Growby went live in 3 days. But before I give you the whole picture, let me take you back to 2017—the year it all started.
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I will never forget 2017. It was when I first ventured into the world of startups, and I never looked back. So far, it’s been an ecstatic journey. A startup is born out of an idea. An idea inspired by a life event, a situation or just a 2 AM thought. However, mine started with an experiment. I was working a 9 to 5 when I first thought about my startup. However, this world was not new to me. I come from a background where almost every person in my surrounding is either running a well-established business or is a startup owner turned unicorn.
However, I used none of this to my advantage and decided to carve my path on my own. Was the decision worth it? Absolutely. But was it smooth sailing? Not at all. While setting up my first startup, I encountered many hurdles. Things that seemed minute in the beginning later had me realise that founding a startup is not a piece of cake. My experience in forming my first startup is what led me to Growby.
Growby is the solution to all the problems I faced when I was starting up for the very first time in 2017. It’s safe to say, if I had a Growby back then, things would have been much more easier. The idea of Growby is to help startup owners avoid the heavy lifting and aid them focus on more critical aspects of the bigger picture – running the business. At Growby, I ensure my clients get all the help in kickstarting their business and avoiding months of waiting to take their business LIVE in just three days. While running a business, time is the most valuable thing, and Growby aids you in making time for things that need your attention.
Growby went live in 3 days. The way my team and I were able to take Growby LIVE in less than 72 hours is the same service we offer our clients. Remarkable, isn’t it? But how did I make this happen? Yeah, I get that question a lot. So, I decided, why not share some behind-the-scenes of how we work with you all? In this blog, I have decided to cover one of the many things we do and share how we work behind the scenes to get you up and running in 72 hours. This story is about how Growby got its logo in less than 60 hours!
The First 24 Hours – Day 1
I had decided what Growby stood for. However, the challenge was giving it a face. I wanted to create something impactful. Like every time I’d drive by the highway during a short weekend getaway and see a Mcdonald’s board 2 KM away, I would know where to stop for a midway brunch with my family. There have been days when I could not find a fuel pump for miles or might have missed it for some reason, but my son never cuts the Mcdonald’s logo even if we are cruising at 100 Kmph. I wanted my logo to be the same way—something you cannot miss.
When a person wants to achieve something big, the work that goes in is equally significant. Trust me when I say this, creating a logo is not an easy feat. You’ll see that as you read what I’ve got to say.
We divided our runtime into five phases. In the first 24 hours, we completed two stages of our logo creation process. I will walk you through each of these phases in detail.
Phase 1: The Mood Board
I sat on my chair and thought,” If I had to describe Growby in a few words, what would they be?”
If you don’t know what a mood board is, you’ve probably never seen one. The image above is my team, and I created the mood board for Growby. A mood board is a collage of images, symbols, texts, elements and styles that help you build your logo. We identified all the aspects that described Growby.
Three words described Growby for me:
- Growth
- Launch
- Start
Growby is all about helping a business START. It focuses all of its energy on helping businesses take the first step. Typically, a startup takes six months to a year to get up and run. That’s a lot of wasted time and money. Growby is bringing this time down to 3 days – a tremendous feat for a business owner. Talking about the business logo, the design process takes 4 to 6 weeks of work. Growby has brought this time down to 60 hours.
My business is all about speed and agility. So, my team and I created this mood board that described what we stand for in the form of images. Each element we picked had reasons. As a team, we had to sit down and do much more strategic thinking than on paper drawing. Each logo component comes together to create a stunning symbol representing your brand. Hence, we worked very hard on picking each element intricately and carefully.
The growth chart images and leaves symbolised our business’s growth factor. Next, as I believe in an agile working framework, the team zeroed down on an embodiment where a line of runners sprinted. The idea symbolises our team and focuses on the speed of our work. Next, we choose a parachute and an upward arrow. Again, all of its hints toward launch, growth and starting up. Once this was done, we finalised these elements and moved to phase two.
Phase 2: Idea on Paper
Brainstorming an idea is comparatively easy. However, putting these ideas on paper is challenging for every designer and business owner. Phase one helped used achieve clarity in messaging for our logo. But, it also helped us speed up the process for phase two. How? Let’s find out.
We started with the letter G and tried to work it with a slanting arrow moving upwards. The combination spoke of growth to me. My team and I went on to try more such variations where we tried another style of the letter G supported by an upward arrow. Next, we tried to combine a leaf with the letter G.
We tried various elements such as the arrow and geometric shapes such as circular lines, squares and triangles. Lastly, we tried to mix ingredients such as the parachute and a plane to symbolise growth and launch. By this time, it had already ended day one, and the clock was ticking for us. It was a challenge for the team to complete this in such a short period. However, we were all set for day two now.
The Next 24 Hours – Day 2
Day 2 was here, and the adrenaline was high. My team and I were equally excited to see the final output. But we all knew we had a long way to go. And why wouldn’t they be? We had all worked so hard to pull this off. The following 24 hours were divided into 2 phases. So, here’s what happened on that day.
Phase 3 – Digitisation
Seeing your ideas come to life is an ecstatic feeling. We finalised a few sketches in phase two, which were further put to work in phase three. The team worked on digitalising the paper sketches and defining the logo in illustrator.
As you can see in the image above, this is what my team and I came up with. We finalised the different elements we wanted in our logo and gave them a definition.
We were excited for the next part – putting all these elements to work and seeing our brand get a face.
Phase 4: Finalising the Design
Finally, this was what our logo looked like. We incorporated various elements and merged them so they could work together yet carry their essence. It was a defining moment for the team. We had completed our logo in less than 48 hours. But, there were still some finishing touches left to notch it up. We focused on these final touches in the last 12 hours of the process.
The Last 12 Hours – Day 3
Growby had taken shape, and I was more than just elated. Finally, we had to give it the proper typography and color representation that spoke about what we stood for. Here is how our last leg went.
Phase 5 – Typography & Color
As you can see in the image above, we finalised the typography for the logo. However, our attention was divided between two colors. We wanted to incorporate shades of blue that represented trust. However, we also wanted shades of green that represented growth. In the end, we decided the combine both.
The Great Reveal for Growby
The team was excited to see that our designer and I had finalised the result. We were all set to launch Growby and finally give it a face. After 60 hours of hard work, our logo was ready to be shown to the world. So, what did it look like? I am sure that after all this build-up, you, too, would want to see the final output. So without any further mystery – presenting the final logo for Growby.
Creating a logo is no easy task. It took us almost 2.5 days to finalise and come up with the final output. However, the personal touch and details that a human designer brings is unmatched.
However, some of you might say – Hey, what about AI logo designers? Isn’t that free of cost and ready under 5 minutes? Well, we agree. Yes, AI can create a logo for you in less than 5 minutes. But, is that worth it? Is it worth leaving an integral part of your brand’s identity upto AI? I don’t think so. To prove my point, here’s what I would like to show you.
I have two images for you – one made by my team and the other created by AI. Be honest with yourself. Which one looks and feels better?
The human logo is way better than AI if you have an eye for design and detail. AI gives you random images and illustrations for your logo. You have minimal options to choose from. Furthermore, if you need some personalisation in your logo, you will need to pay a fortune for it, and yet, the results won’t be as satisfying as a human logo. Plus, you won’t even get any free reworks in hand. The fundamental essence of the human touch is missing.
