Introduction
Triton XR is an extended reality club based at UC San Diego that fosters innovation, collaboration, and skill development in the fields of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. The organization’s mission is to create a vibrant community where students can network, build connections, and develop both the technical and social skillsets needed to thrive in the future of immersive technology. Triton XR also aims to inspire interdisciplinary thinking by encouraging students to explore the many intersections between extended reality and other domains.
At its founding, Triton XR adopted a temporary, AI-generated logo to quickly establish a visual identity. However, as the club grew and its ambitions expanded, the leadership recognized the need for a rebrand—one that would better reflect the organization’s values, goals, and the professional future it envisions for its members. This branding redesign marks a new chapter for them, positioning the club to build a stronger, more recognizable presence within the university and beyond.
Initial Sketches
In the early stages of the redesign, the team aligned on a clear creative direction: a Y2K-inspired aesthetic. We felt that the tech-forward, slightly nostalgic visual style of the early 2000s would perfectly capture Triton XR’s identity, bridging the futuristic ambition of extended reality with the playful innovation of a past era that shaped modern technology culture.
Another key decision was to incorporate a VR headset element into the logo. As the main equipment used by the club, the VR headset served as a powerful symbol of extended reality and was instantly recognizable to both members and the broader community. Including it in the design helped immediately communicate what Triton XR stands for and ensured the brand remained closely tied to its core purpose.
Initial sketches explored how to blend these ideas, experimenting with bold forms, rounded typefaces, and futuristic iconography. The goal was to create a logo that felt both energetic and approachable, grounded in nostalgia while confidently looking toward the future.
Design
Iterations
First Round of Designs
For the first round of designs, I started by playing around with a text-based logo using Kittl. We knew we wanted something that felt bold, fun, and a little nostalgic—something that captured the Y2K vibe without straying too far from Triton XR’s identity.
One idea the club president and I kept coming back to was using stars. They added a playful, futuristic touch that fit perfectly with the extended reality theme. The atom orbit-shaped X was a fun way to emphasize the letter 'X' in Triton XR. We also wanted the colors to feel bright and lively, but still stay connected to UC San Diego, so I pulled inspiration from the school’s classic blue and yellow palette and gave it a more vibrant twist. For the most part, this round of designs was focused on color combinations.
Even in these early designs, we could feel the direction starting to take shape: something colorful, energetic, and distinctly Triton XR.
Second Round of Designs
After getting feedback on the first round, we decided to shift gears a little. This next phase was all about trying out logos with some actual iconography instead of just text. I went back to some of the early sketches I had made and started turning those ideas into more fleshed-out designs.
I still really wanted to keep the stars in the mix, but this time I also tried to work in the VR headset and controllers to make the logo feel even more connected to what Triton XR is all about. Pretty quickly, though, we realized that trying to fit both the headset and the controllers into one logo made things feel way too busy. After some feedback from the team, I decided to just focus on the headset as the main icon, and from there, the designs started feeling a lot cleaner and more balanced.
Third Round of Designs
After another round of feedback, the club gravitated toward one design in particular that combined the atom-inspired X from the earlier text-based logo with the VR headset from the icon-based sketches. It felt like the best of both worlds: futuristic, techy, and still playful enough to match the Y2K vibe we were aiming for.
From there, this final phase was all about tightening up the small details—adjusting the proportions, fine-tuning the colors, and making sure everything felt balanced and polished. We kept tweaking until the logo captured exactly the energy and identity we wanted Triton XR’s new era to represent.
Final Design
The new logo gives Triton XR a stronger, more professional identity that reflects who they are today—and where they’re headed in the future. It’s bold, fun, and built to stand out both on campus and in the broader XR community.
Branding Guide
