Perplexity is a free artificial intelligence-based search engine and a chatbot that utilizes advanced technologies, including natural language processing, or NLP, and machine learning, to provide accurate and comprehensive answers to queries in real-time.
Perplexity AI was founded in 2022 by Andy Konwinski, Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho. All of them had previously worked on the development of large language models. The name “Perplexity” reflects the company’s core mission to “provide instant access to all the world’s knowledge”, to simplify learning, and to help find answers to even the most complex questions. Today, Perplexity has less than 50 employees, and the number of users has already reached tens of millions. And in 2024, the startup received Unicorn status.
The company operates on a freemium model, offering basic features for free and advanced features in a paid “Pro” version. In April 2024, Perplexity launched an enterprise version of its product, and in May 2024, it introduced the “Pages” feature to create shareable presentations of research findings.
With Perplexity, marketing teams, and content creators search for relevant information on a topic or create unique texts for publication. Unlike the same ChatGPT, Perplexity utilizes information from today’s internet. Through the use of Claude 3, GPT-4, and Mistral Large neural networks, etc., and the use of the internet, Perplexity provides verified and up-to-date information.
Moreover, Perplexity provides the possibility to additionally select the source of information search: the whole Internet, published scientific articles, YouTube, Reddit, and others. There is a computational mode for solving math problems and examples.
What is Perplexity?
Perplexity is the name of an online language-based artificial intelligence model that provides the convenience of searching the Internet. This chatbot allows you to ask questions and then search the Internet for answers, showing you the source of the information, thus ensuring the validity of the answers provided.
In terms of visual identity, Perplexity has masterfully managed to combine its essence, modern minimalist design, and innovation in its logo. And we are not talking about one logo, but about both versions of it, created for the year 2024. Which in itself is a rarity.
The original Perplexity logo was introduced in 2022 and stayed with the company for just about a year. It was a very laconic and distinctive composition, with a geometric emblem and a medium-weight title case lettering in a modern sans-serif typeface. Both elements were executed in a black-and-white color palette.
The initial emblem of the service featured a solid black square with nine white dots set in its central part, in three levels (with three dots in each). This simple image aimed to represent the ability of Perplexity to connect you to various sources of information, while the main, square shape was a symbol of trustworthiness and reliability.
The redesign of 2023 was held by the Smith & Diction bureaux, which managed to create somewhat even more progressive and meaningful, keeping the minimalistic approach at the top of the agenda. The new geometric emblem of the service is formed by several outlined rectangles, which makes this abstract shape resemble an open book or rotating doors at the entrance to somewhat new and exciting. The color palette of the graphical part was also changed, and now it’s sea-blue and white.
The title case lettering from the original Perplexity logo was replaced by the lowercase wordmark in a full-shaped sans-serif typeface with a perfect balance of space inside and between the characters. The shade of the inscription is significantly darker than the one, used for the emblem.
The medium-weight lowercase lettering from the primary logo of the Perplexity AI search engine is set in a custom sans-serif typeface, which looks quite close to such commercial fonts as Europa Grotesk SH Trade, Sequel Sans or Neue Helveticareg, but with the modified contour of the “Y”, which adds sharpness and futuristic mood to the simple inscription.
As for the color palette of the Perplexity visual identity, it is based on two shades of turquoise, or sea-blue, with the lighter one, from the emblem, evoking a sense of creativity and progress, and the dark shade, used for the lettering, representing excellence and professionalism of the service.