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> [!NOTE] > This document is **Work In Progress** and being written and refined along with our community on [Discord](/discord), so subject to change and refinement. I ( <@EyZuL3hEV0fn0qxm5FFKAEgF1iA14txm> ) don't really have any experience with this process, so please be patient with me / us. > > Last updated: Sep 19th 23:30 UTC+2 ## Who we are MangaBaka is a community driven, non-profit, transparent and open database with information about manga, novels, manhua, manhwa, ec. series. We've been working on MangaBaka for about 18 months, myself ( <@EyZuL3hEV0fn0qxm5FFKAEgF1iA14txm> as primary owner ) full time for the entire period, without a daytime job or any other kind of salary. Today, we're a small'ish core team of ~20 nerds, along with a community of 40-50 contributors, 3rd-party app builders, etc. working towards a common goal of amazing data that is open and available to everyone by default. ## What we're looking for An artist and/or designer that can help us land a good logo and/or cute/recognizable mascot (see below) we can build our community around. The final combined outcome should be a cohesive visual identity and framework we can continue to build on and from as we continue to grow as community and project. Ideally, we would like to find someone to have a long time collaboration with, including additional ad-hoc commissions around seasons, events, Discord stickers / emojis etc. Not just a one-off thing. ## Budget We would ideally like to land at or below $500 for logo + mascot. Please do let us know if this is unrealistic or need a bit more to make it work for you, our budget isn't strictly fixed, but also not infinite (sadly!) We will, of course, also happily offer acknowledgement and contribution on our about page and such with link to your portfolio. ## What we like > [!NOTE] > these are AI generated, I'm not very good at describing things with text, so thought this would maybe help explain what style and vibe we're looking for - click the image for full screen version I don't believe we need any full body drawings, upper half and/or face should be sufficient.  _Alternative early iteration we played around with_  ### App Icons We're pretty happy with the direction and idea around the App icons, the "M" and "B" (MangaBaka) in the book cover, the cute ears sticking out behind them, the light and dark mode variants, etc. There are likely some polishing and light ideation needed to take them from 7/10 to 10/10, but as baseline, we're fairly happy with them. ### Mascot Today we temporarily borrow Maomao from MB!222 as our mascot, but thats not long term sustainable for a lot of reasons (including some legal ones). That being said, as a community we have a strong affinity for kitsune and cat girls (hence Maomao) in both cutie, derpie and snarky/cool depictions. The mascot shown here are just an idea and reference, we're not fully settled on it, so very happy with input and alternative suggestions ## License We're **not** _for profit_, our funding is fully donation driven and tracked in the open [via our OpenCollective](https://opencollective.com/mangabaka) page - but we do plan to use the mascot and logo for swag and merchandise. We are commissioning an original brand mascot for MangaBaka.org. We need the final character design and commissioned artwork to be exclusive to us, with assignment of all transferable copyright/economic rights to MangaBaka upon final payment. We need unrestricted worldwide, perpetual rights to use, modify, animate, create derivative artwork, commission other artists to draw the character, use it in our website/app/social media/advertising/merchandise, and register the character/design as part of our trademarks or brand identity. We also require layered source files. Please quote this as a full rights/buyout commission rather than a standard commercial-use licence. ## Other nice-to-haves / future plans Just to give an idea about what the future might hold for other projects and ideas. ### "Missing cover" art > [!NOTE] > these are AI generated, I'm not very good at describing things with text, so thought this would maybe help explain what style and vibe we're looking for - click the image for full screen version We've been playing with some ideas for a "Missing or no cover art" for a series, where we today also use Maomao.     ### "Reaction" mascots > [!NOTE] > these are AI generated, I'm not very good at describing things with text, so thought this would maybe help explain what style and vibe we're looking for - click the image for full screen version Don't overindex on the book cover and such, but more to show the idea of what could be Discord emojis or stickers in the future for the community   ## Know an artist or someone we should check out? Please add a comment with a link to the creator with maybe 1-2 reference images on the comment to show the style and why it would fit us well. And yes, you can add yourself. ## Contacting us Feel free to reach out on [Discord](/discord) (I'm `Jippi` there as well, with same the avatar) I can also be reached via e-mail on "My Username Here" ("jippi") @ mangabaka.org