ISAAC WOOTEN
Wii.com
Nintendo of America, 2006. The website for a console that wanted everyone to play, and the brand world its design implied.
A new way to play, explained to people who had never held a controller. Wii.com had to sell motion control to families, grandparents and lapsed players in the months around the console’s November 2006 launch. I was an online technical designer and Flash developer on Nintendo of America’s Online Publications team, working on pages like these: the home page, Iwata Asks, the Wii Mall Tour, game pages and the software library. In 2026 I extracted the site’s DNA in Northlit and rendered the brand world it implied.
The brief
A console for everyone needs a website anyone can read.
The Wii was a bet that games could reach people who didn’t play them. The site had to carry that: glossy white, sky-blue rules and generous space, with a Try Wii invitation front and centre and the games grouped so a parent could find Wii Sports as easily as a fan could find Metroid Prime 3. Around it sat the launch programme: Iwata Asks, where Nintendo’s president interviewed his own developers; a mall tour that put Wii Sports in front of shoppers across the country; and a software library that grew every week.
White and sky blue
The hardware’s gloss carried into the page: white panels, cyan rules and tabs, grey type with an orange call to action.
Try Wii first
The home page led with a Remote in hand and an invitation to try it, not with specs.
Iwata Asks
Long-form interviews with the people who made the console, set for reading, volume by volume.
Games for everyone
A software library that put Wii Sports, Zelda and Excite Truck side by side, sorted so anyone could browse it.
The site
Brand system
The Wii identity is Nintendo’s. What interested me was how clearly the website carried it, so I pointed Northlit at these pages and the wordmark: glossy white and silver with wii blue, a deep cyan and a splash of orange, a rounded geometric display face over a neutral sans, high-key family photography and splash graphics, extracted and locked as brand DNA. Then every surface was rendered from that source: palette, type, icons, logo system, cards, stationery, packaging, merch, social, data, a presentation, product UI, out of home, and the brand world itself. Tap any tile to open it.
Brand world · rendered in Northlit from the locked brand DNA
The Wii name, logo and games belong to Nintendo. The pages above are the site I worked on; the brand world is a 2026 study made with my own tool from them, not work for Nintendo.
A new way to play, for everyone.
Wii, the launch promise
Role
Nintendo of America for the site. Northlit in 2026 for the brand world.
Online Publications
Online technical designer and Flash developer at Nintendo of America, 2005 to 2007, on Nintendo.com, Wii.com and NintendoWifi.com.
Production
Micro-sites, games and page production for the launch-era site, with the Online Publications group.
Brand DNA
Extracted from the site in Northlit and locked: palette with roles, display and body type, imagery rules, anti-defaults.
Nineteen surfaces
Palette, type, icons, logo system, cards, stationery, packaging, merch, social kit, data visualisation, a presentation, web, app and app icon, guidelines, billboard and storefront.
- Web design
- Flash
- Front-end production
- Console launch
- Brand DNA extraction
- Northlit
Next
The site lives in the archive with the rest of the Nintendo years.
Browse the archive →