Maidsafe announces logo design competition on 99designs

The development team at MaidSafe, a protocol to decentralize the Internet, is turning to the community in search of an official design for the network’s “engine oil,” Safecoin.

The winner, whose design will be picked by company employees and members in the MaidSafe forums, will win 5,000 Safecoins. Designers are to enter their submissions for the cryptocoin’s logo on the site 99 Designs.

Read article at:

Link to the competition:

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The article was not very long, but provided great information…and was well crafted.

@nicklambert What is the difference between the £ 749 (Platinum package) and the 5000 sfc that they can win? Or will the £ 749 be divided over all designs and the 5000 sfc goes to the actual winner ?

The winning designer gets both the 99 Designs prize (they take away about £500) as well as 5000 safecoin when the network goes live. I have asked Coin Telegraph to amend the article to reflect this.

The way the contest will work is that over the next 4 days, designers will submit logos and at the end of this period MaidSafe will select their top 6 (over a period of 4 days) and this short list will be notified. The final will then start and the designers will refine their submissions over the next 3 days and you guys will have 3 days to vote via a forum poll which we will set up.

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Just want to add that we will select a maximum of 6 designs. Unless we absolutely love 6 designs I think we should aim for less as my research suggests that the designers competing are less motivated when contest holders choose the maximum, as they feel they may only be picked to fill up places.

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How do I submit a design to the contest?

Hi!

I have been a keen follower and investor in maidsafe coins for a number of months, but just created an account on this forum today to introduce myself and explain my problem. My name is Josh and I am very excited to be involved as we watch history being made with the release of the SAFE network!

I’ve been playing around with a few logo ideas since before the competition was formally launched (as I think it would be extremely cool to have helped create the logo!). I have an issue though… I am unable to enter the competition as I am not a “Premium Designer”. The only way to become a premium designer is to win a previous competition, which I didn’t realize until I tried to enter and seems very unfair :frowning:

I have emailed 99designs and asked if they can manually change my status so I am able to enter, but I’m worried they won’t get back to me in time for my designs to be considered. I thought as a backup that I would post some of my ideas here for you all to look at, in case this problem can’t be solved. I will attempt to add some additional options also after incorporating any comments/feedback.

http://postimg.org/image/3x5yvwfc1/

Thanks for any help you can offer me with solving this problem and for any suggestions you might have about my designs! :slight_smile:

Josh.

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Hi Josh, the ability for only premium (by 99 definition) designer to enter isn’t great and something we weren’t aware of until after the competition started. You’ve got some nice ideas and is clear you understand the brief. If you don’t here back from the site tomorrow, PM me and I will speak to them and see if we can sort something out.

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I’ve spoken to 99 Designs and they have opened up the competition to everyone, so you should be able to enter your work. I look forward to seeing them submitted :smile:

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Thanks @nicklambert

I’ve shared this on my google+ to help spread the word. I encourage other forum members to share as well. The more entries we get the better. We went from 28 entries to 65 overnight.


Be a part of history. This could be the currency of the new
decentralized internet.There’s only 2 days left! Submit your SAFECOIN
logo design here.

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For anyone that’s interested here’s my latest design submission.

After looking at the entries that remain, and attempting to develop additional design ideas that might be considered suitable (and survive elimination), it has just occurred to me that if this is truly secure access for EVERYONE, should we be removing symbols that are not in fact universal e.g. $ or English letters such as S or C? I’m trying to think creatively and look at logo concepts from a different angle and I am wondering if this is something we need to consider?

I think the difficulty with that is we’re in danger of it not meaning anything to anyone at all. It will always be called safecoin I assume so therefor I don’t think going with an s or sc is a bad thing. At least when people see the symbol on its own they will think ‘safecoin’. I know it’s frustrating @JoshPorter but with 350 entries so far, we really have to be ruthless. Maybe building on the designs you have still in the contest would be a better idea. 20 hours left! :smile:
Has anyone else any thoughts on remaining designs? Looking forward to the final poll!

I agree that it would always be called ‘safe coin’ but the term safe coin will be translated into every language and a very large percentage of the world’s population will not associate ‘safe coin’ with the English letters S and C. Wouldn’t we be better off with a logo that was universal beside the title ‘safe coin’ in the user’s native language? I might be overanalysing this, but I would hate to be alienating potential users right from the very beginning over something so simple? I’m wondering if companies like Apple, Microsoft and Nike have it right in this regard? I understand most of my designs so far would be wrong according to this criteria, I’m just trying to decide whether to start over or refine my current ideas as you suggest?

Fair point Josh. We definitely wouldn’t discount a symbol that didn’t have any letters in it, if it looks great and has some thought and meaning behind it. If you have more ideas we would welcome them too!

So far there are 5 or 6 offerings that manage to combine the dollar and the euro symbols in a way that form the initials SC for safe coin and also express the tangibility of the coin shape. This laying of symbolism suggests a progression and the “next thing” but it also plays on the established strength and solidity of traditional symbols including tangible metal money (combating lost electron anxiety) and the two dominant currency symbols. This has worked well for religion, the current dominant Western faith is an accretion and possibly successful because of that strategy. In this context possibly the more conservative the symbol the better, which means use established symbols and themes in a non infringing way. Encompass and conquer is also a conservative strategy. Blue as the only color and the rest shades is simple and conservative too. A simple theme is needed, no fat, it has to suggest precision but not be too cold. Some of the offerings use the physical safe or vault shape/theme, but interestingly enough the ones mentioned above already look very much like the copyright symbol, which in this context is not a bad thing at all. Also a bit of sysygy, gnostic cross and Tao Yin Yang or Taijitu

Somewhat underwhelmed with the entries thus far, but at least it’s evident who the best designers are from the bunch. I was expecting more 3D CAD type stuff, the entries look so…flat.

Maybe the brief could be distilled somewhat for the next round…way too much information of the type most designers probably have no grasp of.

Still exciting though. Probably end up with something like the Comedy Central symbol. Also the process reveals a lot about how people think about the promise of the tech from a distance, which is the distance that promise will have to grab people from. Almost seems like the process from RPGs where you sculpt a character’s physical appearance using sliders.

I personally think a good logo should work in 2d and 3d and believe that getting a good 2d design first is the best place to start.

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There’s a good 614 designs and one hour left; Hope it’s okay to post suggestions?

Identitfy which design by #