[ActiveMining] The Official Active Mining Discussion Thread

[EskimoBob]

Avalon Refunds $2.9M in Bitcoins to ASIC Miner Customers
Where are news about Actm/VMC refund?

[Elokane]

How is this possible that this company is trading for less than IPO price when there is infinitely more information now about its chances of delivering?

Because on Bitfunder a lot of people had shares bought for 0.0005 or so. They're now taking their profit.

On BTCT they started at 0.0025 and the price is a more fair reflection of things.

I see. Still looks like a ridiculously low price for its prospects.

[carpetbagger]

I actually miss the BitMine picture. It was pretty funky, but unique.

Edit:

I'm serious. It was cool! :/

I agree, it was fine. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the map of countries should have followed the perspective of the tunnel.

[zumzero]

Avalon Refunds $2.9M in Bitcoins to ASIC Miner Customers
Where are news about Actm/VMC refund?

Patience you must have my young padawan.

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BlockChains, you are ignoring the whole reason we need a flashy looking website which is to attract large amounts of preorders! Just look at how many idiots fall for BFL's scam because they have a pretty website. ASICMINER waited until they had large amounts of hardware up and running before they sold it, and it was immediately available (they only sold it once they could get more than it would ever mine... 20BTC blades anyone?). Getting preorders locked in now will give us a very nice revenue stream once we get chips from eASIC. If we don't get the preorders, then our competition will and then we will be left with nothing.

Butterfly Labs doesn't just have a slick site -- their marketing, from the name Butterfly Labs (do i have to point this out?), to logo graphic to case design to initial PR -- is head and shoulders above this muppetry.  Regardless of their lulzy customer relations (which, it may turn out, are also exactingly engineered -- it seems bitcoiners love paying money for attractive promises).

When you add a 20-min logo to a '90s website, that's exactly what you get -- a '90s website with a makeshift logo.  When a website, a tanking stock & the number "28" is all you have to sell, work on the website

Edit: Logo designers, drop the "C," it clashes with "VM" & no sane companies suffix their logos with "C" unless it's useful for visuals/pronunciation.

[minerpart]

The best I've seen so far.

I figured that I would take a crack at this.

I don't think any of these are as eye catching or as plain and clear as the current logo (which is naff). Far too confusing on the eye, in situ they cause a lot of visual conflict and they look cheap.

[SoylentCreek]

The best I've seen so far.

I figured that I would take a crack at this.

I don't think any of these are as eye catching or as plain and clear as the current logo (which is naff). Far too confusing on the eye, in situ they cause a lot of visual conflict and they look cheap.

You obviously are not a designer. LOL

[minerpart]

Correct I'm not, and neither will be 99% of the customers who order via the website.

[deizel]

This is the best logo thus far:

Alright then guys, here's one of the two logo concepts I've been working on today, still based around the same idea as the first:

Also, I left my desk for 10 minutes only to come back and find VMC and Bootstrap doing the naughty:

http://pastehtml.com/view/dfmmsv4qq.html

[ThickAsThieves]

The best I've seen so far.

I figured that I would take a crack at this.

I don't think any of these are as eye catching or as plain and clear as the current logo (which is naff). Far too confusing on the eye, in situ they cause a lot of visual conflict and they look cheap.

You obviously are not a designer. LOL

As someone with quite a bit of experience with branding and identity, I'll say that I see what you were going for, but that it's not quite there. To even begin to get there, you'd need to backtrack a bit.

The larger problem here, is that this is not how the branding process should be done. It should not be in the public eye, and it should be instigated by a company that WANTS to rebrand. Within that process there is much communication about the goals and identity of the brand, which the designer then attempts to realize by using their empathy and experience to translate a brand personality into graphics.

Branding design is a problem-solving process, not an exhibition. The first problem to solve is getting the client comfortable with your ability to solve their problems, and thus form the trust required to take them to a new, and uncomfortable, place.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. Great effort, but I suspect you are wasting your time for a number of reasons, including the ones mentioned above.

[SoylentCreek]

This is the best logo thus far:

Alright then guys, here's one of the two logo concepts I've been working on today, still based around the same idea as the first:

Also, I left my desk for 10 minutes only to come back and find VMC and Bootstrap doing the naughty:

http://pastehtml.com/view/dfmmsv4qq.html

I agree whole heartedly. The only reason I worked up the few examples I did was so we would have a few "free: options on the table.  If the only reason Ken is not going for this one, is because he doesn't want to pay lewicky for it, I'd like us to have an alternative. 

[SoylentCreek]

The best I've seen so far.

I figured that I would take a crack at this.

I don't think any of these are as eye catching or as plain and clear as the current logo (which is naff). Far too confusing on the eye, in situ they cause a lot of visual conflict and they look cheap.

You obviously are not a designer. LOL

As someone with quite a bit of experience with branding and identity, I'll say that I see what you were going for, but that it's not quite there. To even begin to get there, you'd need to backtrack a bit.

The larger problem here, is that this is not how the branding process should be done. It should not be in the public eye, and it should be instigated by a company that WANTS to rebrand. Within that process there is much communication about the goals and identity of the brand, which the designer then attempts to realize by using their empathy and experience to translate a brand personality into graphics.

Branding design is a problem-solving process, not an exhibition. The first problem to solve is getting the client comfortable with your ability to solve their problems, and thus form the trust required to take them to a new, and uncomfortable, place.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that. Great effort, but I suspect you are wasting your time for a number of reasons, including the ones mentioned above.

I agree for the most part.  You cannot force good design on a company that feels as if they do not need it.  It's a sad reality that people like me deal with on a day to day basis.  To be honest, this is faaaaaar from what I would even consider a working logo.  My typical design process is through elimination.  I will design dozens of variants of someone's logo, and see which ones the client as well as focus groups respond to.  I will then go back and rework the ones that seemed to appeal to the customer and potential users, until we finally land on "the one."  It's a long and tedious process, which is why when I do a logo design, I charge and receive a premium.  In this case, because I am not working with Ken directly, nor am I anticipating getting paid, I am not going to waste a significant amount of time and man hours on a project that Ken has no stake in (we see how that worked out for Lewicky).  My hope, is that I can help keep the conversation steered towards the idea that Ken needs help from a marketing standpoint, and that he will hopefully utilize some of the services that people such as myself are volunteering.

[SoylentCreek]

Just to add a little more perspective.

[minerpart]

Honestly that is so visually confusing.

The first bit looks like Roman numerals 'III', and the V is disrupted by the last I which makes the V look like part of an extended N.

Way way too complicated.

[SoylentCreek]

Honestly that is so visually confusing.

The first bit looks like Roman numerals 'III', and the V is disrupted by the last I which makes the V look like part of an extended N.

Way way too complicated.

That is why in my original mock up, I included one without the "design" which is a minimalist play on hazryder's three boxes.

[minerpart]

Better but the VMC is too thin and as I said before looks cheap. The current one is better than this, the merging letters just jar really badly for me and don't work. You shouldn't have to read the sub heading to figure out what the upper text is supposed to represent.

[SoylentCreek]

Better but the VMC is too thin and as I said before looks cheap. The current one is better than this, the merging letters just jar really badly for me and don't work. You shouldn't have to read the sub heading to figure out what the upper text is supposed to represent.

Well, I would respectively have to disagree with you.  Typically, big fat fonts are seldom used in minimalist-typographic designs, which is what I was going for.  For reference, this is what I am trying to improve upon.



...

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[SoylentCreek]

I threw $80 at Fivver.com for some various Logo Designs.

Will post them up here once I get them back, I ordered quick turnarounds for them so will likely have some to show within 24-48hours.

If one looks good I'll just hand it over to Ken for free.

You are well aware that Ken has not made any indication that he is willing to change the logo, yes?  There is a high probability that he's going to keep is retro "Terminator 2" logo.  If he does, I'm merely out of a couple hours of spare time.  You'll be out $80.  Please do not take it upon yourselves to throw your personal money at this company, unless it is in the form of investing.  Just by two bits.

[SoylentCreek]

Okay, that actually made me laugh.