Grin Icon Branding

Currently, there is a icon on grin.mw and that many exchanges are using,

i’d like to propose we use this one instead.

I think the one which the joker/amazon.com logo mix looks kind of weird.

grin_icon

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Your version removes the curl on the right of the mouth that makes it “G” shaped. With the eyes already forming letters, it’s only natural that the mouth resembles one too.

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Without the M, or border, connecting to the smile, the G shape is kind of hard to notice.

I would have never known if you didn’t just point it out.

Without the G being more apparent, it resembles so closely with joker’s face and the amazon.com logo that shows the a to z.

I think this one is better because if Grin means to smile, it’s a simple smiley with M and W. It looks more visually appealing and audience neutral in my opinion. Especially for those who don’t notice the G which is in the current icon.

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I wasn’t aware the mouth was a G.

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I made this one

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I don’t know why but I like this one

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I don’t see the G at all, and I think many would agree.

The image that MF_Grin made was decent too, goes better with the ツ symbol that is being used often for the currency.

My concern with the current is that the G is not apparent, and it kind of looks like a evil type of smile. From a branding and marketing perspective, that may set bad impressions to new users about the intentions of this privacy related project.

That’s why I think it would be better to change it the logo to a neutral smiley.

Btw, the current logo stems from this Grin Logo thread:

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Yeah but don’t think he meant that. I think he’s asking for a another grin symbol.

I really don’t mind. It’ll work with what we got

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Here’s a logo that uses the Japanese character that the community has been using to symbolize grin: ツ

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or maybe something using the Uppercase G like

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To my mind, the first of these is a great solution as it retains positive/desirable aspects of the existing logo but also incorporates the currency symbol (which is part of an actual character set) is a lot friendlier/benevolent, could easily be drawn freehand, and works well in monochrome. IMO it’s perfect.

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Thanks for bumping this, I think it’s a major problem Grin is facing and needs to remove the joker looking logo

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the current grin logo is fantastic and everyone loves it. it attracts exactly the right type of crowd, and is unassuming and a funny mask to hide the serious project behind. It is a perfect bluff.

you don’t want your super private anonymous currency to stand out any more than necessary, it’s just for the people who have a reason to know about it. not for billboards and mcdonalds restaurants. it is specifically for the underground, at least until all the kinks have been worked out.

It is a minimal implementation, essentially just a proof of concept, not meant for wide consumption, and the logo reflects that playful, experimental attitude. It is not a visa or a paypal or an amazon, it is more like a crayola crayon rough draft and only people who are interested in getting their hands dirty drawing would even be interested.

grin doesn’t even need a logo. having even the website we do was a bit of a concession for the people who wanted a shiny homepage, honestly even that is not really appropriate for the type of work that is currently being done on grin. grin needs many more years of being completely unknown and almost entirely unused just like bitcoin had in order to be successful, try to see how that could make sense. actively trying to make grin more popular sooner is extremely counterproductive. We do not want grin to be popular or mainstream. We do not want grin to be popular or mainstream or used very much. We do not want grin to be popular or mainstream or used very much until it is more mature.

bitcoin is not ready for the mainstream, maybe in ten more years. very foolish to think that grin needs to polish up and look professional so it can go mainstream when it’s older brother bitcoin is still decades away from even doing it. trying to push grin to be more than it is is silly and will damage grin and hurt the chances the world will someday have a quality digital cash. If you believe in digital cash you need to be patient. If you want to get rich quick, you need to get out. You missed the bitcoin boat and you will never, ever find an opportunity like it again in a million years. Give up, you are being selfish and trying to bring others down with you. Others who might be extremely sensitive and need digital cash to live. Don’t be selfish.

disclosure ironically blurred: I designed the logo and I could not be more proud to have it used on a such a cool project. grin is underground until it organically is not, lets not try to make it grow up faster than it needs to.

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I agree that the Grin logo is perfect for an underground cyperpunk movement. At some point the project might grow out of that, but you’re right in saying that we’re not there yet, probably not even close.

So maybe let’s revisit the branding debate after Grin starts to get in the minds of the masses like Bitcoin has. BTC is not yet used by the mainstream, but the mainstream knows what it is, and when they were introduced to it the brand looked right for them, it’s positioned (from a brand perspective) for mass adoption, Grin is not.

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Also props on designing the logo, it is iconic, and if a more mainstream logo were to get adopted for Grin down the road this logo would surely live on and be the one that the cool kids would wear…

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Everyone loves it besides me and the people posting alternatives in this thread.

I come from a marketing and branding background. I’ve been doing it for 8 years now. The current Grin logo is really bad, considering you want to appeal to larger audiences.

The marketing for grin is shit. It’s a community effort, and someone in the community is calling it out.

I’ll elaborate my reasoning a bit.

Grin has the opportunity to become the de-facto fork for Mimblewimble architecture.

The branding for it should be neutral and professional. I understand that the intention behind the current logo was to have a G, resembling Grin, but that G is not noticeable at all to anyone. In fact, most people wouldn’t even tell.

Grin has this opportunity to become a scalable blockchain architecture, but the current logo for it is just crap.

I’m sure Grin will still be very successful due to all of the other aspects, we have world class technology, but I am strictly speaking from a marketing, branding, logo, graphic design perspective here.

A logo with a crazy looking smiley face is a terrible idea. And that’s what Grin has now.

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I actually like the current logo, I just think it limits Grin’s potential. The name Grin and any kind of smily face is going to make the brand stand apart from any other blockchain project. The ツ symbol, over time could catch on and be a good icon for the brand. I don’t know if it needs to be switched now but eventually it really should be.

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The logo is strictly to scare away noobs and spooks. It’s camoflage. The goal is NOT mass adoption, (IMO) we do NOT want to appeal to a larger audience.

Grin is for exiles, whistleblowers, and time travelers. Grin is for wizards, it is not ready for muggles. Grin is NOT for buying coffee or investing. Grin is a hot sandbox for cool math, a test net that you happen to be able to cash out from.

Wanting it to be otherwise is putting the cart before the horse and begging for a bad time. Even if all the people who want to get rich quick and want polished perfect venture capital everything got their way, the inflation is specifically built to make it next to impossible to get rich. You are barking up the wrong tree.

Grin is best IMO if nobody talks about it and it quietly and very slowly develops more and more impressive infrastructure and its only used by a handful of cypherpunks who send thousands of grin at a time to one another to represent just a few dollars. And then when some horror arrives that requires digital cash (or death) grin will be ready and waiting and good to go for the ones who need it and aren’t locked up or murdered by the gestapo.

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