January 30, 2007
I’ve been lucky to work with some really talented designers at Trade Me. Sam, amongst his many talents, is pretty handy in Photoshop. Nigel came on board in 2001 to help with the first major re-design of the site and came up with the colour palette and general feel it still has today (I’ve heard it described as “Tommy Tippee” style). And Tim, who is our current designer and illustrator, is basically a magician.
So, I had to smile when I saw this image of Kevin (the blue kiwi in the Trade Me logo) and his lady friend in the latest Trade Me newsletter.
When Nigel designed the current logo back in the day he didn’t give him arms or wings, or anything that could be used to hold stuff. It drives Tim crazy, especially when we ask him to draw Kevin doing something interesting. Like voting, or throwing a javelin, or accepting an Academy Award.
We’re not the first company ever to use a cartoon kiwi as our logo. So, how have others dealt with this dilemma?
Take Goldie, the mascot from the 1990 Commonwealth Games. He was a pretty athletic kiwi, but got by somehow with stumpy little arms.
What about the grand-daddy of them all: the TVNZ goodnight kiwi. Does he have arms? What kind of arms? Once you think you know the answer, check out this Wikipedia page. You might be surprised!
🙂
P.S. We’re currently trying to hire a Web Designer to be Tim 2.0 (that is, an off-sider for Tim not a replacement). If you’re interested, check out the job description.
