Payara Cloud: Logo Creation and Brand Continuity

Payara Services provides stable, supported open source software. Bringing our solutions to a global audience entails a wider skillset in the team than can be confined to Java developers and engineers, however. Our Marketing, Sales and HR departments have vital roles to play, with our Fish Food blogs providing a peek behind the curtain (or under the hood!) of running an award-winning, fast-growing, values-driven tech business.

In this blog, Marketing team member Denisa Zettlova, one of our Graphic Designers, provides insight into how she created the logo for our new product: next generation application server Payara Cloud.

It’s an example of where those in job roles that are not explicitly Java-related become uniquely specialised – the cross-over between non-tech skills and the programming world! Cloud is a crowded market, so Denisa needed to be able to identify and assess the branding of specific competitor products. This allowed her to design a logo that referenced classic cloud imagery – so people could instantly tell what it was meant to be – whilst also having its own unique “Payaran” identity.

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When it comes to creating a logo, you have to think about the message it is meant to carry. To create a logo that falls under brand guidelines yet very clearly signifies a different product becomes a very difficult task. I am here to share how we have tackled this issue and how we came up with our final Payara Cloud Logo.

Research, Research, Research

Before you even start your journey of designing, your best bet is to do a lot of research. Depending on your product, you should research the competitors and any existing icons associated with your market. With the product ‘Payara Cloud’ we are venturing into a similar area as many of our competitors. As a result, we have researched cloud services to see who is already representing the idea well.

With a logo you want people to be able to understand what it is you are representing. That is where your research will prove useful. You might not want to look like another fish in the sea when it comes to recognition and brand continuity. However, changing the look completely for the sake of looking different from your competition is also not going to do you any good. It’s a delicate balance!

Iconography

Make sure your icon represents your product while also following your brand guidelines. That means that you can’t just take an icon that represents one part of your product and call it a day. For the Payara Cloud logo we wanted the icon to represent the services that Payara Cloud offers while paying homage to the “Payara fish” and the wider Payara Platform brand, without which this product would be impossible. So even though we have used the cloud icon, we have given it our own spin. The “negative space” waves (that look like waves “cut out”) symbolize where the fish came from, and the secondary-coloured scale adds a nice visual break while adding another link to the fish. Your icon should do just that – represent the basic product and what it links to.

Trust the Process

It might not feel like you will ever get there, but when it comes to designing within guidelines, make sure you keep your options open. No good comes from focusing on one design and not expanding any further. Even though we went with the above design, you can see our creative process of trial and error below. The Marketing Team got together to discuss what’s a vital part of the product that should be pictured in the logo, and from there we went on to brainstorm ideas and get a sense of what the product meant to everyone. Overall, even though we came up with some crazy ideas, in the end, it led us to the main logo we’ve got now and the right choice. Trust the process and make sure you communicate with people to create something that everyone in the team will like.