What is the symbolism of the orange and gray Monero logo?

Question

I see that the Monero logo is basically a monogram with a white M whose ends extend to the circular sides. It also has a orange upper half and the gray lower half. What is the symbolism of this design and colors?

Answer 1

The logo is a creation of designer rantjack in logo design contest site 99design. There is no public statement by rantjack about a symbolism.

We can note that three of the four inspirations given in the brief (Bitcoin, NXT, Blackcoin) feature orange/yellow/gold color.

A similar question asked on BitcoinTalk forum have had not specific answer other than the general symbolism of orange:

Can someone show me why orange and gray were the colors chosen aside from the fact it looks nice (in a generic way), or if there was any deeper symbolism to the logo? not that it matters much but man and his symbols always fascinate me.

[Orange] combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, and stimulation.

Answer 2

I see a Monero sunrise...dawn of a new paradigm.

Answer 3

I see a black hat, which symbolizes a "black hat hacker", or more generally, a criminal on the Internet. I also see what seems to be a white hat overlapping the black hat. "White hat hacker" means an "ethical hacker" who is not a criminal. Black hat and white hat are common terms in the hacker community, probably almost everyone who uses Monero is familiar with these terms.

Monero is designed to be anonymous and untraceable, which is exactly the kind of currency that criminals on the Internet want to use. As a result, Monero is very popular among criminals on the Internet, so perhaps the black hat symbolizes this. Monero has even been delisted from various cryptocurrency exchanges due to this criminal reputation. Despite its popularity among criminals, Monero presents itself to the world as an ethical cryptocurrency focused on freedom and privacy. Hence the white hat overlapping the black hat underneath.

The orange part I am not sure about, but it could simply be based off of the Bitcoin logo which is also an orange circle.

Therefore, if you interpret the logo this way, you get:

• Orange = Orange circle representing Bitcoin / cryptocurrency
• White = White outline of a white hat
• Black = Black hat, stylized into the letter "M" for Monero

In other words, Monero is a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin (orange circle) which caters to the black hat online community (black hat shape) and presents itself in an ethical, "white hat" way (white outline).