Our current logo design is great (thanks Jimshu!), but we wanted explore other options in this space, esp. for our upcoming website redesign. We funded a 99designs competition (along with another for a new website design), and we’re currently in the final round of the decision process. We just put a poll in the field which includes some of the designs we like best. Please vote in it, to let us know what you think of these possibilities. (Disclaimer: we will not necessarily use logo design with the most votes.)
99designs Poll
Edit: broken link
link does not work?
Can you double check the link? Page not found.
[quote author=hodl link=topic=180.msg1227#msg1227 date=1394722653]
link does not work?
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[quote author=520Bit link=topic=180.msg1228#msg1228 date=1394722943]
Can you double check the link? Page not found.
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Sorry 'bout that! The link works now.
do we have experts in branding here? I think this stuff is quite crucial and I appreciate that you let us vote for the logo but in my opinion this is stuff for specialists.
anyway I like the current logo very much and do not think that one of the listed comes close to that regarding branding
disclaimer: i am not a branding specialist
maybe #257 and #447 are also ok but the current one is very fine
I like current one also.
My checklist when making a 99designs contest:
[list]
[li]Pay $2,000 in guaranteed prizes[/li]
[li]Clearly promise to give feedback to ALL designers and then GIVE FEEDBACK CONSTANTLY. Don’t just eliminate shitty entries without explanation, it makes you look like a dick.[/li]
[li]Warn designers not to submit useless angles of the logo, logo on tshirts and other bullshit[/li]
[li]Warn designers not to do reverse printed logo (white on black)[/li]
[li]Warn designers not to do multi-row logos (icon on top of texts doesn’t work online; icon MUST go to the left of the logo; bonus points if they deliver logo design on a mockup website header for proof of its usefulness online)[/li]
[li]Write a GOOD, EMPATHETIC, UNIQUE contest title. Dozens of these things every day are run by self centered assholes, why are you any different?[/li]
[li]Last but not least, write a GOOD, PERSONAL design prompt. If you don’t know how to communicate your design preferences, you’re fucked.[/li]
[/list]If you don’t do all seven of these things, you’re going to get horrible results, which is exactly what happened here.
All of these logos are complete fucking shit, and no better than what you have already. Which is also complete shit but you knew that.
As someone who is very experienced running 99designs contests, I can tell with 99% certainty that this contest was run without doing numbers 1-7. At least not well anyway.
Just my completely honest feedback but you have to know what you’re doing to run these contests. At the very least, since you didn’t know wtf you were doing, you should’ve reached out to the community here before submitting your design prompt. There are some smart motherfuckers here with serious business acumen! It’s honestly insulting seeing results like this which were completely avoidable.
Garbage in, garbage out.
[quote author=PhantomPhreak link=topic=180.msg1226#msg1226 date=1394722096]
Our current logo design is great (thanks Jimshu!), but we wanted explore other options in this space, esp. for our upcoming website redesign. We funded a 99designs competition (along with another for a new website design), and we’re currently in the final round of the decision process. We just put a poll in the field which includes some of the designs we like best. Please vote in it, to let us know what you think of these possibilities. (Disclaimer: we will not necessarily use logo design with the most votes.)
99designs Poll
Edit: broken link
[/quote]
It doesn’t seem like any of the logos show something characteristic of the protocol - they may be hipper, but I like the two curly arrows.
[quote author=porqupine link=topic=180.msg1234#msg1234 date=1394727755]
[quote author=PhantomPhreak link=topic=180.msg1226#msg1226 date=1394722096]
Our current logo design is great (thanks Jimshu!), but we wanted explore other options in this space, esp. for our upcoming website redesign. We funded a 99designs competition (along with another for a new website design), and we’re currently in the final round of the decision process. We just put a poll in the field which includes some of the designs we like best. Please vote in it, to let us know what you think of these possibilities. (Disclaimer: we will not necessarily use logo design with the most votes.)
99designs Poll
Edit: broken link
[/quote]
It doesn’t seem like any of the logos show something characteristic of the protocol - they may be hipper, but I like the two curly arrows.
[/quote]
I agree with Porqupine. None of these logos represent anything with the protocol and the team. The people who designed these were so far away from the community and the experience, they just did whatever came to their heads.
This is a step backward and low quality work with no brand presence that I believe in from what I’ve seen this community can do.
If you want a great design, then hire a proper brand designer to come in, see the community, understand what is happening and then create a logo that you and the community can all stand by and enjoy as a proper representation of who we are and what we’ve done.
Jmshu’s was a start. I’m sure we can improve, but 99 designs is NOT the way I would recommend.
[size=1em]About the logo.[/size]
[size=1em]I[font=verdana] think it was initially designed by Jimshu and I have redone it in illustrator if someone want to take a look and try to improve it (PM me for the file)[/font][/size]
[size=1em]If there is an interest, I can do some rework on the current one on Saturday, with the same philosophy, makes some variations, and post the results.[/size]
Here are some other possibilitiies:
From the latest post, 1st and 3rd could be starting points.
There are two dominant motifs:
X - Exchange, Transaction, Market
C - Counterparty, cooperation, competition
There are also two dominant "styles" that we can target:
Traditional financial firms - serifed, serious (dark colors, etc)
Modern financial firms - sans-serifed, modern, dynamic (less saturated colors)
It’s really up to the community which "side" on the traditional/modern axis we should define the project.
Color palettes:
I like to start out with something, and move out from it. Take for example, #01285e (the dark blue in citigroup’s logo).
From that, we can get these analogous colors and monochromatic colors, which would be good for a web site template.
The dark red here forms the color triad, which would be good for contrasting elements.
And so on and so forth…
Thanks Jimshu. I like your approach. However, if I could be a little disruptive with my own professional branding experience work?
I would NOT advise using logos from current financial companies!
I would start with words that best describe the Counterparty community, the developer team, and the mission of the code and the project. For example, here are my words that come to mind when I think about the community:
[list]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Fast[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Trustless[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Burn[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Proof[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Peer to Peer[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Decentralized[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]OpenSourced[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]CommunityDriven[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Innovative[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Github[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Forums[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Discussion[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Build[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=Verdana][size=4]Bet[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=4]Assets[/size][/font][/li]
[li][font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=4]Issuance[/size][/font][/li]
[/list]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]I would present a full word list to the community and have the community vote on the words that best describes the platform. We can have them add new words as well. [/size][/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif][size=2]Here’s an example 5-likert score ranking for the branding process: [/size][/font][font=Verdana][size=4]https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ND2585L[/size][/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Then, I would take the top 5 ranked words and compare with brands that idealize those words. They don’t have to be in Finance and I would encourage to avoid looking like a banking logo because that’s not necessarily what’s driving the community engagement and you want to keep the community engaged/involved and adding value as this platform depends on community participation to increase XCP value.[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Last, I would find the color palette that matched those words and start building out the logo from the words, the colors, and ideas.[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Then I’d go test a logo with the community because they would have built the logo.[/font]
[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The only difference in this approach vs. your own first logo, Jimshu, is that you’re now using themes from the community to articulate what the logo should represent.[/font]
True old logo looks much better than this. But if need say something about this i like more right side than left side logos… Vote that survey monkey also.
[quote author=hodl link=topic=180.msg1250#msg1250 date=1394759990]
[quote author=Bountyful link=topic=180.msg1245#msg1245 date=1394742240]
Thanks Jimshu. I like your approach. However, if I could be a little disruptive with my own professional branding experience work?
[/quote]
do you have expertise in branding? Your approach looks very promising.
[/quote]
Yes. I’ve launched a number of technology company brands and I have handled $50,000.00 - $1,000,000.00 launch budgets with branding agencies, going through this entire process over and over again! At least this time we don’t have to sit in a room for 2 - 3 days talking and writing this stuff out on whiteboards/post-it notes.
They key here in this process is that the brand (logo, color palette, mission statement, etc) should reflect the exercise to articulate the value proposition of the product and the aspirations of the team.
There IS risk in making effort because this is such a fast-changing industry and platform. However, a long lasting logo, brand palette, mission statement, et al can survive the nature of the industry if its true to the essence of what it represents. See Apple, Disney, Coca-Cola, IBM, and others.
Given the community nature of this project, I will also share that the development team should expect that the community will continue to evolve their own logos and branding around the project. This is just the nature of open source and community development. However, a good and strong brand effort at the outset will guide those community efforts so that they are extensions of the best original effort. You can’t stop the brand forks, but you can inspire and direct them to use the original brand essence if they are part of the process to create it in the first place.
Long Live Open Source.
Here’s a second poll, with some more options: http://en.99designs.fr/logo-design/vote-p5d6jq.
The one by “FeeLiX” is by far the best to my eye, but then I’m a sucker for negative-space reveals.
I feel like the GameCube/hexagon shape is played out, but it’s surprisingly common among these designs.
[font=Verdana]This for FYI. [/font][color=rgb(51, 68, 102)][font=Verdana]https://forums.counterparty.co/index.php/topic,199.msg1559/topicseen.html#msg1559[/font][/color]
