Stacks and sBTC Brand WG: Intro Thread

[cuevasm]

Objective

Determine the potential benefit of a Stacks brand refresh that brings it into closer proximity with Bitcoin. Establish a working brand for sBTC.

Scope

Create user personas, explore tradeoffs and opportunities as well as document any shortcomings of the present brand, propose gains and upside of potential brand updates, propose visual brand adjustments, produce new assets as needed, update properties accordingly depending on results of brand exploration exercise, produce a web property for sBTC.

And, establish a working placeholder brand for sBTC in the short term (Completed by sBTC WG/Mitchell on 4/10)

Lead

Eugenia Digon

Support/Advisors

Jeff Domke
Claire Topalian
Elena Giralt
Gina Abrams
Mitchell Cuevas
Andre Serrano
Muneeb Ali

How do I stay updated or get involved?

Reach out to eugenia@hiro.so, experienced brand and design experts are very welcome!

Links

Project Overview with Rough Timeline and Overall Rationale

[eugeniadigon]

Update #1 from Stacks Brand Working Group

Started on 4/12, we have had 3 meetings so far.

• Meeting (1): Initial conversation to gather ideas, perceptions, and opinions.
• Meeting (2): Brand diagnosis discussion. Identifying the shortcomings and opportunities of the brand.
• Meeting (3): Gathered conclusions from the previous conversations. View the summary deck.

Today's meeting (4), which will be focused on weighing the pros and cons of the different proposed approaches, and defining the next steps and actionable items.
We'll also have a high-level discussion regarding de sBTC brand.

I'll continue posting updates at least every 2-3 meetings, or depending on progress and development.

[eugeniadigon]

Update #2

• In the previous Meeting (4), we started discussing the two proposed approaches. There was a misunderstanding of what each approach would comprise, so before seeking consensus, we'll make sure in the following meeting that every participant understands what's being discussed.

• On today's Meeting (5), due to low attendance, we had high-level discussions on Bitcoin Builders Conference thoughts and experiences, and updates from the sBTC research group, whose work will inform the work of the sBTC brand working group.

All meetings' notes and next meeting planning can be found here: https://www.notion.so/hiropbc/Stacks-Branding-WG-3aea438ca52d439dacd1949efb0af1ba

[igorsyl]

Hi @eugeniadigon, please add me to the meetings for visibility: igor at trustmachines dot co. Thank you.

[orlandobtc]

Hi @eugeniadigon, can you please add me to the meetings as well: orlando@ocadvisory.co. Thank you!

[eugeniadigon]

Update #3

In the past two meetings (6) and (7), the central topic of discussion was whether Stacks brand could benefit from a color change, and if that alone would solve the challenges the brand is facing today. After sharing different points of view, it became clear that a holistic approach should be taken in order to execute a meaningful brand update that serves and sets the Stacks brand for success in the upcoming months and years. Color is, albeit an important one, just an element of a brand identity, and in the research and work this group is doing, many aspects should be taken into account: target audience, messaging and positioning, and lastly, brand identity (which is informed by the former).

The next meeting will be focused on presentations of these 3-4 pillars that are crucial to keep building the brand. Once this landscape is clearer, we'll move on to planning for the rest of the month and for the rest of the quarter (planning for both producing the brand update work and its activation).

All meetings' notes and next meeting planning can be found here: https://www.notion.so/hiropbc/Stacks-Branding-WG-3aea438ca52d439dacd1949efb0af1ba

[eugeniadigon]

Update #4

We have produced a detailed brief and scope for this project, and the document is ready to send to designers and small studios we're reaching out to to help with the execution of the brand update. Currently, I'm holding meetings with different designers and gathering proposals so we can make a decision on external help, and officially kick-off the project.

[Hero-Gamer]

Is "Stacks" rebrand being considered or just "sBTC"?
What's the process to get community wide consensus if "Stacks" were to rebrand, and what's the suggested proposal process to the community on the rebrand recommendation?

[igorsyl]

I hope it gets rebranded soon.

[eugeniadigon]

To be clear, this is not a rebrand for Stacks. The Stacks brand at its core will remain the same (logo, color, currency), but visual improvements will be incorporated with a brand update. All this process is transparent and updates will be posted here as regularly as we have them. Community members are welcome to share their feedback or participate in the working group.

Once this project is done, this group will move on to discuss the possibilities and needs of the sBTC brand.

[Hero-Gamer]

Thanks for clarifying. Look forwards to seeing the results 🚀

[eugeniadigon]

Update #5

A week ago, we had our meeting 10, where I gave a summary of the different proposals and SoW I received from the outsourced designers I reached out to for the help we're going to need on this project.

Yesterday we had our meeting 11. Prior to this, in an async manner, we clarified the reasoning behind the scope, deadline, and brand priorities of this project:
- Deadline (end of August): As there will be lots of ecosystem events happening in September, it’d be good to have the brand update by then.
- Given this deadline, the update will be progressive, hence the limited scope (brand guidelines + homepage update). After the completion of this first stage, we’ll have the possibility to keep working on updating the rest of the assets/brand touchpoints
- Brand priorities: sBTC placeholder seems to be sufficient for now, as September will be a dev-launch, and the actual launch will be in December. It makes sense to prioritize now the Stacks brand (main brand), to then move on to work on sBTC brand (sub or side-brand).

After clarifying these topics and deliberating with the group, we decided to work with Sebastian Graz, an experienced freelance designer with a great eye for simple yet refined brand identities.

We're currently reviewing contract matters, and the work will hopefully start next week.

For more in-depth updates or information, please refer to the Notion page.

[eugeniadigon]

Update #6

Work is ongoing and we are making progress on the project. We're currently in the exploration phase, analyzing different possible directions for the brand update. Will give a bigger update once we have the new direction decided, hopefully in a week or so.

As always, for any questions, concerns, or comments, please reply to this thread or email eugenia@hiro.so

Thanks

[friedger]

Are there any guidelines, how to use/communicate sBTC DR this month?

When I mentioned sBTC DR is custodial on testnet, the first reaction was "I thought sbtc is trustless"

[cuevasm]

We probably don't need branding guidelines in order to communicate accurately about developer releases so this is probably a discussion for the group working on the testnet program,, you can get in touch with Jenny from the Foundation on it.

A DR is obviously not the same as a production release, so both the DR being custodial and sBTC being trustless can and are both true.

As for communications/how to use the DR, I would use the developer docs from @kenrogers here as the only priority audience for the developer release is developers. They cover every aspect of the DR in-depth and will be updated as it evolves.

[kenrogers]

Yeah no specific guidelines outside of the technical specs outlined in the docs, simple response here is something like: "final version of sBTC is trustless, but we are going through multiple iterations to make sure it's built right, first version is the developer release, which is primarily for developers to experiment with the interface and iron out friction in developer experience before the full trustless version is implemented"

[eugeniadigon]

Update for the Stacks brand refresh:

• We've chosen a direction for the brand update, a direction that feels closer to Bitcoin than the current brand, which was one of the goals of this workstream. I'm attaching an on-purposedly low-res preview. I will share the final assets when these are ready to start being used.

• I will now make visual adjustments/details refinements, and once these are ready, I'll start building the assets for implementation and community use, and guidelines. Stacks Foundation will decide when to make these changes live and reflected in the Stacks properties.

[eugeniadigon]

👋 New update here from the brand working group.

We have made one last final round of revisions and have locked in the new direction:

Now we're moving on creating the assets for implementation. This update will include:

• Revamped homepage and key website pages
• Brand guidelines
• Social media kit (cover, profile pic, card templates)
• Slide deck template

We estimate the assets will be ready by the end of the month, and implementation will begin as assets are ready and approved. The updated brand will be reflected in all channels sometime next month, or before the end of the year, just in time for Nakamoto.

[cuevasm]

Just a quick update here that we have started reviewing content on stacks.co to upgrade with the new brand and are taking the opportunity to rethink and refresh everything to ensure it makes the most sense. We're vetting website designers to support and as soon as we have the pages scoped out we'll start knocking them out one by one. Our working goal is to have the site and the brand kit ready for the community in the new year, waiting for an opportune time to release the refreshed brand with some big ecosystem news.

Also, I have done a light refresh of the narrative resource released this summer: https://stx.is/narrative

At some point, we should integrate these narrative resources into the main docs @kenrogers :)

[Hero-Gamer]

Hi decentralized branding team,
Where can we get high quality Stacks related graphics and material?
One of our DeGrants grantees Anibal is working with the team on the audiovisual production.
Any useful up-to-date brand assets will be super helpful.
Tysm.

[cuevasm]

Thanks @Hero-Gamer! Anything new won't be available for some time so for now, the available material is still the current brand and you can find it on stacks.co and in the narrative guidance doc we shared via my last update. And, direct link: https://stx.is/narrative (Updated 11.29)

All that said, two major thoughts/recommendations:

1. The WG plans to provide guidance more than it will be able to provide assets. Think frameworks, examples, and a limited run of illustrations and assets vs. a situation where this WG is creating material for others in a major way. We celebrate the diversity in how people will leverage the brand and generally want to encourage original work building upon that wherever possible.
2. If helpful, we've been reviewing the brand with all the community members who have been joining the calls, so if Anibal would like to join and take a peek so that her project can benefit from the knowledge of how the refresh is looking, she's more than welcome (as is everyone!)

[cuevasm]

Exciting progress! With a good handle on a majority of the brand framework, we're now working with designers to bring the refresh to life in different contexts (website, social media, etc.) so we can get that much closer to a rollout. This is your reminder to join us and check it out: https://events.stacks.co/event/kx19726096

[cuevasm]

Hey everyone, we've been heads down executing, but excited to share a few updates here to close the loop in case you missed the recent public posts.

• The Stacks brand refresh has been released, read all about it here: https://stacks.org/brand-refresh. That post covers all the next steps and work we're taking on to bring the refresh to key properties throughout the ecosystem and breaks down the refresh itself.
• We released several updated pages on stacks.co with the rest coming over time: https://www.stacks.co/
• We released a fun remix version of the brand to do a special edition Nakamoto landing page that people are loving! https://nakamoto.run - it's a one-stop shop for all things Nakamoto upgrade.

Resources:

• Brand Guidelines (including, logos, typeface (and free alternatives), color palettes & more.
• Illustration Pack #1 (more packs will be released!)
• Key messaging docs (this was previously updated)

[cuevasm]

No major updates, the team continues to work on updating key properties and other pages/domain clean-ups. You will notice a number of key properties and exchanges sporting the updated orange version of the logo.