In July 2026, an article published a year earlier on VelvetShark resurfaced on Hacker News and triggered an avalanche of reactions: over 400 points, 139 comments, and an amused consensus. Its thesis? The logos of artificial intelligence companies almost all resemble… a very specific piece of anatomy. Behind the joke, this phenomenon reveals a rampant homogenization of tech branding. Let’s dig a little deeper.
VelvetShark and the 2025 Wake-Up Call
Radek Sienkiewicz, author of the VelvetShark blog, published a biting post in 2025 titled “Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?”. The observation is straightforward: take the logos of the major AI players, mentally overlay them, and you always get the same recipe. A circular shape. A soft color gradient. A central opening. Rays or organic curves radiating around a focal point.
What Sienkiewicz describes is a genuine visual pattern. Not an isolated accident, but a major trend running through the entire AI ecosystem, from startups to industry giants.
The article got a spectacular second life in July 2026. Proof that the topic hits a nerve in the tech community: people laugh, they cringe, but above all they recognize the problem. AI brand design has become a lukewarm, interchangeable visual soup.
The Circular Logo Hall of Fame: From OpenAI to Anthropic
The most emblematic case remains OpenAI. The company swapped its original wordmark for a perfect circle, decked out with a subtle gradient and a central void. The official rationale speaks of “the dynamic intersection between humanity and technology,” of “fluidity and the warmth of human-centered thought through the use of circles.” Sienkiewicz translates it plainly: “We made a circular shape because it looked nice, then we wrote a pompous speech to justify the design.”
The real showstopper comes from Anthropic. The Claude logo, their AI assistant, pushes things even further. Sienkiewicz compares it to a drawing from Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “Breakfast of Champions.” The resemblance is hard to ignore. And since Claude’s 2026 update, one detail seals the case: click on the logo in the interface, and it contracts then releases, as if responding to an awkward poke. Hard to plead innocence after that.
A few exceptions prove the rule. DeepSeek and Midjourney escape the circular mold. Amusing coincidence: both have visual themes tied to the sea.
Why All AI Logos End Up Looking Alike
The phenomenon is hardly mystical. It answers to several well-identifiable mechanisms.
- The psychology of the circle: the circle evokes completeness, infinity, harmony. Reassuring values when you’re selling technology capable of replacing jobs. The circle is friendly, non-threatening.
- The copycat effect: as soon as OpenAI established its circular identity, the industry followed. A mold was set: “This is what a serious AI looks like.” Any startup that deviates risks appearing less legitimate.
- Design by committee: in large companies, a logo goes through ten layers of hierarchical approval. The final result is the average of everyone’s opinions, hence the blandest, most inoffensive, most circular proposal possible.
- Unintentional pareidolia: the human brain looks for familiar shapes everywhere. Sometimes, designers unintentionally recreate highly recognizable biological patterns. And no one in the approval chain dares raise their hand to say what everyone is thinking under their breath.
A Problem Bigger Than AI Alone
Logo homogenization doesn’t only affect artificial intelligence. Sienkiewicz reminds us that tech has already weathered several waves of visual conformism:
The 1990s-2000s imposed glossy 3D and drop shadows. Apple’s Aqua interface set the tone. Then came skeuomorphism (2010-2013), with its leather textures and realistic dials. The backlash was brutal: flat design (2013-2018) wiped everything clean, replaced by neumorphism (2018-2022) and its soft shadows. Today, we’re living through what Sienkiewicz bluntly calls “the sphincter era.”
Some historic logos have faced similar mishaps. The Zune logo, flipped upside down, spelled out an unflattering word. The logo of the Brazilian Institute of Oriental Studies, meant to depict a pagoda against a sunset, evoked an entirely different kind of architecture. The institute ended up changing its visual identity.
Breaking the Mold: Concrete Alternatives
For a company that refuses to melt its identity into the prevailing circular mold, there are paths forward.
Using sharp angles, geometric shapes with crisp edges, already cuts through the ambient softness. Working with negative space creatively, like the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo, delivers a memorable signature without falling into abstract roundness.
Avoiding radial symmetry and the systematic use of gradients is also a good start. Flat design hasn’t had its last word yet. Finally, testing the logo with diverse audiences, including fresh and unfiltered eyes, remains the best insurance against awkward anatomical surprises.
Tech brands like Slack (hashtag logo), Stripe (parallel lines), or Twitch (distinctive purple) prove you can build a strong identity without a circle or a central opening.
Key Takeaways
- AI company logos follow a near-universal visual model: circle, gradient, central opening, organic curves.
- This phenomenon stems as much from copycat behavior as from design-by-committee, and reflects a deep risk aversion in tech.
- The VelvetShark article, though humorous, points to a real unease: the visual homogenization of an entire sector.
- A few exceptions (DeepSeek, Midjourney) show you can exist without going full circle.
- Testing your logo with an honest audience remains the best defense against unintentional resemblances.
The topic makes you smile, but it questions our relationship with branding. While AIs are learning to generate ever more creative visuals, their creators seem to have forgotten how to produce any. If this angle resonates with you, let’s talk about it on the blog or on social media. And if you’re working on a visual identity for a tech project, show it to someone who will dare tell you the truth before launch.
Sources
- VelvetShark, original article “Why do AI company logos look like buttholes?” (2025, updated 2026): https://velvetshark.com/ai-company-logos-that-look-like-buttholes
- FastCompany, “The AI boom is creating a new logo trend: the swirling hexagon” (2023)
- Official logos of OpenAI and Anthropic, viewable on their respective websites