THE IMPORTANCE OF GRAPHIC AND WEB DESIGN IN THE ICO WORLD

Everyone knows design of a token is make or break. At Coinist, we see many new cryptocurrencies and tokens being submitted to our ICO calendar each day, making token design essential if you plan on standing out. But that doesn’t mean slick code cool or token features; we’re talking about graphic design, marketing, and the physical logo of a cryptocurrency. For a notional, decentralized, electronic cash, this is more important than you’d think.

TOKEN LOGO DESIGN

Bitcoin’s logo is ubiquitous these days; the whole world has seen the orange titled B with two vertical lines, styled after the US $. The power of a logo can’t be overstated. The biggest companies in the world have iconic: Target, McDonalds, Nike, Apple. When you see the logo, you immediately think of the company. Savvy cryptocurrencies have capitalized on this. Bitcoin is the most famous cryptocurrency in the world, but others have a recognizable and effective logo. Litecoin is a cryptocurrency similar in many ways to Bitcoin, with subtle differences. Litecoin’s logo reflects this. It’s styled similarly to Bitcoin, but different enough that they’re unmistakable. This reflects the coin in a nutshell: similar to Bitcoin, but different.

Another example is Bitcoin Cash. Following the infamous Bitcoin split, Bitcoin Cash has largely utilized a logo almost identical to the traditional Bitcoin tilted B. Bitcoin Cash has the same orange tilted B with vertical lines; the B is just tilted left instead of right. This mirrors Bitcoin Cash in a nutshell; it claims to be the improved and true Bitcoin, and it’s certainly very similar.

A last example is Cannabis Coin. Just from the name alone, it’s fairly obvious what the coin is for. But anyone looking at the logo will figure it out immediately; the emblem is a marijuana leaf in a circle, with the number 420 underneath it. The coin does a great job of identifying immediately what it’s all about.

A logo is just one piece of a coin’s public face. Prospective investors of a coin have often never met the team. Because cryptocurrencies are electronic, they can’t be physically held and examined. And because the field is so young, there are relatively few precedents and standards to help evaluate new coins by. Start-ups have some standards and restrictions around funding; cryptocurrencies are still in the wild west. So marketing, branding, and the public face of a cryptocurrency are even more important than for traditional brick-and-mortar businesses.

TOKEN WEBSITE DESIGN

A coin’s website is another aspect of its public face. It’s where prospective investors research. A team’s website hosts their white paper, along with information about the coin, news, and technical updates. Because cryptocurrencies are technical in nature, an impressive (or not) website goes a long way. TenX is an example of a website done right. A slick, cool-looking site that functions perfectly and easily explainsTenX, the website is a great resource for those looking to know more. It easily describes what makes TenX unique and what the team’s idea is. TenX is a card that lets you spend cryptocurrency in day-to-day life as easily as you currently use a credit card. The team has a working prototype (always a great sign) and the website has videos of team members using TenX in their day-to-day lives. Frequently viewed videos show team members buying coffee and ordering pizza with their TenX cards. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video that effectively sums up a cryptocurrency is priceless. TenX’s website is a great example of a team that has put forth a respectable face for investors.

Unfortunately, for every big hit, there’s another coin that’s a failure or outright scam. One way to tell the winners from the losers is their website. For every professional looking website, there are others have that don’t work, are vague, or possess typos and misspellings. All these things and more will give investors pause. OneCoin is a perfect example. One of the most notorious and blatant scams seen in crypto, OneCoin’s website should have scared off anyone. The site frequently didn’t work, and while they claimed to have native English speakers, typos and misspellings were prominent. That makes a coin look illegitimate.

Some coins just make questionable website decisions; Fitcoin’s website has a video of three robots singing the praises of the token. Websites are a prominent face of a coin, but there are still other design and marketing tools in use.

WHITEPAPER DESIGN

A well-designed white paper can also amp up a coin’s profile and sway investors. Civic is a team led by Vinny Lingham, with the goal of using blockchain to verify people’s identities and personal information. It’s a complicated concept, but the team made it easy to grip with a well-written whitepaper.

Civic’s white paper is well-organized, easy to read, and has graphics and emphasized quotations. It’s easy to grasp the core mission. Compare and contrast that with the original Bitcoin whitepaper. While things have obviously worked out for Bitcoin, the white paper penned by Satoshi Nakamoto is brutal for newcomers. A simple black-and-white pdf, the white paper touches on advanced concepts that can sound like a foreign language. Some would argue that if the idea is good enough, how readable the white paper is doesn’t matter. Bitcoin would certainly validate that. But it sure doesn’t hurt. It’s also debatable how newbie-friendly a white paper can really be. After all, a white paper is discussing unprecedented applications of advanced mathematics and cryptology, not to mention complex coding. It can only be so simple.

SOCIAL & WEB PROPERTY DESIGN

As well as a white paper, good teams use organized and presentable Slack groups and Telegram channels to push information. To truly understand a cryptocurrency, a thorough understanding of both technology and economics is essential. Those few true experts out there might not be swayed by a cool logo. And no one should value a coin’s design and marketing more than what it does. But there’s no denying the importance of a good design for an aspiring cryptocurrency. If you have your own token and you’d like additional exposure please consider submitting it to our ICO calendar and directory.