Kardashev – Raul Esquivel

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In late 2020, Nico, the guitarist and composer of Kardashev, messaged me over Instagram asking me if I would be interested in working with him to do a whole rebrand for Kardashev. That included a new logo, colors, Twitch stream layout and he even brought up the idea of having me create a unique font exclusively for them that nobody else would ever be able to have except for Kardashev.

I replied and said yeah lets do it! What followed was a few weeks of experimenting with various typefaces to try to nail down the vibe and feel their music gives the listener. Based on their previous work, the themes of their music focused a lot on space, sci-fi and futuristic scenarios.

The process was a bit challenging at first because I knew I needed to create a typeface that evoked mystery while giving it a visual typographic appeal that looked really cool. Which is why I began with just the letters in the band name itself.

Once I locked down the look I decided to expand the font and create the rest of the letters, numbers and a select few special characters. Once those were locked down, I then floated the idea of creating a monogram style logo that they could use in scenarios where a wide logo would not fit.

Also in addition to the main logo assets and proprietary font, I also proposed an additional set of icons with an idea in mind that would help expand the lore and story-telling in their music. I will go into more detail on that in a later section.

Once all the core pieces of the new branding were created, next step was to have some fun and move things around and make some lockups using the logo, monogram, and font.

Next part of the process was figuring out how all these new branding elements can be used to create social media assets and personalized monograms for each of the four members of the band.

The next major aspect of the branding process was creating the proprietary font that would be exclusively available for use by Kardashev and their management team.

Once the main characters in the logo were created, the next part was to create the rest of the letters, numbers and special characters. This font was created entirely in Adobe Illustrator and then exported using a plugin called FontSelf.

After the main font was created, I then had an idea that I pitched to Mark, the vocalist of Kardashev, who had created a language of his own called Alunea that was used throughout their interconnected albums.

When he explained to me what Alunea was and how it worked, it got me thinking about ways to display that language in written form. Since the written form of Alunea was created using the Latin alphabet, I had an idea to create a set of unique glyphs that further broke down Alunea and established it as a multi-formational language that uses different sets of iconographic glyphs to convey ideas, attributes, and states of being.

The Gravity glyph set represents relationships, influence, and importance. Rather than physical gravity, it functions as a system for expressing conceptual pull, showing how ideas, beings, or actions are connected, prioritized, or affected by one another.

Gravity glyphs are often used to modify or contextualize other glyph sets, indicating emphasis, hierarchy, emotional weight, or cause-and-effect. They help explain why something matters within a sentence or system, adding meaning beyond simple identification or action.

Energy glyphs are used to represent action, movement, and change. This set functions as the verb system of Alunea, describing anything that causes transformation such as motion, force, interaction, or process. Physical actions, natural phenomena, and mechanical or organic movement are all expressed through Energy.

The Energy set can also describe non-physical actions such as emotional shifts or internal processes. In all cases, it represents something actively happening rather than something static.

The Matter glyph set represents physical existence. It is used for objects, places, structures, environments, and materials, anything that occupies space or has a tangible form. This includes tools, architecture, landscapes, and physical bodies when they are referenced as objects rather than conscious beings.

Matter functions as the primary noun system for the language, defining what exists in a material sense. It provides structure and grounding, allowing abstract ideas to be anchored to physical reality.

The Time glyph set is used to describe duration, sequence, and progression. It represents past, present, and future, as well as cycles, intervals, and measured units. Time glyphs help place events in order and establish how long something lasts or when it occurs.

In some cases, Time is also used to represent distance as experienced over duration, such as travel or long spans. This reinforces the idea that time in Alunea is treated as a measurable system rather than an abstract concept.

The Sentience glyph set is used to represent beings with awareness and intelligence. It functions as the language layer for identity and consciousness, covering people, intelligent species, artificial minds, and any entity capable of thought or decision-making. When Alunea refers to who is present or acting, Sentience glyphs are used.

In addition to representing beings themselves, this glyph set is also used for mental states, roles, and perspective such as thinking, remembering, observing, or leading. Sentience establishes agency within the language and helps distinguish conscious actors from objects or forces.

Another big part of the complete rebrand was to create a completely custom Twitch stream layout using the newly created branding elements. Since Kardashev uses Twitch as a way to maintain a constant and active community, having their Twitch account be reflective of the new stage in their growth as a band was essential for maintaining consistency across the board.

In total, I created around 9 unique layouts, each with on-screen functionality to display new subscribers, followers and donations, including 1 pause layout that had an area on the screen that hooked into a slideshow that displayed the latest items from their merch shop as well as another area that allowed the ability to showcase a rotating slideshow of sponsors and partners.

Most screens were ideal for music production streams, guitar play-throughs, as well as the occasional gaming stream.

Along with the on-screen layouts, I also created some panels for their description area to put links to places you could buy and stream their music, buy their merch, a link to the official Discord community, and a link to donate money.

In keeping consistent with the ever-evolving lore of Kardashev, a system of titles were created of each level a follower or subscriber reached. I helped develop a series of monograms and Twitch subscriber badges using the Time glyph alphabet.

A note that was also communicated to me in advance when I first started the initial rebranding process was the title of their next album, "Liminal Rite", along with the subject matter, which was loosely explained as a story of a troubled man who was slowly losing his memory.

As I worked on the new logo and branding I was also working on layout ideas for this album including the inner booklet and back cover as well as locking down the colors, fonts, and the album name title treatment.

The illustration on the cover itself was created by an amazingly talented artist named Faith Veloro.

In mid-2024, Nico again approached me and asked if I was open to collaborating once more and working on the layout for their next album titled "Alunea". The timeline for this one was a bit more condensed and we only had a couple of weeks to get it done but I collaborated heavily with both Mark and Nico in order to get every aspect right.

The cover art as well as all the art throughout the entire layout was created by the super talented illustrator existential.yogurt.

As I began designing the layout, I decided to use one of the most recent fonts, Quartez, I released at the time under my type foundry Eagle & Bison Design Company. When I mentioned this to Nico he was really supportive of the idea. My font then later went on to be prominently featured across every aspect of the marketing and promotional cycle of the album, including being used in music videos, social posts, merch, and on their Spotify Canvas.

Mark was also insistent on including a section in the booklet that had a proper definition of Alunea as well as a dictionary with words, pronunciations, and translations of what each term meant.

Included were also pages that contained lyrics for each of their songs and some pages for dedication and album credits.