New League of Legends identity is edgy yet illegible

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The Liga Latinoamérica is the Latin American league for League of Legends – Riot Games' wildly popular online game. There were previously two Latin American leagues, one based in Mexico and one in Chile, but they have now merged, and DesignStudio has given the new, combined league a funky identity. 

The Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) now has a striking new monogram (see our best monograms) with bold colours and a custom type. "This new raw look and feel encourages LLA to infuse its fiery spirit – 'Fuego' – into all communications," says DesignStudio on its website. 

While we agree this new look from the studio behind the controversial Airbnb and Deliveroo rebrands packs plenty of punch, it's rather weaker on the legibility front. If you don't know what you're looking at, you may well mistake 'LLA' to read 'UA' or even 'HA'. (See our graffiti fonts if you'd like to recreate the look.)

We see what DesignStudio was going for, and we like it

We do love the tape type though, and the look overall, which portrays an edgy feel that we wouldn't normally associate with online gaming. This seems like a smart move from Riot Games, whose recent update of the League of Legends logo was pretty much universally slated back in October last year. 

To avoid too many messages getting lost, this fiery new logo is paired with what DesignStudio calls a "more authoritative new type", Hielo (which means ice in Spanish). Thankfully, this one is a lot more legible. The juxtaposition of the two fonts enables LLA to "communicate facts while injecting messages with a sense of irreverent humour".

The new identity's eye-catching new look on mobile

DesignStudio had previously updated the European league's identity and given it a similarly fresh and funky feel. It seems that League of Legends is now a whole lot cooler than we previously imagined, and on a global scale, too.

Read the full DesignStudio case study here.

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