Top all-time · #2826
Radek Sienkiewicz
Personal blog · velvetshark.com · on HN as sabonprogrammingdesignai
Radek Sienkiewicz writes VelvetShark, a personal blog at velvetshark.com about programming, design and ai. Since 2020, 27 different Hacker News readers have linked it 36 times, most often “Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (22) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Radek Sienkiewicz's blog, linked mostly for its essays on brand logos converging on similar shapes and for a humorous piece on AI company logos. HN readers cite these pieces when discussing design sameness.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 22 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Radek's personal website about learnings, challenges, software development, and much more.
Most-linked posts?
- Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?13 people · 13 mentions · first linked 2025-04-11
- Why do so many brands change their logos and look like everyone else?8 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2020-11-18
- /why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-10-09
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-03-24
What Hacker News says?
https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt... Some more than others
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “Mistral Large 4”Submitted Why do so many brands change their logos and look like everyone else? as a story · 546 points
HN discussionIt's a trend https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt... snark aside, they do have the best brand, the business team was constrained to one choice for simplicity, they picked claude
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “Anthropic S-1”Submitted Why do AI company logos look like buttholes? as a story · 155 points
HN discussionWhich one? https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956924
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “DeepSeek-v4.1-Flash-1017”Submitted Why do AI company logos look like buttholes? as a story · 116 points
HN discussionThey mention the OP in passing at the very end of the thread (OP is dated November 18, 2020 [1]; tweet is from July 9, 2022). Indeed, down in that thread, they even include an image from OP with attribution cropped! Btw, the first image in the thread is also a very widely shared image on Twitter with no attribution. Earliest I found in a quick reverse image search is from Dec 13 2018 [2], but I doubt it's the origin…
Comment linking /articles
on “Why do so many brands change their logos and look like everyone else?”Submitted Why do so many brands change their logos and look like everyone else? as a story · 54 points
HN discussionWhich is why I linked the related recent HN post about tons of different brands, across tech and fashion, that wiped out any trace of their individuality for bold, sans-serif logos. I agree, I think this designer is just a particularly shitty designer, but he's a shitty designer that's just copying the broader trend of minimalist design laziness. I think the last section in that linked HN article ( https://velvetsha…
Comment linking /articles/why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else
on “Pepsi: Breathtaking Design Strategy (2008) [pdf]”Submitted Why do so many brands change their logos and look like everyone else? as a story · 9 points
HN discussionHard, hard disagree. This good article has been discussed before on HN: https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-... It's not just a "perceived" loss of individuality. The new logos discussed in that linked article, especially the fashion ones, suck in my opinion because they're boring and they all look the same. They at least used to have some good degree of variability.
Comment linking /articles/why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else
on “Oxford University Press’s new logo is unfathomably bad”Submitted Why do so many brands change their logos and look like everyone else? as a story · 8 points
HN discussionThe curious but unsurprising[1] bit is that the typography, too, was replaced with a mundane and unrecognizable typeface. [1] https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32040506
Comment linking /articles/why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else
on “Oxford University Press’s new logo is unfathomably bad”Submitted Banana Straightener: AI image generation that gets it right as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf not penises... https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt...
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon”Submitted To get food, I learned Selenium and web scraping in one day as a story · 2 points
HN discussionVery good article. The hyperlinks within are worth checking. Wonder when the "blanding" term first appeared and when it started becoming apparent. Related, the logo part is also covered providing other possible reasons in https://velvetshark.com/articles/why-do-brands-change-their-... (HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32040506 ).
Comment linking /articles/why-do-brands-change-their-logos-and-look-like-everyone-else
on “Why everything looks the same”Submitted Why personal iPhone apps are finally worth building • VelvetShark as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI feel like they had to have read this and added that out of spite. https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt...
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “Remote MCP Support in Claude Code”Submitted Stop overpaying for OpenClaw: Multi-model routing guide as a story · 1 points
HN discussionMy personal website definitely helped me get hired. Here's how. Whenever I create something, either for work or personal, I add it to a "Featured" section on my website's homepage. Over time, it became such a nice and comprehensive list that I now use it every time when talking about past projects or whenever a "Can we see some examples of your past work or appearances?" comes up. It has different types of work and…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: Did you personal website help you get hired? Tell about it”Another example: [0] Have to say this never would have occurred to me. There are also examples of US people being offended by scenes considered harmless in other cultures, ie the Totoro bathtub scene [1], search for "family bathing scene". I guess if this hologram offended people, there must be some nice stories about Nirvana's Nevermind (1991). [0] https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt... [1]…
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “Windows brings out the Rorschach test in everyone”Account recovery is by far the #1 kind of ticket any service will get. Either because people forget their credentials, lose their credentials, get hacked or get impersonated - and that's just the legitimate tickets, on top of that come illegitimate tickets from everyday script kiddies over ransom extortioners (i.e. the people that aim to steal "valuable" handles) to nation-state actors that, say, want to get access…
Comment linking /til/til-smartest-bears-dumbest-tourists-overlap
on “Meta confirms 1000s of Instagram accounts were hacked by abusing its AI chatbot”> This post is meant to be humorous Was anyone supposed to think a post about comparing logos to buttholes was meant to be serious? Either way, the joke doesn’t work if what you’re describing makes no sense (circle and gradient) and are stretching the definition to unrecognizability. > > Was that even written by a human? > https://velvetshark.com/ So, probably not: > I build AI agent systems and help companies imple…
Comment linking /
on “iPhone 17 Pro Demonstrated Running a 400B LLM”"PS. This post is meant to be humorous, but let's not pretend there isn't a serious point here about the depressing sameness in modern design. No actual anuses were consulted during this research, though several designers were clearly thinking about them." > Was that even written by a human? https://velvetshark.com/
Comment linking /
on “iPhone 17 Pro Demonstrated Running a 400B LLM”there is a case to be made that all AI company logos are just drawings of assholes: https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt...
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “iPhone 17 Pro Demonstrated Running a 400B LLM”https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt...
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “Why did Anthropic chose an anus for Claude's logo?”Seems the AIs are quite self aware. "If you pay attention to AI company branding, you'll notice a pattern: 1 Circular shape (often with a gradient) 2 Central opening or focal point 3 Radiating elements from the center 4 Soft, organic curves Sound familiar?" https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt...
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “I Gave Claude Access to My Pen Plotter”Yet another AI company where the logo follows the butthole convergence rule [0] ? As an aside, my favorite Sierra Entertainment logo version is probably the 1983-1993 version [1]. I think the design still holds up even today. [0] https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt... [1] https://logos-world.net/sierra-entertainment-logo/
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation”Can't spell Manus without anus. What is it with AI companies and buttholes? https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-butt...
Comment linking /ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
on “Manus AI 100M USD ARR”
