This is a story about all the thought waves and processes I went through in coming up with the logo for curateit.com.
From picking trying things like fiver, 99designs, ai-logo generation, and an expert designer to find the best logo which has a deeper meaning to it.
I had a simple ask in terms of what I needed from the logo
- Showcase the multi-faceted aspects of all of us
- It should have something within the logo that can be used for mobile app
- Keep it simple and modern
Funny enough first thought of an Octopus came to my head because of a scene from the movie Men in Black. A scene in the post office where this Alien man with multiple hands is shown behind the envelope sorting machine using his multiple hands to do things manually and well. Which in some weird and funny way defines what Curateit is trying to be. In this world full of Ai and robotics automation where it's hard to define what is real vs unreal. A place where humans come together share, socialise and provide feedback to build a refined platform of the people, for the people, and by the people.
Men in Black Alien Post-sorter and multi-tasker for Curateit.com Octopus mascot
Octopuses are incredibly smart animals, with the ability to use tools and recognize individuals. In some species of octopus, for example, the animal will use shells or rocks to build shelters for itself. In December 2009, scientists at Melbourne’s Victoria Museum released a photograph of an octopus with its legs wrapped around a coconut shell, which it used to protect itself on the sea floor. The scientists said the octopus carries the shell with it and uses it as armor in what the scientists said was the first known example of an invertebrate using tools.
For Curateit Octopus symbol represents:
- Eight arms and more 9 brains, each arm contains its own mini brain -> Multi-faceted beings, multi-taskers
- Nest builders — This arrangement enables octopuses to complete tasks with their arms more quickly and effectively.
- Builder of (underwater) cities (using shells, calms, scallops, coconut shells) -> startup empires
- Moreover, while each arm is capable of acting independently — able to taste, touch and move without direction — the centralised brain is also able to exert top-down control -> Clear vision from the top, and independence on way to execute plans
- The big brain itself is mostly dedicated to learning, planning, and coordinating actions with stimuli
- Adaptive and flexible — Can change colour or flex its body in the shape of the predator. Octopuses are made of roughly 90 percent muscle and have no internal or external skeleton -> Flexible and adaptable
- Octopuses are widely recognized as the most intelligent of all invertebrates. Relative to their size, octopuses have larger brains than most animals other than birds and mammals. They can learn how to perform tasks by watching another octopus. -> Constant Observer, learner, and adapt to situations
- They can lose arms and regrow → constantly reinventing
- Octopuses tend to be solitary, though they do interact with other octopuses at times. Some species of octopuses hunt at night, while others only hunt at dusk and dawn. -> This easily defines our generation where its easy to find and communicate with a friend online
- No matter what, when octopuses mate, they die soon after. -> So no over 18 content platforms on curateit.com
As you can see I dug into it much further into what the octopus mascot represented after the initial movie reference reason. The more I researched more compelling it became for keeping the octopus mascot.
Find designers for the logo and mascot
I tried quite a few things early on and along with it some mistakes.
First I tried using Fiverr to get some logos built for cheap, here are some of the results. As you can see none were impressive or maybe I just picked the wrong designers. Who knows but it wasn’t an option.
Fiverr design 1 for curateit
Fiverr design 2 for curateit
Fiverr design 3 for curateit
Automated Ai logo generators: The Ai logo generator tools are widely used by businesses, especially startups. It is convenient, easy to use, and requires no designing skills. It creates a unique logo and tries out different combinations of fonts and styles to create a cool-looking logo. I used a few sites like Shopify’s logo maker, Canva, logo.com, and a few more. Below are some of the results.
Ai logo design 1 for curateit
Ai logo design 2 for curateit
Ai logo design 3 for curateit
Running contests on 99designs:
Giving it on 99 designs before I was fully sold on the platform name. So I started a contest for the name ‘Curation board’ which halfway through the contest changed to ‘Curate it’. Making the contest unviable, eventually, I split the amount between designers who I had shortlisted earlier but that's a cost I could have avoided. However only good validation that came out of it was based on the brief 2 designers actually came back with the concept of Octopus as well, even though I didn't mention it, as I wanted to be open to ideas by designers.
Here are some shortlisted designs
Shortlist designer 1 for curateit
Shortlist designer 2 for curateit
Shortlist designer 3 for curateit
Shortlist designer 4 for curateit
My favorite shortlisted design for curateit
Hiring an expert designer:
Working with an expert designer was the easiest and fastest thing to do. Giving a decent brief and talking to the designer for 30mins was all I needed to get the logo I want. In Hindsight I would still probably do 99 designs or maybe just reach out and work with the same designer again.
Final debate and feedback
There was a small discussion about whether the logo should have a smiley face or not and also which tenticle design to pick from. We took a quick vote in the community slack channel and went with the most-voted design, which was the one without.
Curateit logo with different tenticles
Final logo
Here are some of the key reasons for picking this design
- Shows Octopus representing many things amongst which the main thing behind multi-faceted and a multi-tasker
- Just the octopus symbol can be used as an app icon
- The final designed octopus head also looks like the first letter ‘C’ from curated, making it relatable and recognisable.
Final Curateit Logo
I want to thank Zahir Badi and Shital Manjariya from UAXE labs for their great work on coming with final logo. I will share further stories from our work together and building up the designs. So stay tuned.
Please share your thoughts did we manage to pick the best logo of all?
