Justified Studio’s punchy visual identity for Duel vibrantly reflects the influence of advocacy

Seeking to shift brand endorsement away from short-term interactions to influential long-term relationships, brand advocacy agency Duel, based out of London and Bristol, strategically develop storytelling through real-world experiences and authentic actions. Inspired by the domino effect, or as it’s internally known ‘the Duel Effect,’ of advocacy and influence, London-based design, technology, and strategy studio Justified took a characterful, cascading approach when developing Duel’s punchy identity. The meaningful use of colour leads the identity’s character – an aspect of the brand Justified evolved from the prior visual language; brightening the blue and providing a more accessible and friendly complementary palette. “The biggest change for Duel was the injection of a wide secondary palette,” Creative Director and Founder Joshua Ogden tells us, “it was introduced to support the notion of multiple uses cases and personalities who use Duel,” he explains. “A big part of building Duel was to put advocates in the spotlight, where vibrant secondary colours can represent each advocate/sector,” Ogden adds, further functionally implementing the colours to communicate the brand’s ‘Duel Effect’ across their numerous digital touchpoints. Harmonising Duel’s prominent use of motion and lively application of colour is the brand’s typographic underpinning – opting for CoType Foundry’s Aeonik as the hero typeface of the brand. “We chose Aeonik as we felt it perfectly landed between being characterful and legible,” Ogden recalls, applying the typeface across the visual identity’s striking typographic hierarchy. “We needed a typeface for headlines that could sit beside the brand design without distracting,” he adds, whilst remaining on-brand, ownable and memorable when in isolation. “We have defined use cases for Aeonik,” Ogden concludes, “it is immediate and impactful,” providing a defining clarity and legibility to the brand that bleeds across its expanded applications.