Welcome back to the latest blog in the Summer of Bitcoin series. Here, I present Chapter 3.
For those who are not acquainted with me, I am Sushant, a final-year undergraduate from IIT Kanpur. I create videos, write newsletters, work as a designer, loves machine learning and am pursuing a B.Tech in chemical engineering.
In the previous blog, I discussed my first meeting with Abhijay, my interactions with my mentors, and the potential ideas we developed during those lengthy one-hour meetings. As we all know, ideas have an interesting characteristic—they evolve. They always evolve, whether for better or worse, but their nature is to continually improve until they become the best version of themselves. This is not a line from a feel-good science fiction Hollywood movie; I came up with it myself. Just kidding. Back to the topic, this evolution happened to us as well. The first iteration of the website looked decent to us, but we knew that the first iteration is never the final one, no matter how skilled you are.
I reviewed several impressive websites and came across openpeeps.com, which has concepts similar to our "Here Comes Bitcoin" initiative. Their website had a more engaging feel compared to ours, which was simpler and more straightforward. While simplicity is beneficial, incorporating some aesthetics can improve user retention rates.
I shared these observations with my mentors and Abhijay, along with my ideas on how we could enhance the website's aesthetics.
We discussed various ideas, such as creating separate sections for the shop and partners, designing headers and footers, and avoiding infinite scrolls on the website.
I also examined other websites to see how they implemented their colour schemes and how those schemes aligned perfectly with their brand's overall feel. You might wonder why we were looking for ideas and color schemes from others and how we are using our own creativity. In my opinion (which might be controversial and unpopular ), sometimes you have to fake it till you make it.
Later in the process, we finally determined the color scheme that best suited the website, aligning well with its overall feel and appealing to the mentors as well.
Throughout this process, we maintained constant communication with our mentors. Occasionally, Haley would point out something unusual in our work and suggest corrections, which we would then implement. When Abhijay and I found ourselves out of ideas, M&M would come to our rescue. Both mentors are highly skilled, but M&M, in particular, stands out. His judgment and constructive criticism are often unpredictable, but in a positive way. He consistently provides innovative suggestions that guide us in new directions, resulting in improved ideas.
One day, Abhijay and I were on a Google Meet call when we identified an additional opportunity to increase the reach of Here Comes Bitcoin. We visited the Bitcoin Design Community website and noticed their header banner. To our surprise, they allow users to submit their own banners. We decided to create a banner using Here Comes Bitcoin assets. This would achieve two goals: first, the more people see HCB assets, the more they will want to learn about it; second, we have the chance to contribute something unique and engaging to the Bitcoin Design Community website.
We now have two projects to manage, and it is time to allocate them between ourselves for the next two weeks. This approach will allow us to make individual progress and, after two weeks, switch projects to further refine both while staying in constant communication with each other and our mentors. According to the plan, I chose to work on the Bitcoin Design Community header poster, while Abhijay decided to continue with website mockups and changes.
My first step was to analyze the existing banners on their website to understand the mindset of the team responsible for selecting and maintaining the posters. It is important to note that not every submitted poster is accepted, and I must ensure that the poster I create upholds the Here Comes Bitcoin company image.
After a thorough analysis, I created a Figma file and began working on the banner. Initially, I planned to divide the banner into four sections. Three sections would be parallel, each depicting Bitcoin in different environments, engaging in activities relevant to those settings. The fourth section would feature the Bitcoin Design Community logo, designed to appear as though the Here Comes Bitcoin character is interacting with the logo and other text elements.
One scene depicts a football field with two anthropomorphic Bitcoin characters playing football. Another scene shows a beach where a father Bitcoin is barbecuing for his children, while a surfer Bitcoin rides the waves. The third scene portrays a party with three girls enjoying themselves while a Dracula Bitcoin observes them.
The fourth section features a DJ Bitcoin playing music, while an acrobat Bitcoin attempts to catch pigeons in a tree. I dedicated nearly a week to this project and then presented it to the mentors in a meeting. Haley mentioned that it looked good but could be improved. M&M made a comment that was particularly impactful. He stated that placing the relevant Bitcoin characters in their appropriate surroundings is nothing impressive, as it meets the viewer's expectations. Because if there is no element of surprise in the banner, it will not capture the viewer's attention, thereby failing the primary purpose of creating a banner using HCB assets and displaying it on the Bitcoin Design Community website header.
The following week, I carefully considered how to create something that is both visually appealing and surprising to the viewer, while also maintaining a sense of coherence. One day, while sitting in the college canteen, an idea struck me. I immediately envisioned Bitcoin sitting on a chair, enjoying his wine, all within the setting of a cave. Bitcoin in a cave! "Brilliant idea," were M&M's words when I presented the visual representation of my concept.
Subsequently, I made several iterations and developed an entirely different banner. However, I may have overcomplicated the design. In a meeting, M&M reminded me of the principle less is more.
I have a new story about this less is more concept, which I plan to discuss in my next post. For now, this will suffice. It's already 4 A.M., and it's quite late for me to publish this. Anyways see you guys in the next blog.
Goodbye!