The Story of Our Logo

My best diving experience, since today, was at an exotic trip i traveled with John at Indonesia and specific in Lembongan – Bali.

So, we reach the dive site, by an old time traditional small boat. The agony is huge, the plan is to see giant manta rays, but of course none diving center in the world can guarantee what exactly you will see, if you will see it or in which distance you will see it. “Here is our spot and often mantas are around”, the dive guide said. A little bit further, a small group of people are doing snorkeling; they are all together in the same spot. Oh! What’s that on the surface? UNBELIEVABLE!! A huge manta just appeared and we have not even touch the water. We assembly quickly our gear and jump into the water not losing our exotic friend. We are facing something really amazing!! We are surrounded by 5 manta rays 2 meters each…Giants!!

They are flying over our heads like exotic birds moving slow and dancing as a ballet dancer. Total harmony, total quiet, total magic. Suddenly the dive master grabs me gently from the back. Exactly over my head 1,5 meter away is a manta. He pushes me slowly up and I’m facing the huge animal so close! I’m scared and I’m trying to move backwards not to touch it. Yiannis calms me down. I now feel no fear and I’m hunting to touch the mantas.

Yiannis is excited! Our mind can’t realize all this beauty. Unfortunately is time to go up. We are now far away from mantas on our way back, feeling bad not seeing them. But then happened the most magic moment of all!! A manta is coming directly on Yiannis with great speed. It is passing next to him with its wings up. That was exactly like saying a goodbye to him. We are coming out of the water speechless. For several days we are discussing this great experience. It was our best dive of our lives until today. Our trip ends, we are flying back in Athens with countless images on our minds.

After several months…we are now organizing our diving center, which has already its name. We are going to call it Diveness, Yiannis says. There is not such a word but it’s coming from the words dive and madness he says, or in other words MAD ABOUT SCUBA ! Nice! It express us, it’s perfect!! Logo?? What about the logo? We have to find professional graphic designer, Yiannis says. I propose to him to draw it. He says these things need big experience. I think no shit! These things need love and life experience. So I draw 4 different logos. Ships, octopuses, ropes, sea, bubbles. He doesn’t like none of these. He asks me something minimal. Oh! Click! The dive of my life. I draw 4 lines shaping a manta flying. I am emailing it to him. Oh! The diving of his life! Nothing else was said, the next days with a friend’s and partner’s help (Paraskevopoulos) we fix the digital version.

Put the most beautiful moments of your life in front of your eyes in your daily habits and you will secretly laugh every day even for a while.