New Community Logo: What Are Your Thoughts and Feelings About It?

The logo has been developed to signify what this community means to us. What do you think of it? Tell us, we are listening :)

Thank you for your feedback. Sid put a lot of thought into designing this. Before we share what prompted him to do so, we would like to know what it reminds you of. We hope that all the features you are using are working fine for you. Please share your feedback as it helps us develop this community into what it means to you!

Regards

Dear Ms. Cite Contribution, this logo is something different and denotes the partly white-collared job holders. The earlier one was denoting a group of people, but this one is about a specific group.

Change is Constant

"Old will go and new will come; it is the requirement of the period of time. The only constant thing in this world is change, which never changes."

Thank you.

Regards,

I would like to start by expressing my gratitude to you, Mr. Sid (CHR), and all members of "TeamCiteMan" for the ongoing development of our community.

Second, the question about the logo is akin to asking, "What does professionalism mean to us?" Your statement, "This logo has been developed to signify what this community means to us," is quite self-explanatory.

Symbol of Professionalism

This logo is a symbol of professionalism and professional etiquette, a symbol of pride. I believe HR, the noble profession and the soul of this place, deserves this recognition as well.

I am very happy to see and have this new logo, which features two colors. While I believe black cannot be used, it certainly does not solely denote white-collared people.

The earlier logo, "CiteHR" (Cite with an open quotation mark), was meant "to say or to speak continuously" with or about HR (Human Resources), without a closing quotation mark, signifying "to stay connected with Human Resources always." It was also really good and, I guess, was our first logo identity for CiteHR.

Regards,

In a way, S. Bhaskar is right—the new logo indicates white-collar professionals. But this forum seems to be increasingly used by students also—for guidance and mentoring.

Question About Logo Change

Any specific reason(s) why the old/earlier one was discarded or changed? Please don't give the politically correct answer—'it's secret for now' :-)

Regards,
TS

This logo works on various levels and is actually a summation of a lot of ideas, interactions, and observations. I liked our old logo; it was a symbol of open discussion for me. The main reason why I changed the logo was that I wanted it to mean more. So when I went to work on this, I listed out the reasons why we are here and why this is important.

1. We are here to create a community of open discussion.
2. It is a corporate community - predominantly of developing nations.
3. We want people to stand together - so they are stronger and happier.
4. We want to help managers learn, so they become a positive influence on their employees, which would then permeate to others.
5. We respect and hope to stand for inclusion, patience, sharing, and understanding - some rather saintly characteristics - rather difficult to follow through with all the distractions and wants we have around.
6. We want people to respect each other and be proud of their professionalism and honor.

To be able to symbolize all this seemed rather difficult, and we were trying to alter the "open quote" design to include something more. Then while discussing this with the designer, we figured the one thing common and most visible in all these situations is the collar of a formal shirt. It stands as something formal as without the collar, it becomes semi-casual and is seen in a different light. This is a culture that has been in place for ages.

So we created this logo which has two collars placed to form a quote with the colored collars - the color orange stands for good things in most cultures. In our culture, it stands for sanctity, spirituality while in some, it stands for success, vigor, and success. This seemed like an ideal color to form the slightly misaligned quotes. The color similarity also stands for uniformity in adversity when viewed in the context of a larger cause.

The other place where this works well is the ability for us to take this offline - we are going to start with our offline meets soon and will be making this a symbol of the groups that get formed. It would be easy for someone to stick a post-it to their right collar to symbolize and recognize each other when the local meets start happening.

Most importantly, the symbol works across all the corporate departments, including legal. Hope you like it and are able to connect with it as our flag. I welcome your thoughts and ideas - people see different things in a symbol, it would be fun to explore what the members see.

We also included a new image at the footer - that signifies the desk of someone interesting and vibrant. Ready to explore and learn all that lies ahead (which is how it looks if you look at the main page as something in front of the desk).

Regards,
Sid

A well-annotated account of what has gone into the design, Mr. Sid. Until I read your explanation, what I thought is mentioned as under.

Design Elements

- Two collars, the front one superimposing on the second.
- Brown portion of collar – representing field workers.
- White portion of collar – representing executives.
- Perhaps a blue (portion of) collar could have been in the second one at the rear.

Showing two collars shows teamwork. Last but not least, thanks to modern dressing, collars cover both genders!

Regards,
V. Raghunathan, Navi Mumbai

These are my thoughts.

1. Since the old design conveyed a predominant idea as a 'symbol of open discussion,' why not have THREE collars instead of two in a circular fashion? This could continue the same 'feeling/message' in the new design as well as indicate a group instead of a 'dialogue' that only two collars may convey. This would also address the very valid points you mentioned regarding the use of collars—'...something formal as without the collar it becomes semi-casual...' and '...symbol works across all the corporate departments including legal,' the latter one being quite important since HR predominantly involves legal issues often.

2. Coming to the Wording

Is there any specific reason for the letters "HR" being of lower shading than "cite"? I feel the "HR" letters ought to be of a darker shade since the core domain of this forum is HR. Just give this a thought.

3. Another aspect regarding the wording 'citeHR': the two parts [cite & HR] seem to be of a similar color background (blue tinge with a difference of shades). Again, any specific reason(s)? Wouldn't it 'look' more 'catchy' if there was a higher contrasting color combination between 'cite' & 'HR' in 'citeHR' [sort of looks 'bland' now I think]?

4. Regarding the new footer image, would it be better to add a computer too?

5. V. Raghunathan's point about the presence of a Blue Collar is good [& I guess would become very valid in the foreseeable future given the fact that education/qualifications are on the rise in that category also, leading to the distinct possibility that they too would become active participants in citeHR sooner than later]—but instead of leaving it to the imagination of the viewer/reader, why not add it too from a different angle into the logo? These are my thoughts—not sure how many would be practical/realistic/appropriate.

Regards,
TS

Hi Sateesh, Seems I should've started the discussion before finalizing the logo. Lesson learnt. 

1. Three collars might look crowded for a logo, and mostly the interactions are one-on-one, like I am writing to you. Plus, having three would make forming the open quote with the orange section a problem.

2. Our home domain is Cite.Communities. "Cite" is our key phrase, and all the other domains are a subset of the whole. Thus, in all the domains, "Cite" is highlighted, and the subdomain is a lower shade.

3. We have had many alterations of the logo, and this is another idea being explored. The most prominent reason for a logo is recognition, and we wanted to highlight the word "Cite" to create the brand.

4. Yeah, I thought about that, but I wanted a bit of an old-world charm. Plus, the idea is that everything above the desk is the community. So, the desk is an extension of your desk, which already has a computer.

5. I will ask the designer to see if a blue section can be included in the collars.

Thanks for your thoughts.  I will post about such developments as they happen in the future.

Regards, Sid

I like the new logo; it looks 'fresh', effective, and appropriate! I only wish that instead of overlapping identical collars, we could have, with the same stylized quote marks, two differently shaped collars—one slightly different (perhaps narrower or differently shaped)—to represent both genders. To me, though it's not meant to be gender-specific, it looks more on the masculine side. Perhaps, (Cite Contribution) would be a better judge on this.

Warm regards.