When working on the hardfork for the past month, one gets to think a lot about what Steem actually is was. As I already talked about in my "I wont give up" post a couple of days ago I concluded that the core thing about our blockchain is the community. Not the apps, not the transactions, but the interactions. We are a social blockchain after all, and people do matter.
So yes, Hive it is! Some backstories:
While dev team was working hard on making the fork happen on the blockchain frontend, for days may brainstormed a new name for the new home. Ultimately in yet another brainstorm session it was @jarvie who coined the term Hive as an abreviation of @good-karma's suggestion Hivemind. It stuck immediately.
Obviously one thing internet people do is checking whether OK domains are still available. Now with a word so generic as "Hive" this was obviously going to be a problem. And with many people having ideas many more names came by. In the end there was a list of 120 names for the chain after which a couple of voting rounds finally Hive stuck with most of the people, followed by "Clout" and "Carbon" which I personally also found a good one, referring to Graphene software.
Some alternatives like my suggested Hiive was voted out as well as combo words such as HiveNetwork, Hivebase, etcetera. So Hive it was after a final "yes/no" vote where 100% voted for.
Hive, representing a real home for a buzzing community. Structured and ample place for many. You can come and go whenever you like, but it would be great if it is sticky enough for you :)
A hunt for domain was on and after an offer of 500 USD to the NIC of dot-IO-domains - they accepted for the premium "hive.io" domain and 1 day later I was the happy owner of hive.io. Mind you this was the most I have ever paid for a domain in my life. Note that the domain is now only managed by me, but with full intentions once a foundation of some sort is formed to donate the domain to this foundation (maybe I will ask a little fee for handling the registration, if you allow me :D).
Now some words about the logo:
I'm not a designer, I did not study for it. Nor am I a developer, I did not study for it. Yet i have been working officially since 2000's on computers and from 2004 onwards as my sole profession. So I know some of the tricks in Photoshop, Macromedia Flash (ring a bell anyone), Illustrator and the likes.
As soon as we had the name, I started blurping in Illustrator for a bit because thats what I like, making something out of nothing. No responses on my first drawings, and I don't blame anyone, because, look at it:
In the discussions revolving around the logo I suggested to outsource to 99Designs.com yet the idea was to stay under the radar for a little longer. Plus, very true, we have gifted designers in our community! Incoming @derangedvisions who started blurping and came up with a hex logo ideas like the following:
Very nice, multi-facetted like a gem, and that's what it is this little chain of ours. As feedback I asked him, maybe see if it can have less facets, some more spacing in between (for scaling) and maybe some rounder edges. I also saw something (an 'H') in his logo, and, shamelessly cut it up and suggested this one:
We were spending our last days of the family-trip in Bangkok and, wonderful city, but all on my mind was Hive. And also this branding. So in my mind I was kind of drawing something up, based on the feedback I mentioned just above.
When we came back home from a pool swim I fired up Sketch and started fiddling with the Hexagon and my mind and then within 15 minutes a draft was done. I showed it to my girlfriend and she liked it very much. As you might notice from posting all this, I was also pretty happy about it...
So I posted it on the branding workgroup chat and being morning in Asia, most folks in US had just gone to bed, and Europe was still sleeping. So I was anxiously waiting for responses...
Then slowly they came in. First one from Hidden84, a brand designer by profession, and he found it "really good". Humble bow 🙇from me. More people woke up and overall positivity. People asked for different colors and it iterated a bit.
@nateaguilla, maker of many logos and other design elements for the (formerly known as Steem) ecosystem, came by with a professional designer look. He came with suggestions to widen and even out some elements and then I iterated over it some more, until the final result you see now everywhere!
Needless to say, as a non designer, this is my best work ever. And I am damn proud that it is (for now :D) the icon for our home! FYI: download the brand assets on the pretty & neat website @therealwolf https://hive.io/brand
So that is how to logo came to be. Now what does it represent? I'm not certain I should tell you this, because, it's maybe a bit spoiler alert...
The key-visual, "The Hextacular" translates into many different things:
- The Hex - polygon (You know, the foundation of the hive)
- A diapositive 'H'
- You can see a 3D block
- You can see arrows forward indicating continuation, block after block
- And... with some creativity you can even see somewhat of a "fist in the air": resistance, which is the cause of birth of the fork!
- The logo is simplified, easy to scale, recognisable without text because of diapositive H.
Finetuning some colors and here we are...
Home is where the Hive is. Welcome home. Hive on!
Yes! This logo design is opensource. It is not trademarked, yet that might become the case (i don't know) if an official legal entity is formed around Hive which will maintain the domain as well. I will then donate ownership of the Brand IP to this foundation.
Be kind: Please respect the logo in its current form and try to reuse the current official versions whenever you need to add the Hive logo to any of your own projects, presentations and publications. Find the official branding page on https://hive.io/brand, with logo downloads.
I love the logo and the name! Thanks for the back story! Now I love them even more! ❤️
Frame and hang the original sketch.
im such a douchebag nerd... this sketched-logo is computer generated :P
To make things confusing: I used the program Sketch from the get go to get to the original initial version Proof of Concept of Hive logo (see above the red one with texts watermarked, to prevent people using the wrong one).
For this posts' top image, the "sketchified" version of the Hive logo, I used this photoshop template : https://graphicburger.com/sketch-text-effect-psd
It is awesome. I am still looking for raised fist.... will let you know when I see it....
Superb work! IMHO, the only better option would be the inclusion of the BipCot NoGov license, but that's just my attitude toward such IP matters.
I am also working on a small personal project based on the logo. I'll be sharing it if it works and I can post it.
Cool to know the story behind the logo. And great work, btw! Now, let's see it thrive!
Genius! I love the logo and overall branding. I think red is just the perfect color, it speaks of the community being warriors. I am totally impressed with the teamwork you guys did and how you all were able to manage these things in a small amount of time, with pressures in your way. Pretty fucking amazing!!!
Nice professional looking logo. Thanks
I will give you the 'honor' of my first upvote and comment on Hive :-)
It is a fantastic logo, very powerful, exactly what a logo should be!
Now let's click post after making a quick copy of the comment, i experienced forks before :-)
EDIT: OMG, IT WORKS!
yeah, for a fork it's actually surprising how well the launch went.
You did not have to be a designer to make an awesome logo nor a developer to achive such a mileston with @Hiveio
Brilliant work my friend! As designers, honestly, we dont think we could have done it better, and if you let us, we're willing to colaborate with further branding stuffs, for example, a visual identity manual, several logo versions in several formats, backgrounds, icons, illustrations, banners, apparel... Pretty much anything within graphic design that will help HIVE to have a strong graphic identity.
If you think we can help, we're always ready to talk on Discord
@themonkeyzuelans#9087😜Aaaww :)
I hope after this @joythewanderer can slowly come to love the logo lol
This was part of what I covered on my first Hive post,
I guess alot of people expected to see some bees or honeycomb in there.. But oh well, can't please everyone.
Also, what do you think we should refer to ourselves as? I've seen Hivers, Colonists, Hivees🤦♀️, Stingers etc.. Lol
I like the color but still think it's a bit too square, probably we'll see more designs coming. Kudos to you guys for the past weeks!
The first person I thought of when I saw the logo post lol
Its already a start with a blast, thanks for taking part in spreading HIVE
This post has been appreciated and featured in daily quality content rewards. Keep up the good work
I must admit the logo and the name Hive screams WIN all over.
interesting story for sure.
Hey, just one thing: why are new Hive accounts not possible?
To me that should be the priority as lots of marketing exposure is happening in the news.
Also, why the color red?
everyone is slowly rolling out their service. Because the chain updates were literally done 12 hrs ago, everyone is still updating services. Also, as we don't have a central account issuer any longer, it will depend on third party account registrations services, which will be available via https://signup.hive.io
Red: something different.
As time goes on, I expect there will be a couple redesigns to the logo, perhaps for entertainment purpose.
I must admit, I was a bit sceptical about it because I didn't know what a fork means but after reading some posts from @blocktrades that explained it, I calmed down a bit.
I love the new brand! 😍
I like the new logo.... it has a very plain and neat design!
I have to admit that the logo fits well with Hive.
Kudos!
I’m so happy you decided to release this write up. It is nice being able to get a further understanding where the Hive idea and logo came from.
Cheers, Roland!
Roeland, awesome work on the logo plus a fun / collaborative story behind it! The branding is excellent, really - already a mega departure from the chain of old. Excited to have this post be my first vote on HIVE and my first comment too :)
Cool! :D Loved reading the backstory of the current Hive logo :D Man how your brain must've been on fire from thinking about it.
Anyway, super happy to be here, and cheers to you!
The logo is great clean, simplenyet with all the symbolics included.
I'm just not as sure for the red upvotes on the frontend :)
"Home is where the hive is" hahahaha I like it
Thanks for sharing the history
Good job! One thing to consider though: I don't think the word "blog" is necessary. I recommend HIVE all by itself. In my opinion, the word blog just below diminishes the power behind the name. Logo + HIVE. My 2 cents.
Cheers all. Fantastic job. This one's got a future!
I so agree on that one! It reminds me of the renaming of "The Facebook" to "Facebook", power in simplicity!
Please note the blockchain is called "Hive". See https://hive.io
The hive.blog website is just one of the many interfaces to the blockchain. (im currently typing this on https://peakd.com (another interface).
To indicate the difference between the blockchain and the Hive Blog interface I put "blog" behind it.
cc @bubke
Good point.
Hey @roelandp,
thank you very much for all your effort and creativity you lavished on HIVE.
However, have you read this article appeared on CoinDesk?
Is it pure propaganda or a serious matter?
Keep us updated on any implications.
A warm hug!
please consider reviewing your witness votes
I love the logo and I am honored to have helped collaborate on this with everyone. We made history today with the launch of Hive.
Rebranding from Steem to Hive ready @roelandp!
But I am having trouble at PEAKD to change the profile picture, using hivesigner.
Should I wait until Hive BLOG is available for profile picture uploads?
i think everybody is literally converting all apps as we speak. The fork is only 7 hours old and already many apps are available... Nice new avatar!
Thank you @roelandp! I understand the emergency situation. I wrote my first Hive Blog Post using PEAKD but then published using hive.blog. I think it could be some glitch with hivesigner. Maybe hive.blog will let me upload a new profile pict later, I don't want to have the steem shirt picture as profile anymore.
Welcome to Hive @roalandp!
Hello King of the Hive...... I am finally here!!
I am not sure how easy it will be for others... It took me a little bit to figure out how to get on here.....
I might have to go back to the other unspoken chain to announce that it is on
HIVE.BLOG for now and not hive.io
Anyhow I am so Effen Super Excited about this.....
Now make that Whale blow with Hive coins PLEASE!!!!!!!!!! @roelandp
Honestly, I'm rather impressed on how things look. I'm hoping the UI though makes some positive changes to smoothen out the posting and community interaction features.
We made this together😊
I’m experiencing a weird bug. With Hive, I can upvote and comment but I can’t do a full post. I get this error message:
Missing Posting Authority preparedwombat
Even though I’m logged in with my posting key.
can you try on another interface to the blockchain, for example on https://peakd.com ?
Tried that (well, beta.peakd.com), same issue.
Next, I’m going to try a different browser.
Nope. Didn’t work from Chrome either.
The bug seems to be operating system related. I have not been able to do a top level post from iOS devices, but I did just make a test post successfully from a computer running Windows.
Curiouser and curiouser:
https://hive.blog/test/@preparedwombat/test-do-not-vote
Congratulations :) I wish you success.
Great story. Many books begin with such stories ... Maybe ...
2 words: creative genius.
I absolutely agree, this is a very professional and strong looking logo. Hope the chain will be the same :)
We will be in history books! Oh, no, history books will be with us because we're here forever!
I need to work on my creative skills. Well done design. The future is ours!
Woow A graphic designer CEO. Great Everybody can make their jobs by their own. =P I must find a new job to myself.
I will learn to build my own blockchain and fork out with my stake. =P
Liked the design and branding. Goodluck with Hive.
(Please change downvote color.) light Gray my advice
Also There is written SP in popup window when you click on account name.
@roelandp Thank you for what you've done for the community with sourcing the domain, logo, and much, much, more! I think we can build something great here on this chain, that's free from censorship and centralization :)
Love the new branding. Sharp and powerful. Though the red, I still need to get used to. It's like, did I type something wrong? how come there's still an error? Oh, wait, it's HIVE! :D
Thank you for your effort. 500$ for a domain without prebranding is a number. But i think it will be worth in the next years :)
Now we are free from Steemit and can use SPS funds for Stuff like this ( with way better funding as in the past :)
Macromedia flash and action scripting. I still really love using flash and it helped me a lot to understand keyframes in premiere. I do freelance design logos at times as well and i was sure wondering who was behind it! I really immediately warmed up to the logo with the H ! Some elements would suit for a logo of some futuristic maglev like et3 thanks to the arrow. Going forward! The choice of red totally gives the feeling of uprise, taking charge(with the name, dont mess with us, we are many) its also the color of my shinobi character Rane, who's avatar here is yellow(yang aka zhāng). The hex polygon is a nice idea, because it gives that 3d 'h' Its a very powerful logo. The right logo for an apex in cryptocurrency and decentralized economic history. Much respect!
cool stuff
Hi @roelandp
I really like this logo. It's definitely cool.
Love the logo, and once I'd found an entry point and the correct log-in key to use (yes, I'm really old and untechy) entering Hive was so natural and easy. Thanks to you, and all, for everything.
I am very excited about this chain and hope it can reach its full potential. Love the logo as well :-)