Studio L–AB lets lifelike AI faces do the talking in ValkaAI’s brand

Facial expressions register emotionally in milliseconds, long before rational processing kicks in. This piece of human wiring became the foundation for ValkaAI’s entire brand, developed by boutique branding studio Studio L–AB. The startup builds AI-native entertainment – synthetic video featuring lifelike AI personas that interact with viewers in real time across sports, gaming and media. One esports caster can’t cover 10 languages. Content creators can’t stream around the clock. ValkaAI’s ‘digital humans’ deliver broadcast-quality presence that scales without capacity constraints. Studio L–AB’s task was to make that proposition feel understandable from first contact. The name ValkaAI, chosen by the founders, derives from Valkyrie – the Norse figures who guide souls between worlds. That mythology of crossing boundaries fed directly into the logo: a geometric mirrored butterfly symbolising the bridge between real and digital realities. The wings use clean, faceted shapes to keep the symbol technical and modern while maintaining the butterfly’s recognisable silhouette, and the body is minimal, almost abstract, so the focus stays on the transformation element. “The mirrored form works on two levels,: explains Studio L–AB’s Co-owner Petr Skovajsa. “Visually, it’s a butterfly in perfect balance. Conceptually, it represents ValkaAI’s positioning – bridging physical and digital, engineering and emotion, infrastructure and personality.” The brand idea builds on that neurological truth about emotion preceding thought. Because people feel before they think, the identity leads with the AI personas themselves – synthetic faces that communicate emotion instantly. Studio L–AB analysed ValkaAI’s output and recognised these had immediate emotional stopping power. “Rather than treating personas as examples tucked into case studies, we made them the primary visual element in every composition,” Skovajsa shares. The team developed a compositional hierarchy where personas always occupy the hero position, typography and UI elements recede into supporting roles, and white space frames faces rather than competing with them. “When someone encounters our brand, we want their first thought to be ‘How can I get this for my solution?’ rather than ‘interesting AI technology,’” adds Marketing Director Vendula Richter at ValkaAI. “The persona-led approach makes our value proposition more immediate.”