Xin chΓ o from the Publicity and Tech team!

Since SEALNet’s inception in 2004, we’ve gone a very long way. Accordingly, SEALNet needs a new look that reflects its growth in a way that’s truthful, engaging, and as vibrant as the community we’ve built over the years.

Today, marking SEALNet’s 15th anniversary, we’re extremely excited to present you the new SEALNet logo and website!

We’ve made many changes, in ways that we believe would best reflect the SEALNet spirit, culture, and history, as well as create a better experience for both SEALNet alumni and people interested in learning about the organization. Here’s a walkthrough of what we did, and why we decided to do it:

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The logo

Our previous logo was designed to resemble a network stretching across Southeast Asia, marking major cities at its line intersections. It bore a dark university-esque shade of burgundy, that, at the time of its creation in 2009, created a professional, trustworthy and warm look, at the same time reflecting our roots at Stanford University.

Changing such a well-known and well-loved logo is no joke – but we believe SEALNet needs something that better represents our current position, while still being instantly recognizable and remaining faithful to our history. The most notable change is the color of the network symbol, which is now a shade of red that is brighter, lighter, more welcoming, energetic and fun! – perfectly capturing SEALNet’s spirit. We’ve also made some changes in the text spacing and proportions to create a look that feels more balanced and clean.

The Website

For those who frequent our old website, there’s a lot to get used to – but we hope it will be an enjoyable transition. Welcome to SEALNet’s new digital home.

You’ll find that, first off, the website looks very different – goodbye, 00s WordPress theme! The pages have been reorganized to make navigation as intuitive as possible, and displayed with a clean design, bright colours, a newly-updated photo gallery, and a responsive interface. We’ve also been pouring effort and thought into delivering new content that communicates our identity, values and mission more effectively, and keeps you interested whether it’s your first or your hundredth visit to the site. This includes introducing new sections specifically catered for certain groups of viewers, such as the Alumni page, and the Blogs, where you are the ones creating the website – Go ahead and explore (and create: if you would like to contribute a blog post, about anything at all, please send it to publicity@nullsealnetonline.org)!

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The Publicity team made the first steps towards this initiative in November 2018, and progress really began to speed up in February this year when the Tech team joined the crew. Over months of preparation, we’re finally publishing all of our work today as a contribution to the celebration of SEALNet’s 15th anniversary. On an occasion foremost dedicated to celebrating our community, we would like to express our appreciation to the Board of Directors, the Program Organizers, and all of the other Executive Teams who have been working tirelessly in our effort to build a SEALNet that’s stronger and more sustainable – a collective effort of which this website and rebranding process is only a small part. Your collaboration, guidance, and contributions in your own respective roles have been a great source of encouragement.

Before you go, we still need your help! Over the next few weeks, we will continue to make changes and additions to the website, including content updates, design changes, and more. There are many ways that you can support us to make this website even better: we’re looking for graphic designers, content creators, and most importantly, feedback. Please reach out to us at publicity@nullsealnetonline.org, or tech@nullsealnetonline.org.

We truly hope you enjoy this website as much as we enjoyed creating it. Have a good time exploring!

Cheers,

πŸ»πŸŽŠπŸŽ‰

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