Before I began this design challenge, I needed to make sure that I understood the prompt and what the core problem was.
Was the current Ethereum logo a major problem? Did it need an immediate redesign? Based on what I saw from the community on X and Farcaster, no.
Despite the small sample size, a poll in the "eth marketing cabal" Telegram group filled with full-time designers & brand experts also revealed this sentiment.
Instead, there was consensus agreement on a more pressing issue- the fragmentation of attention across the entire ecosystem. An issue that was expressed and emphasized during the live fireside chat featuring Jill Gunter, David Phelps, and Mark Beylin at ETH Denver 25' (skip to 23:05).
It was also stated clearly in the prompt for the Brand Hack.
I'm all for exploring new ways to re-imagine the Ethereum logo since it gets the community's creative juices going. But for the sake of the contest, I wanted to focus on legitimate pain points so I could come up with potential solutions that have a chance of alleviating them if implemented.
With that established, the main problem was clear:
There are plenty of S+ tier onchain applications & infrastructure used by millions of people all over the globe, but not enough awareness of the fact that they were all built on Ethereum.
Introducing On Eth, a minimalist badge + marketing campaign designed to unify projects & organizations within the Ethereum ecosystem.
This badge was created with three core principles in mind:
To me, this wasnโt an art project. I didnโt want to reinvent the wheel when the wheel wasnโt even a problem to begin with.
Instead, I focused on crafting a practical yet elegant solution that ETH-aligned organizations across the entire ecosystem can easily adopt into their own websites, apps, and social media profiles.
No need to worry about introducing some foreign aesthetic that may or may not match your organization's visual identity. There's no value in adding unnecessary clutter through giant, distracting graphics and flashy animations and janky text like "THIS APPLICATION IS POWERED BY ETHEREUM" when you can instantly communicate that with a simple badge containing 2-3 easy-to-digest symbols.
With all the creative freedom the badge provides, designers & developers can give their "On Eth" badge the appropriate visual weight & styling that is perfectly compatible with their respective products.
If users see the "On Eth" symbols (tilde + diamond/rhombus) consistently across every touch point, this creates a more cohesive and unifying experience overall.. further strengthening the Ethereum brand in the long run.
Most importantly, this badge can function like a button that redirects curious explorers to sites like ethereum.org, which may reduce churn by helping onboard new cohorts of users into the ecosystem while simultaneously highlighting all the builders & researchers working on exciting, cutting-edge projects.
Even better if the site had an official app store that featured all these onchain apps, services, and organizations in real-time.. perhaps an idea for a future design hackathon..
Last but not least, this approach doubles down on the essence of the original Ethereum octahedron icon- an image firmly imprinted onto our collective psyche since its inception nearly a decade ago.
In doing so, it serves as a canvas that invites everyone to join in on this collaborative celebration of what makes Ethereum truly great- its thriving ecosystem filled with world-class developers, creatives, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, & heterodox thinkers.
This iconic symbol also opens up room for a potential chain-wide marketing campaign. For example, there's plenty of design space to come up with creative ways that highlight all the blue-chip NFT projects that catapulted the entire industry into mainstream awareness due to their meteoric rise. From Crypto Punks to Nyan Cat and Opepen. All built on the world computer.
With an emphasis on its contours, this direction represents an invitation to further hone in on the principles that sparked this movement since its early cypherpunk-inspired beginnings (as outlined by Vitalik): freedom of speech, individual sovereignty, permissionless innovation, decentralization, privacy rights, creative expression, cooperation over competition, credible-neutrality, & equality of opportunity over equality of outcome.
Use the templates in the Figma file to create your own "On Eth" badge or poster for your organization, company, personal brand, or NFT project.. then share it on social media (X, Farcaster, etc) immediately. Quote Tweet others that share their "On Eth" designs to create a social domino effect and maximize virality: https://www.figma.com/design/LF1P9f667rIK17Yv97jm7o/ETH-Brand-Hack%3A-On-Eth?node-id=0-1&t=k6LWQsi7ADQUfU7X-1
Follow David and Jill and thank them for spearheading this entire initiative for the Brand Hack. No better way to promote Ethereum than by embodying its ethos through action.
DM me on Farcaster if you have any questions or feedback: farcaster.xyz/ferj
Before I began this design challenge, I needed to make sure that I understood the prompt and what the core problem was.
Was the current Ethereum logo a major problem? Did it need an immediate redesign? Based on what I saw from the community on X and Farcaster, no.
Despite the small sample size, a poll in the "eth marketing cabal" Telegram group filled with full-time designers & brand experts also revealed this sentiment.
Instead, there was consensus agreement on a more pressing issue- the fragmentation of attention across the entire ecosystem. An issue that was expressed and emphasized during the live fireside chat featuring Jill Gunter, David Phelps, and Mark Beylin at ETH Denver 25' (skip to 23:05).
It was also stated clearly in the prompt for the Brand Hack.
I'm all for exploring new ways to re-imagine the Ethereum logo since it gets the community's creative juices going. But for the sake of the contest, I wanted to focus on legitimate pain points so I could come up with potential solutions that have a chance of alleviating them if implemented.
With that established, the main problem was clear:
There are plenty of S+ tier onchain applications & infrastructure used by millions of people all over the globe, but not enough awareness of the fact that they were all built on Ethereum.
Introducing On Eth, a minimalist badge + marketing campaign designed to unify projects & organizations within the Ethereum ecosystem.
This badge was created with three core principles in mind:
To me, this wasnโt an art project. I didnโt want to reinvent the wheel when the wheel wasnโt even a problem to begin with.
Instead, I focused on crafting a practical yet elegant solution that ETH-aligned organizations across the entire ecosystem can easily adopt into their own websites, apps, and social media profiles.
No need to worry about introducing some foreign aesthetic that may or may not match your organization's visual identity. There's no value in adding unnecessary clutter through giant, distracting graphics and flashy animations and janky text like "THIS APPLICATION IS POWERED BY ETHEREUM" when you can instantly communicate that with a simple badge containing 2-3 easy-to-digest symbols.
With all the creative freedom the badge provides, designers & developers can give their "On Eth" badge the appropriate visual weight & styling that is perfectly compatible with their respective products.
If users see the "On Eth" symbols (tilde + diamond/rhombus) consistently across every touch point, this creates a more cohesive and unifying experience overall.. further strengthening the Ethereum brand in the long run.
Most importantly, this badge can function like a button that redirects curious explorers to sites like ethereum.org, which may reduce churn by helping onboard new cohorts of users into the ecosystem while simultaneously highlighting all the builders & researchers working on exciting, cutting-edge projects.
Even better if the site had an official app store that featured all these onchain apps, services, and organizations in real-time.. perhaps an idea for a future design hackathon..
Last but not least, this approach doubles down on the essence of the original Ethereum octahedron icon- an image firmly imprinted onto our collective psyche since its inception nearly a decade ago.
In doing so, it serves as a canvas that invites everyone to join in on this collaborative celebration of what makes Ethereum truly great- its thriving ecosystem filled with world-class developers, creatives, entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, & heterodox thinkers.
This iconic symbol also opens up room for a potential chain-wide marketing campaign. For example, there's plenty of design space to come up with creative ways that highlight all the blue-chip NFT projects that catapulted the entire industry into mainstream awareness due to their meteoric rise. From Crypto Punks to Nyan Cat and Opepen. All built on the world computer.
With an emphasis on its contours, this direction represents an invitation to further hone in on the principles that sparked this movement since its early cypherpunk-inspired beginnings (as outlined by Vitalik): freedom of speech, individual sovereignty, permissionless innovation, decentralization, privacy rights, creative expression, cooperation over competition, credible-neutrality, & equality of opportunity over equality of outcome.
Use the templates in the Figma file to create your own "On Eth" badge or poster for your organization, company, personal brand, or NFT project.. then share it on social media (X, Farcaster, etc) immediately. Quote Tweet others that share their "On Eth" designs to create a social domino effect and maximize virality: https://www.figma.com/design/LF1P9f667rIK17Yv97jm7o/ETH-Brand-Hack%3A-On-Eth?node-id=0-1&t=k6LWQsi7ADQUfU7X-1
Follow David and Jill and thank them for spearheading this entire initiative for the Brand Hack. No better way to promote Ethereum than by embodying its ethos through action.
DM me on Farcaster if you have any questions or feedback: farcaster.xyz/ferj
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