Discord is a voice, video, and text service built for hanging out and building genuine relationships. Inclusive by design, it gives communities of any size a safe, organized space to talk. More than 150 million people use it for everything from study sessions to late-night gaming.

The platform means wildly different things to each community, so we let users speak for themselves. Their stories became the foundation of the brand narrative.

Building on the foundation laid by Koto—which played a key role early in the process to define core brand elements such as the symbol, wordmark, blurple color, and typeface—AKQA, Discord’s in-house team, and STUDIO HERRSTRÖM developed a visual identity and design system that echoes Discord’s product UI and the world of the community.

Geometric shapes signal users, content, and community at a glance—familiar yet freshly contextualized for brand touchpoints.

Details matter: color cues for user status and subtle indicators of live activity keep the system playful but purposeful. A mixed-media approach—2D and 3D illustrations composited into real-world settings—turned each user story into a tangible scene. The flexible framework stays open to interpretation while remaining unmistakably Discord.

Motion brought everything to life. A single dot represents the user, traveling from server to server with a quirky, relatable personality. Its movement animates the idea that life on Discord never stands still.

The dotted “Community Pattern” visualizes the people behind every conversation. It anchors layouts and reinforces that users drive the brand. All elements support the new line, “Imagine A Place,” introduced as part of a full repositioning. The message launched globally and featured in the VMAs New York music campaign, proving the brand’s relevance well beyond gaming.

By rooting every execution in authentic user stories, Discord now communicates its inclusive, ever-evolving world with clarity and character. This resulted in a significant increase in Discord’s Brand Awareness and Brand Consideration.