Former Nintendo of America president and CEO Reggie Fils-Aime has revealed that he once stopped Nintendo from having a graffiti logo.

Fils-Aime went on the Present Value Podcast and spoke about a time when Nintendo of America was trying to appeal to a broader, older audience. This involved trying out different looks for the Nintendo logo, including one styled as graffiti.

“When I joined Nintendo, there was a sense of almost shame that Nintendo appealed to young consumers, and the marketing team at Nintendo of America started doing things with the logo - that classic Nintendo logo in an oval - they would put it into graffiti style, or they’d do different things to try and age up the logo, and I put a stop to that because that is not our brand.”

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Fils-Aime joined Nintendo in 2003 and it seems he’s speaking of Nintendo at around that time. The reason he stepped in and put a stop to that marketing approach was because he felt it didn’t match “what the brand stood for.” He then encouraged Nintendo to try to reach an older audience without doing it in “some false way.”

“Systemically, we went through and cleaned up the presentation of the brand, but we also created messaging coupled with content that really broadened the reach, broadened the appeal, and set the stage for all of the great products we would launch like Wii, like Wii Fit, and eventually the Nintendo Switch,” Fils-Aime said.

Fils-Aime retired from Nintendo of America after 15 years with the company back in April 2019. The appropriately named Doug Bowser took over as the new president.

A History of Nintendo Hardware - 1977 to Now 20 IMAGES

Fils-Aime now teaches at Cornell University’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in New York, which involves meeting students and discussing “leadership, conscious capitalism, and service” with them.

If you want more from the man then it’s worth reading IGN’s interview with Fils-Aime from October 2019, in which he talks about how he steered Nintendo over the years. IGN also has the eight best Reggie Fils-Aime moments for anyone who needs it.

Originally reported by VG247.

Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.