Chessiverse lets you play over 500 bots modeled on real human games. It’s a brand with so much potential and I wondered what it could look like if we fully embraced the galaxy theme.
This self-initiated project gave me a chance to reimagine a brand from the ground up. Nothing was off limits and this full creative license gave me the space to explore what the future of Chessiverse could look like.
My Role
Brand Identity
Brand Architecture
Naming
Copywriting
Web Design
Product Design
Experiential Design
Year
2025
Problem
Chessiverse’s differentiator is you can play opponents that feel human. Their novel approach presented a huge opportunity for a distinctive brand identity. But instead, the brand was leaning heavily into AI imagery. Plus it wasn’t doing enough to distinguish itself from the other big players in the online chess world.
Solution
I pitched the founders on a new brand identity built around the galaxy theme already in the Chessiverse name. This theme shows up as twinkling stars, bursts of light, and colorful gradients that are carried throughout the entire identity.
The Chessiverse Star Cup doesn’t exist yet. But I still imagined a world where Chessiverse grows into a brand large enough to host its own chess competition. Drawing the biggest names and streamers in chess, humans and bots would compete against each other to win the Chessiverse Star Cup.
The challenge was to show how the Chessiverse Star Cup brand — with its on-air graphics and in-studio experiences — can live in the same world as the Chessiverse parent brand.
Being a small company with tons on their roadmap, Chessiverse couldn’t commit to a full rebrand. But we all agreed to stay in touch about it. I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing some pieces of this project out in the galaxy.
“I always like how forward-looking you are — the logo design, how it might look on merch, Chessiverse Brilliant, and even the Chessiverse Star Cup. It’s beautiful.”
John Bartholomew
Co-Founder, Chessiverse & Chess YouTuber
Chessiverse Brilliant
Chessiverse lets you play a dozen bots for free. To access all 500+ bots (plus other other features), you need a premium subscription. In chess, a brilliant move is one that is both beautiful and strategic. It often requires a piece sacrifice and results in a significant, and usually winning, advantage.
This gave us a huge opportunity for brand storytelling, so I proposed renaming their premium tier to Chessiverse Brilliant. It got its own wordmark, supporting color palette, ad system, and in-product treatment. Now the upgrade feels like an impactful brand moment rather than a generic billing experience.