A Complete History of Unicorn Utterances

July 29, 2024

1,169 words

Today we're announcing that our developer education platform, which was once named "Unicorn Utterances", is now "Playful Programming".

Before saying "Goodbye" to the name, we thought it would be fun to zoom out and evaluate our history under the moniker "Unicorn Utterances".

Without further ado; the timeline of Unicorn Utterances.

Before The Launch

While Unicorn Utterances has always been a volunteer-ran platform, let's a look at our history as a whole:

  • October 2014: Corbin Crutchley (cofounder of the platform; author of this post) turns 16. Not only are they a year older; they started working at an adult high school as their only tech person. This role required them to learn Python and Bash; starting their career early on.

    Partly due to the new job, partly due to an overarching interest in tech; Corbin joined the social media platform Google+ (remember that?) and started talking with other people on the platform.

    The list of people they met would eventually be a whos-who of Unicorn Utterances alumni:

  • May 2018: Corbin starts working in person at a bootcamp nearby them. While they adored the students, peers, and process of teaching others - they found the high up-front cost and promises of work post-graduation (an impossible promise given the industry's volatility) to be arguably predatory. As a result, Corbin quits the bootcamp after only 5 months.

    After quitting the bootcamp, Corbin speaks with many of the students. They encourage Corbin to keep teaching and point out that there's nothing preventing them from doing so in their own context; outside of any other organization.

  • Early 2019: Inspired by the bootcamp students, Corbin approaches James Fenn and Evelyn Hathaway to help kickstart a platform where they're all able to teach people how to program.

  • May 19th, 2019: Evelyn Hathaway proposes the name for this new platform to include the word "Unicorn"; to ensure playfulness in the site. "Unicorn Utterances" is selected as the name for its alliteration and fun.

    Vukašin is approached to make a logo for the platform given the name.

    With a name selected and a logo on the way, the unicorn-utterances.com domain was registered.

  • May 20th, 2019: Vukašin provides the initial sketches that would turn into the Unicorn Utterances logo.

    Sketches on dotted paper with a speaking unicorn, a unicorn with glasses, and a unicorn with a tie

  • May 23rd, 2019: Vukašin iterates on the logo further in Figma:

    Nine digital unicorns with different facial expressions. The last three unicorns are encapsulated in a square box

    Corbin proposes adding an accessory that personalizes the Unicorn without making it too much of a nerd cliché; a bowtie.

    Four unicorns in black and white. Two with a bowtie, two without

    The logo is then finalized into what was shipped with the website for 5 years:

    The final iteration of the Unicorn Utterances logo with a bowtie and a smile

  • May 30th, 2019: Tom Wellington is approached to design the initial UI for the site.

  • May 31st, 2019: The initial commit of Unicorn Utterances is made, starting development in Gatsby.

  • June 5th, 2019: Tom provides the first mockups for the site:

    A site with a lightblue background, a simple list of articles without outlines, and the Unicorn logo. A header at the top reads "A software development blog focused on the kinds of things they don't teach you. Curated by Corbin Crutchley"

    Tom spends an inordinate amount of time iterating on this design in Figma, but ultimately lands on the following design for the initial launch:

    More site mockups with a search box, dark mode toggle, cards for articles, and previews of the content itself in the cards

    Tom did an amazing job on the initial design. I (Corbin) never fully followed this design pattern due to a lack of attention to detail.

    As a result, the initial launch of the site lacked much of the polish and features that Tom's designs demonstrated. Sorry about that, Tommy! 😅

The Launch

Maturing The Platform

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