Tom here, Trash Panda’s Head of Marketing 👋
When I first met Jesse in 2021 he had a big vision for Trash Panda... That vision is the very reason I eventually decided to quit my job and come on full-time in August of 2022.
Part of his big vision was to continue evolving the brand's visual identity as the company continued to grow.
In particular: the logo itself. I had been a freelance brand designer on the side for a couple of years at that point, so that prospect reeeeeeally excited me. But candidly: it's also a pretty scary thing to do.
People connect with logos because of what surrounds them: the brand at-hand and their personal experience with them, the people at the forefront of those brands, the products they offer that bring them joy, the list goes on. The result in our case was that people (including us) felt connected to our classic logo.
So why change ours?
Because we're growing and want a new look that reflects who we are now.
Jesse chose our old logo, in his words, "by finding one online that fit the brand I hoped to build. It was $30, non-exclusive, and perfect at the time”. That's not to say it's bad by any means — but over time, we grew to want something tailor-made for who we are.
So the very week I was hired on (1.5 years ago), I started the process.
Here's what we wanted in a new logo:
After months of research, stakeholder interviews, and countless team conversations, we identified 3 characteristics:
- More real with a story to tell
- Matured and grown up
- Focused on the future with determination
For better or worse — Jesse and I are both very picky people. This has been a true labor of love, and a process that has taken hundreds of combined hours. We wanted to make sure we ended up with something that not only represented us, but that we'd be ok staring at every single day.
What we ended up with:
So after over 50 concepts, countless sketchbook pages and Adobe Illustrator documents overloaded with raccoons of all shapes and sizes, we present the new Trash Panda logo:
Digging deeper:
- The scar on the ear represents a story to tell (including escaping a dumpster or two)
- The tufts of hair give a sense of maturity
- As opposed to facing straight on, the eyes are looking into the future with determination
So now, it’s out in the world!
It’s on merch, it’s on our boxes, and it’s even tattooed on our good friend’s body… yes, you read that right.
I hope you like it as much as I do.
But no matter what the logo looked like 4 years ago, what it looks like now, or what it might look like 50 years from now — one thing will never change: we exist to grow the sport sustainably with our absolutely incredible community.
And we can't wait to continue doing that with our fresh new paint job 🎨
