It just occurred to me that by now we have 4 symbols associated with this project:
while all of them are beautiful, no doubt, it might get confusing.
what is the company? what is the currency? what is the network?
and what is this plane about?
those are questions newcomers might be wondering.
to avoid this confusion I propose one symbol to rule them all and that
should imo be the safecoin logo. put that on the homepage,
the wiki, the twitter etc… would that not be much clearer and a
better marketing strategy in terms of brand recognition?
maybe keep the penrose triangle for MaidSafe the company though…
MaidSafe the company will melt more and more into the background
once the networks is launched. SafeCoin on the other hand will become
more and more important as the network gains traction.
Thats why it would make sense to start using the SafeCoin logo over
the triangle when referring to the SafeNetwork on the wiki, the homepage
and on twitter as well. Plus it looks cooler than the triangle
I see the top one as MaidSafe the company, and the others as more to do with the network.
We and MaidSafe (@nicklambert) should agree what is what.
The “forum” logo is really nice, maintains a visual association with MaidSafe and so could be used for the SAFEnetwork - but I’m not sure of where it came from or the licensing status so we may need to check that with the first forum owner/mod @David
I personally like the forum logo as the SAFE Network logo, although it would be good is @David could confirm where he got it from. I don’t like the idea of putting the safecoin logo at the front of the project, to me the network is much more valuable than the coin, but that’s just my 2 cents.
I actually asked that question to David many months ago. He told me that he bought it on Shutterstock. The one he sent me is this one (stock photo). But there is also a vector version.
So considering that it’s proprietary (not under a free/open license), I don’t think it’s the best candidate for using as the logo of the SAFE Network.
So far I’ve been using the MaidSafe triangle logo in the projects I am making since it’s pretty much the only option available, but I agree it would be good for the SAFE Network to have a different logo than MaidSafe. And we might want the logo to be something else than an impossible triangle.
I also like the “Privacy. Security. Freedom.” banner and I don’t consider it to be a logo.
As for using the safecoin logo for referring to the SAFE Network, I actually think it’s an idea worth considering. It would make sense that the logo of SAFE Network would be a “S”. But then again it would be nice if we had other options to choose from as well.
I expect that if we recreated the shutterstock logo with some changes we may be able to apply our own license to it, but I guess people in the community would need to want to use it though.
I very much agree (as does everyone in this thread) that we need one overarching identity understood by everyone to represent the SAFE Network, although we do seem to disagree about what that should be. I think this is a healthy thing, debate is always good. If we were serious about going down the route of a new brand, or discussing what we should use moving forward, we should first establish a process for coming up with a design brief before thinking about starting a design. Like any of these things, getting a good result always comes down to people and process.
Personally I think the Shutterstock image isn’t a good universal logo. For the logo to be effective and timeless it needs to be simple, the Shutterstock image is just too busy, shrink it to a favicon and what do you have, make it black and white and what do you have, it needs to be robust, visible and recognisable in all sizes and across all formats to be a truly effective logo.
For this reason I think the Maidsafe logo with the blue triangle is the best of what we have so far, but I also really think that som of the development budget should be allocated to creating a concise and timeless brand as this will help with all marketing efforts going forward and is 100% part of the bigger picture.
I know plenty of people who are fantastic designers, and would be happy to help but a good designer/ brand expert will not work for free nor should they. Is there a way to put aside some budget to do this right as this will forever be a users first impression of the Safe Network and as first impressions are important.
My 2 cents worth would be that it needs to reflect some of the properties/aspects of the SAFE network.
We expect SAFE to become the next evolution of the internet. We expect its currency to become widely used.
So I feel the logo needs to portray (some of)
Its Purpose
Not some nerds play thing - I.E. something real and/or serious (not stuffy conservative old man serious though). More like a revolutionary fridge compared to a “freeze-in-a-can that can cool a beer in 5 seconds gimmick”
Global
Easy to use
that SAFE is not “in-your-face” but “under-the-hood” I.E. you don’t have to understand it to use. You don’t have to interact with it to have it work for you. (only log in to store or use private data) I guess along the lines of Apple or Android where most don’t have a clue what Apple/Android really mean, its just a type of phone/tablet.
And something you want. I.E. symbol has to be appealing.
I.E. learn off some successful tech businesses out there - Google&Android, Apple, Linux, etc. Shamelessly take their ways of portraying their respective companies and attack the logo issue in the same manner.
Then we could have something for the coin that can slot into the SAFE symbol. I mean that usually the SAFE symbol + coin symbol are displayed together But the coin symbol can be removed from the centre (or side) and both look good separate.
Maybe on the hi-res versions of the symbol the name can be embossed and zooming in allows the full name to be read.
Even though the official logo competition is not launched, I cooked this. I am not a designer so please pardon the bad quality
I hope the image conveys that SAFE Network, before being a global network freeing the entire world of privacy predators, is a user’s personal space, that he only has access to, and that makes him “safe” once logged in. Dark blue is the user, who is also the key to “his” safe, represented as the light blue area behind him.
Ultimately I think we need to avoid getting into producing logo designs, successful brands all follow a process to get to a brief and would like at answering things like:
How does it make us feel
Value proposition
Personality
Community culture
Positioning
Etc…
Most of the branding exercises I have been involved in we have had the luxury of face to face communication and one challenge I see here is we are geographically spread and there are quite a few of us . One way forward might by for a relatively small group to be nominated by the community to pull together a brief and then pass that to a designer who produces multiple designs which are then voted on by the community.
I 100% agree! The process is key and too many people will confuse the issue, not everyone will like the logo, thats just an unavoidable fact but a few people should have the final say and let that be it.
If you need help I am more than willing to chip in, I know a few amazing designers who specialise in rebranding. One of them did the new AirBnB rebrand, which caused a huge amount of press for the brand, it decided opinion initially but of there’s no such thing as bad press.
. One way forward might by for a relatively small group to be nominated by the community to pull together a brief and then pass that to a designer who produces multiple designs which are then voted on by the community.