Name Change! We Are ICON Pinas
Good day ICONists!
Our P-Rep team is excited to share with you news regarding our most recent name change. From this moment forward, we will be re-branding ourselves from Icon Pilipinas to ICON Pinas.
Background
When we first entered the ICON ecosystem as P-Rep #105 earlier this year (back in February), we did so as ICX enthusiasts who were already well aware of and very much drawn to the project’s extensive global reach.
In fact, we were inspired and motivated to register our own P-Rep node after observing so many other teams scattered throughout the world continuing to do so, on a regular basis.
At the time, although we didn’t know the finer details of what exactly each P-Rep team was doing to contribute to the ICON Project, we were nevertheless impressed by the fact that there were so many country-specific teams already registered, such as:
- ICON Sweden
- ICON Thailand
- ICX Australia
- ICON USA
- etc.
Since our team is located and based in Manila, naturally speaking, we initially thought going with the name ICON Philippines might make the most sense.
However, after giving more thought and consideration into what the official team name should be, we eventually settled on Icon Pilipinas.
Why exactly?
Pilipinas is the local name used to refer to this country of 7,000+ islands.
Furthermore, since we pretty much knew from the start that we wanted to focus on community building, we thought having Pilipinas in the team name would evoke a certain sense of pride and joy from our local members (which in hindsight, we think it most certainly did have that effect, to a large degree).
So, we definitely had our reasons for initially deciding to launch with the Icon Pilipinas team name, and even now we have no regrets with that decision, since at the time it seemed like the most obvious choice to make.
Initial Reactions
However, not too long upon launching our social media channels (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, YouTube, etc.), we quickly discovered that the name Pilipinas wasn’t always the easiest to remember, or spell correctly for a lot of people…
On far too many occasions, we would see replies to our team on social media with one of the following misspellings of Pilipinas:
- Philipinas
- Philippinas
- Pilipines
- Filipinas
- etc.
Now, when you actually stop and ponder for a minute, this isn’t something that should surprise anyone…
After all, universally speaking, there’s a good reason why confusing the P and F happens so often, in daily use.
- Philippines (by consensus, most people refer to the country using this name).
- Filipinos (by consensus, most people refer to the citizens/people of this country, using this name).
It can be challenging, and looking back, this is clearly something our team underestimated as being a potential pitfall in hindering our goal of coming up with a name that was both “simple and easy” to use.
Continuing to Grow
Nevertheless, we did still really like the Icon Pilipinas name and didn’t think much about changing it until in recent months, as our community has continued to evolve and grow.
As ICONists might recall, our P-Rep team most recently completed the ICON TikTok Battle! event, and one of the especially nice surprises that manifested from all the festivities was (to our knowledge) the VERY FIRST merchandise ever produced using the logo of our P-Rep team (contributed by @matT325, one of our most passionate community members 🥳).
Of course, we were very much overjoyed (not to mention overwhelmed) by the above efforts, since up to that point in time, we had not yet put in any real effort (or thoughts) towards planning for the release of any of our own merchandise. Instinctively, it probably felt premature, but this was a pleasant surprise, to say the least…
And shortly thereafter, the following mock-up design of what a conceptual team t-shirt might have looked like was shared with the community (shout out to community member @hijiogemaung for his excellent contributions)…
Most inspiring of all was that the overall community response to these efforts, which was incredibly positive and supportive!
Thus, the idea of an online merch store was born…
Not long after the conclusion of the ICON TikTok Battle! event, our team looked into spinning up our own website, thinking of all the different types of products we could potentially offer on there for our passionate community members…
And then it hit us… If we were going to attempt launching a merch store, we would have to look into matters more seriously, particularly in regards to things like compliance, making sure everything was set up in the right way.
After doing some extensive digging over the past month, our team quickly realized that using the word Pilipinas in any of our own future merchandise could/would prove problematic, since words like Pilipinas/Philippines/PH/etc. are not intended to be commercialized.
With that being said, worth noting, is that from the start, all we ever wanted out of a team name was something that could rally the people together (i.e., encourage a community to build something special that everyone could be proud of!).
Quite frankly speaking, after talking it over internally, our team concluded that it just wouldn’t be worth any kind of trouble going down this type of slippery slope…
Clearly, we needed to look for a better solution…
Here and Now
Actually, as it turns out, going back to the drawing board proved to be much less difficult than expected, as the answer that we needed was already baked into the original name…
ICON Pinas
When you say “Pinas” it still retains that same local vibe, and not only that, “Pinas” can actually be used as a nickname to refer to the country of Pilipinas.
In fact, some people would even argue the country should just be re-named as Pinas.
“I suggest we change Pilipinas, not to ‘Filipinas’ but to ‘Pinas,’” Sabel exclaimed. “It avoids all the P and F controversy, it’s short and practical, and that’s how many Filipinos, including OFWs and expatriates, refer to their country anyway — in a loving sort of manner: ‘I’m visiting Pinas’; ‘When were you last in Pinas?’ And in a weirdly tender way, they sometimes call it Naspi.”
So, with regards to evoking a sense of pride within the local community, we definitely feel confident that making the team name switch from Icon Pilipinas to ICON Pinas will not impede progress at all.
Furthermore, ICON Pinas is shorter to write, it has less syllables to say, and it should really eliminate any and all misspellings and confusion with the letters F and P (we hope).
And lastly, after putting in the finishing touches and watching this new ICON Pinas logo come to life, we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results!
Fortunately, instead of having to take a step back due to any changes, our team and community have already started to fully embrace the new ICON Pinas name and logo. 🙌 😎
We hope you’ll agree that we made the right decision.
In any case, regardless of what our P-Rep team name is, the main objective always remains the same:
Promote and grow ICON awareness and adoption to the best of our abilities and as much as we possibly can! 💪
Now, at ICON Pinas, it’s back to going full steam ahead, again!
P.S. Oh and yes, we have a merch store we need to get back to building. 🥳
Thanks for reading. Salamat po!
You can learn more about ICON Pinas by following us here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IconPinas/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqkwvlG2636SqqtjOYAxOhQ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IconPinas
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iconpinas
Telegram: https://t.me/icon_pinas
Medium: https://iconpinas.medium.com/
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