Kraken Logo PNG
Established in 2011, Kraken Digital Asset Exchange is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange and bank. It focused on cryptocurrency-to-fiat-money trading. The owner is Payward, Inc.
Meaning and history
When describing the Kraken logo, the company mentioned that it reflects the qualities of the industry – “vibrant, fresh, and impactful,” – as well as the fact that cryptocurrency typically attracts those who are “outspoken” and “eccentric.”
What is Kraken
Kraken has been known among the world’s largest and oldest Bitcoin exchanges. Today, it lists no less than 40 cryptocurrencies available for trade. The company’s history, which started in 2011, documents an extraordinary series of events, due to which it gained a prominent position in a comparatively short timespan.
2011 – 2019
It all started when the founder, Jesse Powell, happened to visit the offices of a popular cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox. He started his own project designed to be something that can replace Mt. Gox. It was, however, only two years later that the exchange was launched. The original range of currencies wasn’t that spectacular – in addition to Bitcoin and litecoin, it offered only euro trades.
The original logo already featured that fluid, yet symmetrical shape that can be described as an octopus or a squid. In all honesty, you can also interpret this picture in thousands of other ways (for instance, an elephant with his trunk hanging down and an exaggerated tail).
Yet, the name of the company suggests that it’s the “squid” interpretation that is the right one. The huge mythical creature called Kraken, which is part of many Norse sagas, has cephalopod-like appearance.
The molluscan class Cephalopoda includes both the squid and octopus, so Kraken could be any of them. Some scientists believe that the stories were the result of sailors’ sighting of giant squids (they may be as long as 15 meters), which means that the creature depicted on the Kraken logo is more likely to be a squid, after all.
Now that we’ve (apparently) figured out who is the brand’s totem, let’s try and see why this creature was chosen. Luckily, the company gives a decent explanation on its official website, in a blogpost devoted to rebranding (January 29, 2019). The author mentions that their name (and, consequently, the logo) suggests “an inherent sense of suspense,” and also alludes to a range of notions used in trading (“liquidity,” “depth,” “dark pools”).
The author also acknowledges that such a wordmark and logo create an emotional resonance and a strong mental image. The fact that the wordmark doesn’t include the name of any specific cryptocurrency suggests that in the future, when new currencies are introduced, the brand won’t have to be renamed. However, the brand did include the explanatory tagline “Bitcoin Exchange” in the full version of the original logo.
2019 – present
The update was mainly concerned with the palette. In the old logo, the emblem was teal, which fit the marine theme.
We also can’t but mention it was just a safe choice – a huge number of tech and financial services brands use calm shades of blue, too. And this was the reason why the company went for an update – to “stand out in a sea of boring blue,” as the blogpost explains.
Colors and font
The type was also a safe choice, due to its generic and highly legible glyphs. Unusually, though, the “k’s” have the shape of capitalized letters but the size of lowercase ones.
The shade used in the Kraken logo has the following Hex index: # 5848d5. According to the company’s representatives, this palette appeals to the “most bright, colorful and interesting minds” (the clients and team members).
