Vintage Story Cover Art Rebrand

[SoupInCat]

On 4/24/2026 at 7:14 PM, HEX526174 said:

The new one looks a little less vinto and more any-block-game-y. I'm pretty sure it's the color pallet, and maybe the shading, and while I do like the ability to see the logo clearly and the design of it, I think it's a little bit off from vintage's art style. I tried to color match the old logo's tree and dirt colors to the new logo's design, and I think that works with the new design a bit better. The shading on the tree's limbs also doesn't make sense so I flattened that out.

The other issue with this logo that I have is that there's no black outlines in vintage story, at least none that come to mind when thinking of the game, so giving this an outline gives you a false impression of what the game might look like from a marketing perspective which is like a major issue I think??? But like yeah I'd get rid of the black outlines if I knew how, since that part specifically clashes with the art style the most.

Also you should add this rat to the game Tyron I think he belongs in the game you should put him in the game he's a good boy put him in the game please

Ratthew squealums type post for real. Definitely an improvement in the color department but this new logo just has so much wrong with it, from the line thickness changing in the illustration, to the typography overlapping with the art, and the font itself just being terrible, and the illustration being way too cluttered.

[Sindalee]

old logo enjoys the FEEL of the game. not saying there shouldn't be a possibility of a new logo, but the proposed one doesn't fit. as others have also said, typography is close to bad.

[Killsode]

As a few others have said, i think the old logo can definitely be replaced. But the new one is a bit too clean and doesnt capture the dirtiness or rust of vintage story well. I do like the blocky-ness accentuating and noting the block-game nature, but its also a bit generically block game on its own.

The new logo is better, but it can be improved even further. Slightly more painterly style? More presence of the dirt/rust/eldritch themes?

Additionally i dont think the thick-lined cartoon/comic style fits vintage story. Pixelated can, painterly absolutely does. But cell-shaded doesnt.

[Nicodemus]

On 4/26/2026 at 4:07 PM, Zorkman said:

i'm seeing a variety of suggestions and vibe assessments here, and i almost find it more fascinating how Vintage really evokes different feelings for different folks.

my own opinion on the matter is thus:
i think both the old one and the new one are very elaborate, which from a logo design perspective could get kind of iffy. i read the grievances of the logos being more illustrations than something iconographic which i can understand, but i also think that kitsch and busy designs CAN be done right if they focus the implemented detail in the right ways.
the old one has a rustic charm to it by this point, the new one is a very different stylistic take but a better overall silhouette and text placement. a mix of the two could be interesting assuming that the idea is to keep the design identical thematically, what with the tree and all

having said that, i don't think these designs would really be a good fit for a desktop icon specifically unless they were tinkered to look good at a distance.
for that, i think the gear designs people have been positing would honestly be a very good direction to go down, i quite like the focus on that as a thematic and design element

made my own fun little mockups as to how i'd personally go about it, because it seemed like a fun design challenge

I took the liberty of tweaking the flowers a bit and also creating a version with less saturation:

Edited April 28 by Nicodemus

[Bunchi]

I like the gears and stuff on the new one but i think the art style of the old one fits better. Maybe its the colors or use of thick lines on the new one but its more cartoony? 

[Amadeus Goldmane]

i like the old one more, feels more like a water painting, plus the gears felt more subtle than what we see in the new artwork

[The Phoenixian]

On 4/26/2026 at 2:01 PM, lυρυs said:

As many have already mentioned, the new design has many details and the cartoon style deviates from the game’s theme. Those details won’t appear seeing far away, so no need to have them (for an illustration is amazing tho)

As an illustrator, I suggest simplifying the logo further, so that it is legible both up close and from afar. Alternatively, I recommend using another thing for the desktop icon (ex: a semi-rusty temporal gear, maybe with a bit of green to indicate it's "overgrown" and to match the same aspect of the tree in the main logo: “nature vs rust” kind of)

I made a version to better illustrate the changes I meant (as seen above):

- simpler logo, with the text in the middle for better visualization and clearer silhouette (illegible in the new version)

- less saturated colors to match the game's aesthetic

- less transition between trunk and metal

- painting style closer to the old design, also to represent the era which the game takes place

- colors with more prominent values

example of how it looks as an icon

One thing that strikes me is how the root reaching down into the underneath changes the symbolism a bit. Between both the tree's root reaching down and the pipes and machinery reaching up the image gives an impression that the two worlds are clearly delineated but reach out to affect each other. (With more delineation in the proposed icon) It's almost yin-yang like, in a sense, but without directly saying so.

[Lody]

I like elements of the new logo but I hate the art style.

[Emotron]

The original looks more realistic and its colors are more muted, which reflects the game (without spoilers). The new logo seems to be more on the theme of mechanisms and energy, the color scheme is more saturated, and the logo itself says that the game will be about cubes.
My opinion: The new logo looks better, I do not know how to describe it, but the inner part of me chose it.

[Xhale]

I like the older one, the new one looks too "block game like"

[Stergie]

Please don't  change the logo to the new one or allow people to change the logo at will please or have agear logo? 

[SirDumpy]

New one looks nice, but maybe tone down the vibrance of it, and add a few more mushrooms lol

[Phobiak]

I am personally bigger fan of the original logo. It is simple and easy to understand and the tree shape is way better. The new one is distracting and overwhelming to look at. Dosent really drag viewers gaze anywhere important because there is so many things. I dont like the crude thick lineart which in my opinion dosent go well with games look. I really like the painterly feel that the original has. Therefor i made my little own spin of it and instead being one tree, it is two who are twisted and tangled together. One being affected by the rott other one not. This is my personal opinion and take on it while trying to keep it fairly simple at the same time. Not something polished just rough idea.

[Nexrem]

The new logo looks too busy and does not fit the artstyle of the game. Its shading is too clean, while the details are too busy. The color grading is off. Something more rust inspired merged with natural would be far better.

Why is the logo a tree to begin with? I dont think that represents VS too much. What is the clock supposed to represent? There is no clock in the game. Is it supposed to represent the "temporal" themes in the game? If so it's not doing a good job at that.

[Nicodemus]

3 hours ago, Nexrem said:

Why is the logo a tree to begin with? I dont think that represents VS too much. What is the clock supposed to represent? There is no clock in the game. Is it supposed to represent the "temporal" themes in the game? If so it's not doing a good job at that.

Sorry but I don't see how you can say that a clock is a poor represation of temporality/time... which is the central theme of the game's lore.
You're not the first to say that, but I really don't get it. It seems perfectly logical to me.
And we don't need an 'actual tree with a clock' in the game (others were complaining that it didn't make sense) when the logo is meant to reflect the game's central themes...

Edited May 2 by Nicodemus

[Valenwar]

The original feels creepier than the reworked one. Personally, creepy was what drew me to Vintage Story in the first place. The reworked one does look better, but it feels like something I would see as the cover art for a modpack in a different block game.

[Arsenik Milk]

I think the new logo is a technical improvement (as in, in terms of polish), but needs further revision. It conveys that this is a block game, but it feels too stylized and cartoon-y for the atmosphere of VS. 

The original logo's painterly aesthetic conveys more of the mood of the game. The new logo's detailing is much nicer, but it gets muddied when zoomed out - it's too "busy." 

[DarkGold]

Just some thoughts I had as I was reading through the discussion.

I think the clock is an interesting element of the logo, because despite clocks not being present in the game (so far as I have seen by the end of chapter 1), time is so important in the game, and clocks symbolically communicate the importance of time. The passage of time, the slow pace of the game, the relevance to "temporal gears". A clock, as a symbol for time, captures this well.

Edited May 3 by DarkGold

[Nicodemus]

New edit of @Zorkman version:
More Vintage Story greens

Edited May 3 by Nicodemus

[DarkGold]

On 4/26/2026 at 10:07 PM, Zorkman said:

I like how @Zorkman rearranged the elements in this design. I wanted to see what a version that put everything inside a clock (a fob watch, to feel more "vintage") looked like, so I did a sketch. I also wanted to see what it would look like without line art, and block colors, so I did a couple of versions exploring that.

Edited May 4 by DarkGold

[coolAlias]

4 hours ago, DarkGold said:

I like how @Zorkman rearranged the elements in this design. I wanted to see what a version that put everything inside a clock (a fob watch, to feel more "vintage") looked like, so I did a sketch. I also wanted to see what it would look like without line art, and block colors, so I did a couple of versions exploring that.

That's such a cool idea! I love the last one with the darker roots.

[Nicodemus]

4 hours ago, DarkGold said:

I like how @Zorkman rearranged the elements in this design. I wanted to see what a version that put everything inside a clock (a fob watch, to feel more "vintage") looked like, so I did a sketch. I also wanted to see what it would look like without line art, and block colors, so I did a couple of versions exploring that.

Nice idea! I prefer the darker branch version. But I think the white background behind the temporal gear gives the feeling it kinda levitates. Another color would help to counter that.

[coolAlias]

2 hours ago, Nicodemus said:

Nice idea! I prefer the darker branch version. But I think the white background behind the temporal gear gives the feeling it kinda levitates. Another color would help to counter that.

Agreed. A transparency layer instead of the white could potentially work too, imo. Might look neat on a desktop background, or maybe it'd be a total flop lol. Either way, something other than pure white.

[BenVB]

I think for me the ideal logo is somewhere in the middle. I like the waterpainting from the original logo. The new one seems to rough for me. 

[DarkGold]

Received uniform feedback that the darker roots were preferred so iterated on that one. A little polish, and trying some different colors for the face as per coolAlias and Nicodemus's feedback.

On the left is the color closest to white on different backgrounds. On the right are 3 hues (green, brown, blue, from top to bottom), a bit darker and more saturated. The shadows in those leaves are also darker in order to compensate. Darker colors than that had trouble next to the roots/leaves/gear.