今天对Toptal来说是激动人心的一天:我们宣布了一个新的标志，以完成我们的新品牌!

概述

As we enter our 10th year, headstrong into 2020, 成为一家在财务和技术上更有弹性的公司, it’s time for a new brand and logo to reflect that.

With any brand and logo redesign, 一个人必须考虑到今天存在的品牌的许多方面，并努力在概念和视觉上提升这些方面.

与许多品牌一样，Toptal在今天也有许多强烈的内涵: 信任、品质、诚信、卓越、顶尖人才、专一.

我们的品牌也有四个明显的关键特征，我们称之为BASE，我们必须坚持: Bold, Authentic, Serious, and Energetic.

此外，Toptal的标志不仅是原创的，而且很有意义. The emblem, which represents a combination of two T’s (for top tal), is used everywhere throughout our site, t恤, 背景, 图片, 市场营销, 一直是Toptal品牌真正意义上的象征.

Given all of these high-level factors, 我们需要确保我们的品牌和标志的下一步发展强调所有这些元素，并把它们带到最前沿, with elegance and simplicity.

问题

虽然我们以前的标志已经使用了五年多了, 它有一些缺陷，在它的创作过程中很难消除. Those flaws are listed below:

• The emblem did not match the style of the font. 徽章是锋利的和锯齿状的，而字体有光滑的边缘和, 简单地说, a different feel to it.
• 人们总是问“Toptal”是什么意思(或者有时问“什么是Toptal”)?”). “top”和“tal”之间没有视觉上的区别，这暗示了它们代表两个独立的单词, nor assisted in explaining this fact to someone.
• The two lowercase t’s gave a less serious feel to the logo, which was in contrast with our BASE standards.
• 会徽本身有一个轻微但有意义的视觉差异.
• 我们的标志是“toptal”，而我们总是告诉大家把它拼成“toptal”(有时。, people would even call it “TopTal”).
• 我们的新调色板只是简单地放在我们以前的标志之上，没有考虑颜色和标志如何一起工作.

目标明确，问题与当前的标志定义, it was time to get to work on creating a new, 优秀的标志.

解决方案

The solution took two long years to find. We first engaged with external resources, only to find that everything created was not to our standards. We went through many brand designs and concepts, though at the end of the day, it was a major setback.

We were told that everything we desired was too much. Too much attention to detail, too many requirements, too many specific asks, and too high of quality standards. To me, this was absurd. We fired the agency and used absolutely none of their work.

After pausing our redesign for a couple of months, 然后我们在内部寻找一些能够实现我们需要实现的目标并解决问题的概念, with elegance and simplicity.

This was more difficult than it seemed. 许多迭代根本没有实现将会徽和文字标记紧密结合在一起的目标. 要么徽标非常优雅，偏离文字标记太远, or the wordmark was too elegant in comparison to the emblem. 这是一个永无止境的平衡行为，试图让两者结合在一起.

After nearly a year of working together, 小组最终想出了一个完整的标志，我个人觉得非常棒。

对我们来说，它简单、优雅，在视觉吸引力方面表现得近乎客观. It was absent, 然而, of a very crucial element: the emblem. 虽然这一切都在一起工作，但它似乎错过了会徽的历史和原创性. 问题是, 然而, that every time we introduced the emblem, it clearly violated the vibe of the logo as a whole.

在向各个执行团队成员展示了新标志之后, 这证实了他们的观点与我最初的印象是一致的:会徽在哪里?

We needed a logo that had the emblem. However, the wordmark from the chosen logo was perfect. 我们需要找出一种方法，使徽章与选定的文字标记相匹配.

我要求小组把徽章和文字标记放在一起，并尝试各种组合来平滑徽章的边缘, 因为文字标志有光滑的元素，而会徽没有. After months of combinations, there was no success.

最终，在12月初，设计团队呈现了以下内容:

After looking at these variations, 很明显，最初的会徽有什么问题:内角. By smoothing the inner corners, 内部空白将与文字标记的内部空白相匹配. 此外, the outer 边缘 would remain sharp, 哪一种保留了原会徽和文字标记中某些字母的特征.

记住这一点, the team went to work, and after many variations, 12月30日, 2019, we had our new logo:

结论

它尝试了一个全新的标志，以恢复原来的性格和感觉的Toptal品牌, with an updated feel to it.

与, 我们能够创建一个列表，列出所有令人难以置信的点，使新的Toptal标志与我们的新品牌标识完美契合.

以下是清单:

1. 徽标和文字标记现在适合在一起，有相同的感觉.
2. “Top” and “tal” are now separated via the 边缘 on “tal,让人看出这两个词之间有区别.
3. The 边缘 on “tal” is a quadruple entendre:
   a) It separates the two words.
   b) It allows one to know that 人才 是我们的 边缘.
   c)我们的天赋卡的边缘现在由一个清晰和象征性的支持 reference: Talent 是我们的 边缘. It’s in our name, and our 人才. 字面上和 比喻.
   d) It gives the logo energy.
4. 标志大胆，真实，严肃，充满活力，符合我们的BASE标准.
5. The wordmark “Toptal” is now spelled the same as “Toptal.“它达到了用一种方式拼写的目的，而且只有一种方式.
6. We’ve turned a weakness into a strength. 现在 when someone asks “What’s Toptal?,” we can respond, “top 人才, and our 人才 是我们的 边缘.“进一步, we can show this is embedded not only in our logo, though throughout everything that we do, highlighting that it’s core to everything we do.
7. It’s visually appealing, as an emblem and wordmark together.
8. 它符合整个品牌故事，完成了漫长的品牌重塑, tying together the logo, 这个品牌, 这个故事, and everything about what we stand for at Toptal.
9. It’s simple and elegant.
10.  最后, 创造标志的过程和故事本身就体现了Toptal的品牌形象. 创造这个标志的过程象征着对细节的关注, 创造力, 以及我们愿意为取得非凡成果而付出的极端努力. A story which defines our identity.

I never thought we would have such a 意义ful logo. 我和团队一起寻找它，无休止地和他们一起工作，以确保我们有一个完美的标志. Through many years of working with them, we achieved the goal.

We now have one of the best logos I’ve personally ever seen, especially for how it ties directly into our brand.

现在, we can move forward with a word that captures the idea, 意义, and story of everything that we stand for:

Toptal.