A Deep Dive into the Redd Rebrand
In what will be a series of on-going articles focused on the design and brand strategy behind Redd, we will be taking an in-depth look at the choices we have made along the way through the creation process. These articles will help further explain our thought process and also be a place to get your feedback on the direction we are looking to take the project.
Why rebrand?
When we started the process of examining what the essence of Reddcoin was, we quickly came to the conclusion it was about sharing. Sharing value, love and support for one another, whether it was through our amazing community, on social media, or the technology itself. Reddcoin is about being that vehicle for social interaction. In our opinion, being able to share ReddCoin to one another over multiple social media channels is the ultimate road to easy adoption and use.
As we looked at our community and the project, it became very evident that there was a visual disconnect with who we were and what was being shown. As a result, the decisions we made during this rebrand was to better realign our messaging and brand with our core values of value, love, empowerment and the vision to create a new movement of support, inclusion and fairness
for all.
A look at “Reddcoin”
The last iteration of the Reddcoin identity suited the project very well over the years as it became an iconic symbol to many. Similar to the Reddcoin.com website, the previous brand was always more focused on the technology rather than being social, and focusing on the end user. Even the name in itself limited peoples perception of the project to being ONLY a cryptocurrency when there was much more behind it.
With those thoughts in mind we chose to change the name to simply calling the project “Redd”. By removing the “coin” portion of the name opened up a variety of options for the interpretation of the project and also the possible products we could launch in the future. While Redd maintains the essence of the original name, it also preserved the RDD identity for the coin, and allowed for interesting brand messaging (which we will talk about later in the article).
Designing the new brand
You know a rebrand is successful when it takes the key elements from the previous design and builds upon it while still being easily recognizable as the same project. Through careful consideration and respect for the heritage of Reddcoin we thought it was absolutely imperative that we kept the circular graphic from the previous identity. Some may ask “why did you remove the red coin going into the circle?” Well we thought it was a bit redundant. The circle of the graphic itself could be seen as being the coin while that multicoloured circle has a lot of deep meaning behind it.
The Redd circle graphic is our universal symbol for the unhindered value of ReddCoin and its underyling meaning of inclusion, love, and support. No single piece of the graphic is the same shape, size, or colour, yet they all come together to form one whole. This is the power of Redd and our community.
When looking at the previous circle graphic, there are quite a lot of smaller shapes and colours. As Redd continues to grow, we anticipate our brand will be used on a large variety of mediums and in infinite sizes. As a result, in order make this graphic even more iconic and easily identifiable at all sizes we thought it was imperative to simplify the shape and improve the composition.
When we reduce the previous circle graphic into smaller sizes, the shapes and colours start to blend together and you loose some of the definition in the shape. To have an effective brand, you should be able to identify that logo in as many situations as possible. Although you can’t fully solve this issue when dealing with a multicoloured logo, its best to try and minimize that loss in identification.
So what we did was redrew the shapes while maintaining a similar composition. You will notice we also moved the red portion to be more directly in the centre, or heart, of the circle graphic naturally drawing your attention there. We then took the previous colours and made them more vibrant and lighter to bring more energy to the logo.
Another key aspect we paid close attention to was the typeface we used for Redd. The previous type used for Reddcoin was very technical and futuristic. Again, we wanted something more inline with our core values so we thought something more welcoming, stable, and friendly would better relate to our target audience. Having those curved edges softens the type and further emphasizes those attributes.
The final product we are left with is something that looks fresh, vibrant, welcoming and more relatable.
Creating the visual style
Once the main identity has been created based on the core values of Redd the next goal is to see how it can work on a variety of different applications. Below are some samples of how the brand can be applied.
Please keep in mind that the below images are conceptual and are currently not in production or in the process of being implemented.
As you can see, there are various cool ways the new Redd brand can be used and we urge our community to play around with the core elements to make some fun stuff for everyone to share. We spent a lot of time putting all the various graphical elements into a helpful webpage you can visit here to download a variety of logos, graphics, images and fonts.
Focusing on the message
Redd is, and has always been, the social currency. It is the tool that brings value to human interaction. The ability to share and tip content creators on your favourite social networks. By bringing real value and power to the people, it will allow them to do amazing things. Especially during these hard times our entire world is in, Redd can be used to tip people in need and help send value to friends and family. This is a perfect application which we believe Redd can help make a difference in the world.
Social media is where all content creators, social activists and humanitarian programs live. It is the place where everyone supports and helps each other and we see Redd playing a large role in ALL of those use cases. So with the idea of inclusion, love, and support in mind we thought the first phase of this new rebrand would be to reconnect with our community and introduce ourselves to the new end users who will ultimately be using our upcoming products.
For those people who know nothing about Redd or cryptocurrencies, we are aiming to make ourselves more known. And that was the driving force behind our new Redd.Love website. If you have browsed the website you will have noticed some of our new messaging focused around what we call the “Redd is…” campaign.
This new campaign is focused specifically on educating people on who we are as a community of Reddheads, the core values we represent and how our technology can literally empower people to create change and bring real value to everyone. Especially in a time with so many challenges ranging from natural disasters and social injustice to major environmental and economic issues globally. Redd can be used to share value and support to one another.
We believe now is the time for Redd. More importantly, it is the time for our fellow Reddheads to be the drivers of change and positivity in this world.
The “Redd is…” campaign is our push to realign our external perception with our core goals. We are using this as an opportunity to tell people who we are and what we are about. Above is a list of various messages which we will be promoting over the next couple of weeks to help better educate people on Redd while we focus our efforts on creating a new version of ReddID.
What’s Next?
Focusing on our global community
Another key area we are proactively directing a lot of effort is to our global community. We have made it a personal goal to try and make Redd as globally recognized and understood as possible. In the coming weeks and months, you will see our Redd.Love website, the ReddPaper, ReddBook and other documentation being translated into a large variety of different languages. Thanks to our awesome community, people are already helping make this a reality as some of the above has already been translated into German, Korean, Hindi, and Turkish with many more to come.
If you would like to contribute to this, feel free to join our Redd Telegram group and talk to one of our Admins to get started.
Putting out more consistent content
Although we are very active on Telegram and other community channels we thought it would valuable to everyone if we started to put out more consistent videos that covers a lot of the questions our community may have. As a result, we have launched a new series on YouTube called ReddBits. These will cover everything from technical updates of the ReddWallet to random questions about the project and the team.
The Redd Mobile App and ReddID
Redd is currently working on a new version of ReddID, which will not only serve as your username but also as your social wallet address. This will allow anyone to receive ReddCoin over a variety of social media networks with ONE simple user ID.
Redd will empower content creators, social causes, and humanitarian programs to do what they love and get rewarded for their efforts — all without a middleman.
Previously, Redd launched a beta version of ReddID, which received huge adoption. With that, the platform soon experienced major scalability issues. Since then Redd has looked to rebuild this feature from the ground up to ensure that this monumental tool would be able to grow and be adopted by billions of people across the globe. What was originally a browser extenstion, is now being reimagined as mobile application. Since the majority of all social media networks are accessed on mobile devices, we thought it would be imperative to direct our focus towards that instead.
In our next design-related deep dive, we will dig further into that to show you how it will look and operate, so stay tuned!
About Redd
Redd is a global social movement that allows anyone, anywhere, the power to tip, support, donate and fund social causes, independent content creators, and humanitarian programs. The platform utilizes ReddCoin (RDD), a reliable and versatile decentralized digital social currency launched in 2014 that allows for seamless payments across borders and networks. All Redd Partners are expected to adhere to the project’s high standards of openness, accountability, and user experience as we strive to be an example of not only the stated ideals of love, support and inclusion, but also integrity, transparency, and honor.
