The logo of the online art community DeviantArt has gone through over ten updates over its two-decade history.
The website including various forms of artwork, videography, and photography went live in the summer of 2000. The artworks introduced on it were organized in a category structure. The same approach has been used ever since.
DeviantArt is an online platform for the creative community, founded in 2000, where authors can publish and discuss the illustrations and photographs they create. In 2017, the project was bought by the Israeli company Wix for 36 million USD.
Deviantart is a site for creative people. Here you can share your work, see the work of other artists, and evaluate and comment on it. The platform is available in English but has thousands of users from all over the globe, connected by their love of art and their desire to share it with the world.
What is DeviantArt?
DeviantArt isone of the number one online destinations for graphic designers and artists, a commercial online gallery, and a community of general artists. Deviantart is a popular portal for photographers, illustrators, and writers, as well as a social network for artists.
The original DeviantArt logo showcased the name of the website in playful letters. The dancing glyphs considerably varied in size. For instance, the final “t” appeared two or three times larger than the tiny “r” next to it.
There was also an intricate circular pattern in the background, which seemed to combine a safe combination lock and a bullseye.
Here you could see a simpler and better legible version including only the name of the website. The letters had the same height, although they were still rather unusual.
The lettering “com” was gone. A stylized “da” monogram appeared on the left. It was the brand’s signature for about thirteen years.
The lettering grew larger and more prominent, while the “da” signature was more of a watermark now.
A simpler, lighter, and better legible type was used. The lettering “deviant” was given in lowercase glyphs, while the “ART” was capitalized.
The site’s Version 4 showcased a wordmark, where the characters were positioned closer to each other.
The letters were now white over a dark background.
On the site’s Version 5, the wordmark was paired with the “da” signature.
The monogram was now of a warmer green tint. It was placed inside a box. The name of the brand combined two typefaces, a lowercase type with rounded ends for “deviant” and a capitalized and bold type for “art.”
This is when a new era started in the history of the DeviantArt logo. The release of the new brand identity, which took place on December 4, 2014, was followed by the introduction of an official mobile app on both iOS and Android.
It was then that the company got rid of the ”da” monogram replacing it with an abstract green symbol. It could be described as a diagonal bar with two smaller horizontal bars.
The wordmark next to it showcased a customized version of Calibre, a font developed by the Klim Type Foundry. Small parts were cut off the initial “D” and the final “T’s.” As a result, the sides of the letters leaned at the same angle as the green symbol. In addition to creating a visual rhyme between the symbol and the wordmark, this approach also added a peculiar impression. As if you were looking at the wordmark through a hole.
According to Angelo Sotira, the brand’s CEO, the updated logo wasn’t supposed to “compete or keep up” with the brand identities of other companies but “to tell our story and showcase our art and artists.”
The logo was developed by Moving Brands, a design agency founded in London in 1998.
The bright and saturated green was replaced by a softer and lighter mint shade. Other than that, the design remained unchanged. The update echoes the website’s “Eclipse” variation.
On the favicon, the symbol is given inside a black box.
The typography on the earliest logos was also the wildest. The unique style of the letters often damaged the legibility.
The 2002 DeviantArt logo was a considerable step forward towards legibility. In the 2003 version, the company sacrificed the unique typography for legibility. Yet, in each of the following logos, the highly legible (and generic) type was enhanced with a subtle touch of uniqueness, which made it stand out.
The older versions were dominated by the grayish palette. Since 2010, the logo has had a brighter, more pronounced green element. Since 2014, it has been paired with black letters.