Branding, website design and development for a VR game development studio
Fono Labs is a VR game development studio based in Slovakia. This project was particularly meaningful to me, as all the founders are former classmates from my time at Comenius University. What began as an after-work hobby gradually evolved into a fully-fledged game studio and I’ve had the privilege of being part of it from the very beginning as a graphic designer.
The studio’s first project was Fono, a simple 2D side-scroller in which the player character emits sound waves to reveal its surroundings. The name is a reference to phonons, quasiparticles associated with sound, inspired by the similar term, photons, for light particles. When the team decided to publish the game on Steam, they needed a studio name, and so Fono Labs was born.
Client
Fono Labs
My Role
Graphic Designer, Front-end Developer
Services
Web design, Branding, Front-end Development, Logo Design
Year
2021 – 2025
Logo Design
As a surprise for the team, I secretly created a logo for Fono Labs. After researching branding styles in the gaming industry, I aimed to develop a visual identity that would make them stand out. I set several creative constraints to guide my design process. Inspired by traditional Japanese art signatures, I wanted the logo to resemble a stamp, something they could place on game screenshots to proudly mark them as “Made by Fono Labs.”
To reflect the studio’s humble, homegrown origins, I used a rough, zig-zag stylized rectangle as the base shape, evoking a DIY or “garage” feel. I contrasted this with a bold, monospaced geometric sans-serif typeface to achieve symmetry and visual balance, leveraging the fact that both “FONO” and “LABS” are four-letter words.
Branding
For the brand’s color palette, I chose a warm orange with red undertones, paired with white for contrast. Orange symbolizes the team’s excitement and passion for gaming. These are the core brand colors, but I also accounted for flexibility, as many game studios adapt their branding to suit individual game projects. I tested several stylistic directions to ensure the logo remained effective across different applications.
Website Design
When designing and developing the website, I leaned into the “Labs” aspect of the name. The result was a futuristic, sci-fi-inspired site — fitting for a modern VR laboratory/game studio. I incorporated elements such as compressed geometric fonts, visible grids, tech-like interface ornaments, and frosted glass effects to bring this vision to life.
Game Design Documents & Pitch Deck
