ensuring there were enough accessible color combinations for their needs.

This process allowed us to hand off a Figma file with the colors already applied to their components, clearly communicating our vision and making it easy for them to implement.