If your company name features “space” you’re wasting space. Unless it's SpaceX.
If your logo has a swoosh, you might have a problem. Unless it’s Nike.
If your logo features satellites, stars, orbits and rockets, you’re doing it wrong.
If your branding imagery features the same edge of the Earth with its atmosphere, the sunshine and a satellite or a rocket, you’re missing out.
Are you a swoosh?
Are you a satellite?
Are you a rocket?
Are you the launch?
Are you the space?
…
It's who you are, not what you do.
The visual language your space startup uses, the name, the visual logo, the sonic logo (oh yes, these exist too!) and the imagery are the very first touch points with your brand. And as such, their main goal is to represent who you are and express your uniqueness with a razor-sharp precision.
At this stage of the relationship, nobody cares what you do. What matters and determines whether I even want to consider doing business with you is who you are, what you stand for and whether I can trust you.
Drop the swoosh. Drop the space.
The swoosh is not who you are.
Neither does it help build trust.
The satellite is not who you are.
Neither does it help to build trust.
The "space" is not who you are and won't make you trustworthy.
So drop it.
That's what all the big guys did.
Majority of brands you know took the path of simplification and universalization over time:
- The Macintosh Company ⇀ Apple Computer Inc (1977)
- Apple Computer ⇀ Apple (2007)
- Tesla Motors ⇀ Tesla (2017)
- Hewlett Packard ⇀ HP (2015)
- Compaq Computer Corp. ⇀ Compaq (1987)
- Sun Microsystems, Inc. ⇀ Sun
- Texas Instruments Incorporated ⇀ TI
- Ericsson Telephone Company ⇀ Ericsson
- Blue Ribbon Sports ⇀ Nike
- Starbucks Coffee ⇀ Starbucks
You just saved $1M.
When you change your name, logo or brand positioning, it's part of the process called rebranding. For the companies like the above, a typical rebrand costs are anywhere between 0.5% - 2% of company's market cap. For a $100M startup? You do the maths.
Losing the swoosh now costs less than dropping it in a year.
Ditching the “space” today costs less than doing it in a month.
So drop it, ditch it, trash it, smash it and celebrate filling the new void with what really matters - your unique voice.
How will you spend it?
Tech development will take any amount of money you'll drop at it. But perhaps there are other options?
What's the next thing on top of your agenda? Raise more capital, attract top-notch talent, land a deal or strike the partnership?
Perhaps replacing your generic stock imagery that evokes zero emotion (and that all other companies use) with something meaningful brings you impact you need today? Perhaps producing a decent film telling your story clear and loud is not a bad idea either?
Brand is reputation.
Reputation is trust.
Both fuel confidence.
P.S. It's not rainbows and unicorns.
Replacing it with non-blue rainbow colors and cartoonish appearance is not a long-term solution either.
Space sector not only needs a new economy, but also a new class of visual language.
That’s one of the reasons why hypergalactic came to existence.
