The Story Behind our Logo
There are three interpretations of the logo — which ones can you come up with before reading this?
A logo is the universal first impression of an app. Simplicity is valued just as much as clarity of meaning. Thereby a lot of factors need to be taken into account: associations, look and feel, form, color schemes, and symbolism. The Character logo has a whole range of interpretations which we feel represent what this app is all about.
C — for Character
First of all, there is this easy connection to the name. After all, there are a lot of logos out there, that are just the first character of the name. Why? It helps with creating a consistent brand that is remembered as a whole. Nobody wants a logo that is remembered while the name is forgotten.
Two people and their overlap
We wanted our logo to represent the nature of the project: warm, refreshingly bold, and loaded with energy. At the same time, red is taboo because it’s connected with love and dating. Thus, we came up with the color scheme of yellow, purple, and the mix of the two: orange. The way we use these colors is two visual representations of two users’ profiles — and their excellent match (most of the space is shared and thus orange). This shows our commitment to outstanding compatibility — and highlights the key feature of the app: understanding, predicting, and visualizing the overlap between compatible people.
“<” — the ultimate sign of preference
In math, the “<” sign is used to express which part of a term is larger, e.g. “1<2”. But in the wider society, it is used to signify preference in more general terms like “cats < dogs”. We chose this universal mathematical symbol because preferences are at the core of all that we do at Character. In an abstract sense, humor, values, personality, and ambitions are all about preferences. Given two options, which one do you pick? Biden or Trump? Given a situation, how do you behave? At a party, do you start conversations or do you wait to be approached? Given some jokes, which one makes you laugh? The slap-stick — or the dark ones?
To understand compatibility, individuality needs to be understood first. And individuality is essentially a list of preferences.
Ultimately, our goal is to push the boundaries of what mankind understands about our preferences. Hence we felt the “<” sign best represents what we stand for at Character.
Thoughts on our logo? Got an alternative interpretation? Send me your thoughts to jan@character-app.com — every email gets a personal reply. No VAs, no bots.
