Gridcoin Branding Update #4

Things have been pretty hectic for this humble designer since the voting-in of the new logo, but here's a quick run-down of what I've been working on since you last heard from me:

• Colours!
• Headers & Themes!
• Icons!
• ...Secrets?

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Colours!

The results are in - we're going purple! With the recent "Which colour do you prefer?" poll now having ended, the community has voted for a rather fetching royal purple to represent the 'master' colour for the new Gridcoin logo.

This means that you'll start seeing a transition to new colour schemes with purple themes across the board. For instance, check out @cm-steem 's post on the current efforts to rebrand and streamline the gridcoin.us website.

For my part, with the help of some members of the community (thanks @barton26!) I have begun work on a Git Repo' for all Gridcoin Marketing materials - you can find this here. This will act as an official store for all updated assets in the new colour - chances are if you need something in the future, you'll find it here. I'll be updating this in the coming days to include any new assets I design.

"But what about that cool thing I've seen that's not the right colour or has the old logo!?" I hear you cry - Fear not! Just reply here with an image of the asset you want and I'll be happy to add it to my list of 'assets to migrate' :)

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Headers & Themes!

Ahh, headers - helping your Steemit posts stand out amidst a sea of clip-art and misappropriated artwork! I'm now taking suggestions for the kind of headers and artwork you'd like to see make it into the repo' - this will give our community a central store, so you can pick and choose the perfect image for your post! Here's a few examples I've put together recently:

But what would you like to see? Feel free to post suggestions below for me to transform into shiny new headers - quick and rough mock-ups are welcome!

So... What was that you said about themes?

I have also helped re-skin Gridcoin's public presence on a certain other form of social media. This new theme should look and function a little slicker than the old one, as well as integrating the new logo styling. I'll save you a click - here's a quick screenshot!

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Icons, icons, icons!

Some time has been spent working on the Gridcoin wallet UI with huppdiwupp on Slack recently - namely providing .svg equivalents to existing low-res .png icons. This means that our high dpi brethren can enjoy a nice looking wallet too - hoorah!

However, this also provided the perfect opportunity to update existing icons to new, shiny equivalents. I can't go into full detail, as these icons may still change, but here's a sneak peek at some of the new transaction icons you could start seeing very soon:

Work is ongoing, so do leave your thoughts on ideas for existing icons or on the examples shown above!

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... Secrets?

Have you ever felt like you live a double life? Mild-mannered designer by day - code-cracking, disease-curing, alien-hunting researcher by night?

It occurred to me a few nights ago that we all exist in an odd kind of duality, with the work our computers do in their down time often contrasting our 'regular' day jobs. This idea led me to develop the beginnings of a new advertising campaign for Gridcoin focusing on our 'secret identities'.

What do I mean? Well - let me show you a mock-up:

Secret Identities - Example 1

Although still in its early stages, I see this idea as a creative way to capture the imagination of would-be newcomers to Gridcoin - a way of distilling the essence of 'what it's all about' into a simple banner. I've heard so many stories of what first got people into Gridcoin / BOINC - and more often than not it boils down to "Wait... You mean I can help scientific research while I sleep? Sweet!"

That is, of course, a gross over-generalisation - but I believe that an ad' campaign focusing on this simple idea of our 'dual identities' could bring in a whole generation of newcomers. My proposal is to develop four simple single-word groups that all of our whitelisted projects can be grouped into and build an advert for each - my suggestions are:

• Discover - Discover alien signals, new prime numbers and pulsars
• Decode - Crack ENIGMA codes or help test encryption security
• Explore - Map the universe, track asteroids, explore particle accelerator data and more
• Cure - Contribute to important medical and scientific research - fold proteins, help cure diseases

Clicking one of these adverts out in the wild will link back to a simple landing page that asks the individual "What do you want to do...?"- presenting them with the four themes. Choosing one of these themes will expand into the list of current projects - allowing the user to choose their project (or projects!) and help them adopt their new secret identity (i.e. get started with BOINC and Gridcoin...!)

Secret Identities - Example 2

I look forward to developing this idea further in tandem with the community, so do leave your thoughts on the basic premise and mock-ups shown above!

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Thanks for reading!

As you can see, it's been a busy few weeks! I have plenty left to work on, so shall be back to update you with my progress in the coming weeks. I look forward to reading your feedback and developing new, exciting designs in tandem with this amazing community!

Catch you next time!

-- Josh

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