Introducing our refreshed logo

We’ve always been proud of the concept of our logo: a hippo swimming in a book. How cute is that? The logo neatly incorporates a book to showcase what we do and a hippo for our name.

We’re also especially proud that it was a quick sketch: 3 main strokes plus 5 more for the facial features and details in the book. This was less than a minute of work without any erasing — very different from the arduous process of choosing the name hippopubco, though that journey was totally worth it.

Teena’s original sketch for the hippopubco logo

We handed the sketch to a designer to refine and add our brand colors. This designer wasn’t a great fit for us, and after a few miscommunications and missteps, we got to the logo we’ve been using since launch in 2021:

hippopubco’s first logo

We liked it fine, but something about it didn’t seem quite right. Because it wasn’t a good fit with the designer and we were racing against the clock to get our files to the printer, we decided this had to be good enough for now.

Nearly 2 years later, we launched the Destination: Little Free Libraries project and realized it was the perfect time to revisit the logo. Earlier this year, we found a wonderful designer for another project who is a pleasure to work with and an excellent fit for our work style and aesthetic.

We excitedly engaged our designer to refresh our branding right away. This way, we wouldn’t have to rush before publishing the next book, and we could get a logo that we loved instead of settling for “good enough” (which is fine sometimes but not what we wanted this time).

We went through a few rounds of revisions. Sometimes we felt like we were being too nit-picky, but once you see something, you can’t unsee it. The new logo looks much more professional, modern, and clean.

hippopubco’s new logo

We love it so much!

The designer also helped us refresh our brand colors, which are reflected in the new logo. We are super excited about our new look, but don’t worry: We’re still dedicated to all the same things and promise to keep working hard to bring you work from the heart.

If you’re interested in the designer, find her info on our shoutouts page.