Hive Snaps:
So @menO is building this app to boost the use of Snaps on Hive, called "Hive Snaps",
(available on iOS and Android).
Honestly, I believe it will revolutionize Snap-posting. It will make it super intuitive and right from your phone - Ideal for anyone who is not very kin of long-form content, but more of a 'small blurb–meme sharing–fast-scroller' type of content creator.
And as an illustrator–available about two meters to his right–I wanted to help @menO with a logo design.
Logo Making Process
With an idea of creating a little app icon, I initially set out to design some sort of an Lettermark logo (sometimes referred to as Monogram) - using the initials H/S inside a honeycomb (for Hive 🐝), and a lightning-bolt ⚡️ to represent speed and the 'snappiness' of it all.
It sounded good to both @menO and I, and so I begun working on some concepts–thinking I had a solid idea that was as-good-as-done'...
But the resulting work-in-progress was underwhelming - the ideas didn't feel like they were fun and social - but rather, kinda corporate and a bit too obvious-looking.
Back to the drawing table...
I started to think about "what logo would exude motivation and positive vibes?"
I needed something that made you go "HELL YEAH!!"
Then I remembered my old design of "Helpie" - a mascot-logo that was made for this very community years ago.
The Helpie project was dismantled a long time ago, but the energy of that fun logo brought a lot of good memories of our community initiative and all the colorful interactions we had with the 'Helpienauts', so I figured, how about a new Mascot Logo?
So, I set out to storm my brain for some ideas... My main source of inspiration and point of reference was Twitter's logo. Not the corporate, lifeless X, but the friendly little blue birdie 🐤 that you could almost hear chirping. I was looking for a character that would vibe with positivity and represent Hive, speed, tech and crypto.
After doodling some turtles, birds, robo-bees and dragons, I started to hone-in on one idea... That's when I came up with "Snapie" – a little robo(tech)–fairy(cryptozoology)–sprite(speed)–springing forward(HELL YEAH! factor) ... out of a hexagon(Hive)
With @menO's nod of approval, I went right into drawing and rendering this character in vector. It took me a few hours of trying different poses, color combinations, and the final result was here:
Things to Notice:
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I deliberately made the character genderless in every way possible
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The triangular chest crest symbolizes Upvotes
- Sharp tessellated wings were inspired by Tinkerbelle but made digital (like fiberoptic)
- The heroic zooming forward pose emphasizes speed, action, and confidence
- The smile has a hint of mischief - because the app is about 'proof of fun' - not work
A funny thing about the little sprite, is that originally I had it facing Left... But it bothered me too much cause I kept seeing the 'Elon Musk's "from the heart" salute'. So I flipped it to face Right - that way the left arm is up... and universe said "yep, that's better" 🌌, and @menO agreed.
In addition to the logo, a social media app is never complete without an avatar placeholder for users that don't have a profile picture, so a little extra credit work here.
