New safecoin brand identity

Autonomi Network Token
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As has been discussed in previous threads, a new brand identity for safecoin is required. @chisforstertv (I think) suggested the idea of running a design competition to get the best design while also raising awareness for the SAFE project. I think this is an excellent idea and the purpose of this thread is to discuss how to proceed.

My 2 cents….

First thing we need to do is establish a brief for the design, like anything great planning (usually) gives great results. Things that (will) set safecoin apart is its anonymity (digital cash), network generated, unlimited number of transactions, confirmations take place at network speed, increased levels of security as network reaches critical mass, no transaction fees (please add more). The new identity will be used almost exclusively in digital (online, video, presentations) format initially, although if things go as planned it will make it into print as well. Ideally the design should stand out from others in the space.

We can run the competition on a tailor made platform, such as http://99designs.co.uk/ Running on a platform would have the added advantage of access to an existing talent pool, however, sharing the submissions maybe problematic (they can only be viewed by logging in to the account). I also think that while it is more work, we would get more PR mileage doing this between ourselves, writing a press release announcing the competition and doing things publicly. Let me know what you think about this and where we should ask for the designs to be sent (the forum?) if we do this ourselves.

To pick the winner we would compare the design against the brief and run a poll in the forum to pick the winner. In terms of the prize it should be worthwhile and should definitely be in BTC. The going rate for a brand identity in Scotland costs around £1000 ($1500 USD), with brands with full guidelines normally running to £10,000 from top tier agencies, however, I don’t believe we need anything like that here. If the price of BTC is just shy of $400 USD, then something around 3/4 BTC (I’m thinking mastercoin probably won’t cut it :)) should get reasonable interest from remote freelancers? (let me know if I’m being to stingy here, I’m Scottish after all :)) Obviously the bigger the prize the more quality designs we will see.

What do we want the output to be, a brand identity at the very least, I think we should also have some abbreviated guidelines explaining how it should be used. If we do this the prize needs to go up. I would like to make all our digital assets available via our website to anyone that wants them.

Let me know what you guys think and after we have all chucked our hats in the ring and established a consensus we can move forward.

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Hi @nicklambert

This Raspberry Pi logo should give you an impression how to handle this baby:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/logo-competition/

Personally I think that every one who wants to enter the contest should create an Maidsafe.org account.

€1000 is a reasonable price for a logo (if it’s € 1K, then I can invite one of the best Icon makers to also join in). It would also be nice if 1% of the winners price was cashed out in Maidsafecoins, preferably Safecoins. Why should you only give away fiat when we got a way better currency that’s coming. When Maidsafe is up and running David could send that person her/his Safecoins and broadcast it. Heck that could even go down in history as the first Safecoin transaction, the more reason for somebody to enter the contest. :stuck_out_tongue:

It wouldn’t hurt if forum members tell everybody about it… I’ll even put up a free ad on some sites

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Good find on the Raspberry Pi comp.

I’m not, I was suggesting that we pay the prize out in BTC although I’m open to safecoin. However, this may limit the amount of people that enter the competition as it is a greater risk for the designer to take a prize that is not yet released.

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Yeah that raspberry Pi link was a great resource.

It would be a great guideline to follow,

Just add BTC or whatever to it

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A prize in maidsafecoin and bitcoin is very cool.

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Oooh yeah your not, sorry Nick… I should learn to read better (or maybe subconciously Bitcoin is beginning to look more like fiat to me)

For instance if you would pay some one €1000 and give them 1% Safecoin. That means that they would get € 990 in Bitcoins and €10 Safecoin. It can’t hurt, to get a little bit/byte of the currency your designing the brand for.

It would just be fun if the community chip in to get the €1000. I’ll donate €10 in a heartbeat for this… But these are just my boring opinions/thoughts

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@19eddyjohn75 are you saying that we should up the ante?

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I’m saying that if 100 people dump €10 on a Bitcoin address that Nick provide that we have the €1000 winners price. I’ll be the first to donate, because I’m the loudmouth talking about it. I guess I’m also saying, that if @ this moment the community wants to be in a slumber and not do some stuff together when will we wake up?

This is not a attack, but if we fully depend on the core team to do everything then maybe… We’re still asleep. If feel/think that the community can do this… You don’t have to ask the Dogecoin community to do anything, they just do stuff… I guess I’m a little surprise/dissapointed that David was the only one paying for Maidsafe.org. If he would have said it 6 months ago, I would have chip in financially. This forum is that important to me…

It is true that some of us can’t do nothing now, but things like paying to keep this forum up and running and this contest can easily be done by the Maidsafe community. Sometimes I get too overexited about Maidsafe and do some real stupid things. But honestly I fully believe in this new internet… I would pay half of the price or the whole price to keep this forum up and running… My problem is I’m not super rich… I absolutely respect the core team, but I don’t see it like they have to do everything in term of Maidsafe. Everybody involved should do what they can do, so that we move forward.

If what I said have hurt some one, that’s absolutely not my intention.

@dallyshalla
I’m suggesting we take a pro active attitude

I’m totally miss quoting David (yeah the other David). “Everybody using Maidsafe is the owner”

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IMHO the commitment of the people within this forum is not in question, day in day out you all give very generously of your time and ideas. We raised money during the crowd sale to continue to build out the technology, raise awareness and ensure the delivery of the platform and this activity falls within that.

So, as we have established that we are all owners of the SAFE network and to get this thread back on track it would be great if you could all discuss how to proceed with safecoin :smile:

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SafeCoin is a denominator for meaningful computation and digital storage. SafeCoin affords its owners access to the utility of the entire network of Digital Hard disks using algorithms that deliver reliable distribution and retrieval of data on resilient nodes with the most adequate processing power and bandwidth. Transactions are at the speed of light, and consensus is immediate. There are no fees associated with SafeCoin and thus the SafeCoin’s economic variables are a rare occurring study.

I ought to continue with an essay.

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Great essay by @ioptio

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So the brief should ask for the appropriate file formats to cover all use cases. Unique typography would a nice add

I think yourself and Shona should nut out the package that is required. One I can think of, is usage within apps i.e could an asset be included as a default in the libraries for example.

Maybe there could be a wild card option as part of the brief, an object that is not a coin, like @dirvine suggested a mobius circle for example, which would be unique and bling potential.

Making the assets freely available is wise.

I would think a minimum of US$1,000 but it does depend like you say on the brief and on the assets required. I would pay more now and cover all the use cases.

I disagree with this one. I would offer Fiat for the main prize.

I feel offering crypto will reduce the number of entries, it’s far from being universally accepted or even remotely understood. Everyone understands cash.

I do think some SAFEcoin would be nice though, it’s selling the brand. Why mention the competition at all?

So you present the SAFEcoin or MaidSAFEcoin, how will that be done. Might look good in a tangible format, snazzy paper wallet, yubi key etc or do you say, we’ll email it to you :smile:

This is a hard one.

How many entries are there going to be, maybe the maidsafe team could narrow it to say 10 and then have the community including staff again vote for #1

Having the community choose from say 300 entries would be chaos, I’d think.

Your the man for the writing the press release and sending it to all the blogs…no pressure of course :smile:

Having Maidsafe (and digital friends) manage the process and choosing the top 10, should help.Then just copy paste those 10 into a blog post with a poll. Not sure how long your given to choose a winner though.

So who bears the real risk in design contests? The client.

I’ll leave you with an appropriate quote by Richard Grefe, AIGA’s executive director.

"Successful design work results from a collaborative process between a client and the designer, developing a clear sense of the client’s objectives, competitive situation, and needs. Speculative design competitions result in a superficial assessment of the problem and can only result in a design that is judged on a superficial basis. Design creates value for clients as a result of the approach designers take in addressing the problems or needs of the client and only at the end of that process is a “design” created. Speculative competitions for work based on a perfunctory problem statement will not result in the kind of work a client deserves.

“While there will always be some designers who are willing to create designs in response to an open call for work, without any assurance of compensation, the buyer immediately relegates his or her choices to those who are least likely to be experienced, knowledgeable designers who are in demand among clients and who work according to the professional standards of the profession. Only too often, it results in a client eventually having to bring a more experienced designer onto a project in order to execute it.”

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