Docker's Logo Evolution

•

Docker, 2017

Docker turned 4 years old in 2017, and what a ride it has been! Our friendly whale/logo, Moby, has carried stacks of shipping containers all over the world many times over. Moby is our ambassador, recognized by many and beloved by our community.

For a little bit of nostalgia, you can see here all the original ideas for Docker’s logo and the finalist that was created by Ricky Asamanis

This logo has captured the heart of the community and we deeply respect the resonance it carries. However, over the years we have seen many cases where it had been visually dismantled and we wanted to fix that with this new evolution.

The problem arises from the various contexts in which the Docker whale can be placed -- in websites, apps, PR announcements, events, banners, badges... Each of these contexts requires the brand elements to scale, and our dear Moby was not always versatile enough for all these purposes.

So we have refined the logo to its core principles by removing some of the visual artifacts (such as the wave, shadows, and extra colors) that were adding clutter while lacking deep meaning. The robust yet friendly circular shape of the whale and the rectangular containers, which provide a strong metaphor to understand what Docker is about, are amplified as iconic elements of the brand.

We also want to provide a flat/monochromatic solution for small sizes which will work better in different environments with extreme backgrounds like gradients. A more detailed color logo that scales better to smaller sizes will be the new de-facto mark.

We are not the first ones to rationalize the logo in parallel with the evolution of a brand; other major companies have turned their complex logos into more professional, consistent, versatile, memorable, and simple marks.

Graphic Design: Carla Plazuelo