Because Nothing Rhymes with Orange: Stacks Brand Refresh
February 27, 2024
Just as nothing rhymes with orange (just don’t ask Eminem), there is nothing that comes close to Bitcoin. With longevity, consistency, security, and popularity - it remains the unquestioned leader of crypto. Stacks’ mission is to enable it even further, activating the Bitcoin economy by bringing optionality and new use cases to Bitcoiners everywhere. As the leading Bitcoin L2 and thanks to our vibrant global community, Stacks is positioned in the epicenter of Bitcoin’s innovation and cultural resurgence.
Time to fly the Bitcoin flag
Though Stacks is now a Top 25 project by market cap, we know that only a small percentage of the people who will eventually hear about Stacks have already heard about Stacks. That means we have the opportunity to make Stacks and its unique connection to Bitcoin more obvious and easier to understand, particularly for the influx of new users and community that’s begun in 2024.
Further, as you’ve seen with the Nakamojo campaign, with new ecosystem teams, with events, and with other content in general from the past 6+ months, the desire from the community to embrace orange and honor Bitcoin is strong. With Nakamoto and sBTC launches just over the horizon and many expecting Stacks' popularity to grow, it is the perfect opportunity to integrate what has been happening organically into the Stacks brand with a refresh.
Understanding this opportunity, the Brand WG embarked on a project to gather feedback and experiment with the possible ways they might strengthen the Stacks brand. The process involved deep research of brands throughout the crypto ecosystem, interviews, workshops, a lot of meetings (thanks to everyone who gave their time to weight in along the way), and even a few (friendly) arguments. Ultimately though, it all led to a refreshed look and feel fit for the leading Bitcoin L2.
Further, as you’ve seen with the Nakamojo campaign, with new ecosystem teams, with events, and with other content in general from the past 6+ months, the desire from the community to embrace orange and honor Bitcoin is strong. With Nakamoto and sBTC launches just over the horizon and many expecting Stacks' popularity to grow, it is the perfect opportunity to integrate what has been happening organically into the Stacks brand with a refresh.
Understanding this opportunity, the Brand WG embarked on a project to gather feedback and experiment with the possible ways they might strengthen the Stacks brand. The process involved deep research of brands throughout the crypto ecosystem, interviews, workshops, a lot of meetings (thanks to everyone who gave their time to weight in along the way), and even a few (friendly) arguments. Ultimately though, it all led to a refreshed look and feel fit for the leading Bitcoin L2.
Refreshed and ready for all
A brand isn’t that helpful if it’s not easy and readily available to use. This was a key consideration of the Brand WG as they embarked on this refresh. From the beginning, there was a commitment to making it simple and fun to work with. With this release, you’ll find helpful resources intended to support those leveraging the Stacks brand across the ecosystem.
Resources:
Resources:
- Brand Guidelines (including, logos, typeface (and free alternatives), color palettes & more.
- → PNG Logo
- → SVG Logo
- → JPG Logo
- Illustration Pack #1 (more packs will be released!)
- Key messaging docs (this was previously updated)
More than orange: Stacks Refreshed and Reloaded
This refresh is more than a simple coat of orange paint. Many of the things that made the Stacks brand difficult to work with on the scale of community have been addressed in the refresh as well. We hope this will make the brand more simple and enjoyable to work with and lead to consistent implementation across the ecosystem. Here are a few notable changes and new elements we hope you’ll enjoy:
- Layers and stacks. Pictured above, these are core elements that are easy to work with and can be deployed in endless ways. They work at a nearly subconscious level, providing building blocks that already have key messaging baked in.
- Gradients live on but are simplified. With love, many struggled to make those purple gradients look right. The new kit maintains elements of gradients but primarily uses them in illustrations which should make results more consistent.
- New typeface! Sleek and modern meets ‘has character’. A typeface that strikes the balance between accessibility and technicality, we encourage you to purchase it for your own use or work with the free alternatives.
- Expanded Neutral Pallete: Often when featuring other brands in the ecosystem, collaborating in the Bitcoin space, or with visual elements that include Bitcoin itself, it can be good to have more neutral options within your brand kit. We wanted elements that allow us to feature Stacks, but ‘leave room for Bitcoin’ too.
- Secondary elements: You’ll find we put these to good use on the stacks.co pages that are done. Similar to layers and stacks, these are reusable building blocks that can unite elements and properties while imbuing them with subtle messaging points.
Implementation
In addition to the research and design work that went into the refreshed brand, the Brand WG also played a key role in supporting the Stacks Foundation in updating stacks.co, the primary website through which folks of all kinds start learning about Stacks. Today, you’ll find a few key pages have been updated and more will be updated in the coming month until every page has been refreshed. If you spot anything strange, it may be temporary as we work through the site, but don't hesitate to suggest an update or copy change by creating a Github issue.
The rollout will also include updating a number of adjacent properties as outlined in this post as well as key external properties such as CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, exchanges, and so forth.
As resources are available, we'll update our own properties here at the Stacks Foundation as well, but we'll be prioritizing core Stacks properties and the Nakamoto launch. You can read about some other domain-related work we're up to here.
The rollout will also include updating a number of adjacent properties as outlined in this post as well as key external properties such as CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, exchanges, and so forth.
As resources are available, we'll update our own properties here at the Stacks Foundation as well, but we'll be prioritizing core Stacks properties and the Nakamoto launch. You can read about some other domain-related work we're up to here.
The brand must stay lively and fresh, while remaining consistent. To manage this, the Stacks Foundation is committing to releasing quarterly drops of new illustration packs for community-wide usage.
The Nakamoto landing page. Also just released is a single page scroller that’s a one-stop shop for all things Nakamoto. The goal was to have something unique and fun that took the refreshed brand and gave it a twist. It was a great opportunity for the Brand WG to experiment with the new elements of the Stacks brand and simulate the experience others may have while working with it. This way of building related but distinct brands is something we hope to see more of as others work on specific campaigns or projects.
Purple maxi?
Agreed and most do! However, it was clear to the Brand WG via community feedback that the brand and messaging as they were constructed did not benefit from knowing how the Bitcoin ecosystem has evolved over the past several years. This isn’t about the old vs. the new so much as it was about making sure Stacks is clear about where it stands and appeals to the right audience in 2024 and beyond. And for the diehards, you’ll also see the Brand WG was still able to pay homage to the original Stacks brand, maintaining purple in the color palette.
It’s always good to move cautiously with a brand, especially a successful one. The magic with any refresh is to honor and strengthen what works, while extending or improving other areas. With the refreshed brand, we sought to strengthen the connection and deference paid to Bitcoin while also taking the opportunity to make those in adjacent Bitcoin-forward ecosystems feel welcome. Here is a sampling of paraphrased feedback gathered along the way:
Along with input from core contributors, leaders at various entities, and external brand experts, these findings made it clear there were opportunities to strengthen the brand along lines the ecosystem and community was already embracing and ahead of. One of the most noticeable updates of course is orange, a change in line with what various properties like Building on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Unleashed, Bitcoin Builders Association, Zest, Hiro, and many others have been proving the effectiveness of already in the wild.
- “The Stacks brand is cool, but it doesn’t help me see the connection to Bitcoin.”
- “As an Ordinals degen, I expect to see orange or other references to Bitcoin from the projects and protocols in our community.”
- “Knowing that Stacks literally depends on Bitcoin, the connection and brand story could be improved.”
- “I love that Stacks is flying the Bitcoin flag proudly on social, as an OG I will always have a soft spot for the purple, but it’s time to embrace the now.”
Along with input from core contributors, leaders at various entities, and external brand experts, these findings made it clear there were opportunities to strengthen the brand along lines the ecosystem and community was already embracing and ahead of. One of the most noticeable updates of course is orange, a change in line with what various properties like Building on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Unleashed, Bitcoin Builders Association, Zest, Hiro, and many others have been proving the effectiveness of already in the wild.
What's next?
In addition to supporting the rollout work covered above and the efforts to update the brand in the many places it lives online, the Brand WG will also begin to look into the sBTC brand. It will assess the relationship between sBTC and Stacks and likely borrow much of the learning from the Stacks brand exercise to improve the current placeholder. If this kind of thing is of interest to you, join the group!