Hip hip hooray, Astro’s 5 today!
On April 28, 2014, something extraordinary happened. Our Trailhead friend, Astro, was born! To celebrate Astro’s birthday, let’s discover how they first landed on the scene and some highlights from the magical adventures they’ve had so far.
T o keep things fresh, we’ve updated this, one of our most popular posts. See the latest version here.
I’m Domenique, Senior Creative Director for Trailhead, also known as Astro’s mom.
I joined Salesforce Developer Relations in July 2012. Back then, we were building a community filled with people with an interest in getting under the hood of a “rad spaceship” of CRM technology.
When it came time to celebrate Developer Week in 2014, I decided that we needed an astronaut. A character to celebrate the interstellar connection of developer innovation and the epic new Salesforce1 (now Salesforce Mobile).
A friend we could explore galaxies with and who would make us brave enough to try something totally new. Astro got their name a couple of weeks after their arrival, and later received their last name, Nomical, via Samantha Ready (Director, Product Management).
We designed a T-shirt. At the time, this was all we thought it would ever be. One design. Done.
But in the back of our minds, we thought there could be much more to our new friend. That they could be the start of something much bigger. Then, in the late summer of 2014, along came Trailhead.
Trailhead is an online learning platform with free, self-paced, bite-sized content that gives everyone the tools to learn the technologies and skills necessary to land a great job in today’s workforce, regardless of where you live and what your background may be.
The launch of Trailhead was the literal turning point for the creation of Astro’s story.
They evolved into the cuddly furball we know and love today — empowering all of us to be anything we want to be.
A celebration of trailblazing, gamification, and learning in a fun way. Bringing people together in our amazing Trailblazer Community.
5 Epic Adventures of Astro
Astro has evolved to become a hard-working mascot for a company with a #Trailheart as big as our #SalesforceOhana. Here, we celebrate five of their paw-some journeys.
1. Trailhead Astro (November 2014)
The first friend of the forest, now your guide to blazing trails with Salesforce. In 2015, Astro came to Dreamforce for the first time as a representative of community and inclusion.
They helped to bring the community together by empowering all Trailblazers to achieve their dreams.
They set off for epic adventures with all their friends. Together, they are Salesforcelandians, and they’re here to help you learn, connect, have fun, and give back.
You can meet the whole family here.
2. Lightning Astro (February 2015)
At Dreamforce 2015, co-founder Parker Harris became #Lightning Man for Marc Benioff’s opening keynote to celebrate the launch of Salesforce Lightning.
Astro wanted to be like Parker, so they got their own Lightning Suit.
And for Developer Week in that same year, Astro got behind the wheel of a race car to go Lightning fast!
3. Yeti Astro (December 2015)
There are three Salesforce releases per year: Spring, Summer, and Winter. Each release comes with a fun Salesforce character creation.
Yeti Astro originally appeared in one of our first winter-themed badge campaigns for Trailhead.
Since then, our winter friend has had many more snow-filled adventures and has also become the subject of some very special holiday sweaters within the product UX team.
With the love of Astro growing, Codey the bear and Cloudy the goat arrived in January 2016.
4. Lionheart Astro (July 2016)
Chief Philanthropy Officer, Ebony (Frelix) Beckwith, wanted Astro to support salesforce.org in a unique way. We were immediately inspired by the idea of a lion to represent being brave and enjoying helping others, with a true heart.
The use of our characters started to expand significantly throughout Salesforce at this time. And as the love for Astro, Codey, and Cloudy grew, people became more curious about their stories. Once we had the lion, a certain genius was not far behind…
5. Pride Astro (September 2016)
The creation of one of our most popular versions of Astro happened purely by serendipity.
We were discussing the idea of creating Astro as a unicorn for Chris Duarte (VP, Trailhead Content), who loves these mystical creatures, but thought they could be so much more than a one-off design.
A couple of days later, Ohana Group Outforce co-founder, Gino Ramos, called and BOOM! Everything came together.
Pride Astro was created to celebrate and support our LGBTQIA friends and allies around the world.
Stay tuned as we have some
very special plans in the works for Pride Astro to give back
and support Global Pride in 2019.
What will our little friend get up to next? Anything is possible. Astro means so much to Salesforce. And hopefully, to you too.
Let’s celebrate together
Now it’s time to celebrate your passions and have your own adventure. Invent your unique Astro here and share it on social via #ColorMeAstro.
But wait, there’s MOAR…
Want to know a little secret? In celebration of Astro’s 5th birthday, join us at TrailheaDX and you can take home our original hero… Astronaut.
But you’ll need to be quick as they will be flying out the door (literally with those fire boots!).
It gives me great pleasure to be Astro’s mom and share their spirit with you.
Happy birthday, dear Astro!
