RaidGuild <> xDai Rebranding
Raid Roadmap
This a proposal for how to approach xDai rebranding, created by RaidGuild with the support of STAKEhaus. The overall process can be separated in three distinct phases:
A) A Brand Sprint to identify and define brand goals in a “Brand Sprint Guide”;
B) Create, adjust, and approve a new “Brand Proposal”;
C) Expand the approved brand into a landing site for xdaichain.com.
A) Three-Hour Brand Sprint
The Three-Hour Brand Sprint is a methodology created by Jake Knapp with the objective of condensing the main decisions that need to be made before starting work on a brand into a 3-hour process.
The point of these exercises, it turns out, is to make the abstract idea of “our brand” into something concrete. After doing the exercises, the team gets a common language to describe what their company is about — and all subsequent squishy decisions about visuals, voice, and identity become way easier.
A Brand Sprint should ideally involve a few stakeholders who are involved in the project, with different experiences and backgrounds to maximize for different perspectives. A Brand Sprint must have a person who will assume the role of the Decider. The Decider role will have the authority to make the final decision in each of the exercises in the process (with feedback from everyone involved), and should be either a founder/CEO or a community representative.
You can read a detailed (~20 min) description of the process in the following link: https://library.gv.com/the-three-hour-brand-sprint-3ccabf4b768a
WHAT’S NEEDED
- Decider from xDai (community representative or founder/ceo)
- 2-4 Stakeholders (xdai devs, xdai validators, and/or stakeholders from teams developing for xdai)
- 3 hours of dedicated and uninterrupted time for the sprint, via online conference call.
DELIVERABLES
At the end of the sprint we will have a “Brand Guide”, with six clearly defined parameters:
- Brand Roadmap: the defined vision of where xDai wants to move towards;
- What, How, Why: the object, method and reason behind xDai;
- Main Values: the words that best describe what xDai is all about;
- Main Audiences: the most important people to have in mind before making decisions;
- Brand Personality: A series of “personality” sliders that define how xDai wants to be perceived;
- Competitive Landscape: how xDai compares to its main competitors in the space.
After the sprint, the Brand Guide will be compiled into a document for future reference.
Timeline: 1 day for sprint + 3 days afterwards to compile Brand Guide.
QUOTE
From the RaidGuild side, the Brand Sprint will require a facilitator to guide the sprint process, a raider who will participate by contributing with expert advice, and a designer to compile the final Brand Guide deliverable.
Funding: 200 STAKE
B) Brand Proposal
With a Brand Guide in hand, it will be time for RaidGuild to hunker down and iterate on ideas. This is a creative process — and every Designer might have their own approach to solving it — but it usually involves three stages: Research, Ideation, and Refinement.
Part #1: Research
To start Research designers look into the competitive landscape, current & future design trends, and visual concepts described in the Brand Guide. The results of the design research is presented in the form of moodboards and serve as the guiding light for the Ideation phase.
Timeline: 4 days
Part #2: Ideation
During Ideation we mainly explore symbology, typography, color and artwork to define the main brand “tone of voice”. Different brands might require photography, iconography, illustration, and/or 3D work, and it’s up to the client to decide how much they want to invest into polish and refinement¹. At the end of the ideation phase RaidGuild will deliver at least two “Brand Concepts” that summarize different visual styles for the client to decide on which to follow.
Timeline: 8 days
¹ note that cost of artwork is separate from main design work, since demand varies greatly between different brands/budgets and chosen artists.
Part #3: Refinement
In the final step of the Brand Proposal, we work on refining the brand concept created and approved during the ideation phase. This usually involves creating a final symbol from an underlying grid, creating different versions for applications, defining typography & color scheme, and comissioning the creation of the necessary artwork.
Timeline for main designs: 8 days
Timeline for supporting assets: variable
DELIVERABLES
At the end of the Brand Proposal, we will have high quality files for the artwork and “logo” in their different applications as well as figma files for all brand assets:
- final logo ¹ ²
- permutations of different applications for the logo such as: ¹ ²
– symbol only vs. symbol+type
– vertical, horizontal and/or square applications
– applications over dark vs. light backgrounds
– full color vs monochromatic applications - typography ²
- color palette ²
- artwork assets ² ³
¹ usually delivered in vector (.ai + .svg) formats
² delivered as figma projects
³ varied formats
QUOTE
The Brand Proposal will be led by a designer or art director, a supporting designer to offer expert advice and help with production, and possibly one or more artists to create illustrations, models, iconography and other supporting assets.
Timeline: 20 days in total for parts 1,2,3 must be taken together. artwork may require extra time (1-3 days).
Funding of Brand Proposal: 500 STAKE
Funding of supporting artwork: TBD, based on client preference.
C) Landing Site
In this last step, we’ll use the goals and values defined in the Brand Guide and the brand assets created in the Brand Proposal to design and implement a new landing page for xdaichain.com.
While the docs do a great job at organizing info, we believe xDai would benefit from having a site that explains the main components (eg: what is xdai, what is stake, how to enter) in a simple, ELI5 language. This is further encouraged by new developments such as ability to add networks with 1-click in Metamask and possible widgets for bridging.
DELIVERABLES
- Landing Site for xDai (xdaichain.com):
– A one-page-site to tackle main pain points
– Guided by user-centered design and a creative brief
– Implemented using new brand assets
– Reskin of docs to match new branding
QUOTE
The landing site, being a more communication-focused product, is mainly a storytelling effort. Roles required will be a graphic designer/art director, a UX designer/writer, and a frontend dev.
Timeline: 16 days
Funding: 350 STAKE
TL;DR
- Brand Sprint: 4 days, 200 stake
- Brand Proposal: 20 days, 500 stake
- Landing Site: 16 days, 350 stake
PS: We’re looking for feedback on the above proposal, which was drafted after the snapshot vote showing support for a rebranding and wider visual identity effort (https://snapshot.org/#/xdaistake.eth/proposal/QmcLWUoDzQeFtA7Emzjdt8ReaZHKza7T3sKKWrw3hK2emC).
Feel free to ask any questions and thanks in advance for the feedback 