Marking a Major Milestone

We've come to an exciting moment in this story we've collectively written. In March, our CouchSurfing community will reach the mark of one million members. To mark the milestone event of the millionth person to believe in this project, we're unveiling an equally striking upgrade to the CS website: a new logo and easier to use navigation.

Introducing the New "CS" Logo

Though it won't be released until the day we hit the million-member mark, here's a sneak peek at the new CS logo. The result of hundreds of submissions, several rounds of design and evaluation, combined with the efforts of our in-house design team, the logo redesign project has been a long time in the making. We've taken our time to gather feedback and incorporate the wishes of CouchSurfers around the world.

First, you've probably noticed the prominent letters "CS". Members from many languages have adopted this acronym to refer to their community. We incorporated this trend into the logo with these bold and memorable letterforms.

CS is a truly global community, with members on every continent, even in Antarctica! The globe symbol reflects the spirit of travel, and the instant accessibility of new friends and memorable experiences that our community provides.

Finally, we found the members identify strongly with that symbol of hospitality: the welcoming couch. It is "couch" surfing after all! We wanted a couch with room for the entire world!

Craving to know more? The launch of the new logo will include the detailed history and philosophy behind this collaborative design process.

Find Your Way Around Easier

Also launching in March after the millionth member is a much improved website navigation. The new navigation allows for single click access to the most commonly used areas of the site, and plans ahead for the new features to come. From our extensive user testing, we're confident you'll find these changes make the website much easier to use. But like anything new, it may take some adjusting. Here's a little overview to help you get prepped.

• The Home tab has been removed to make room for your profile, giving you easy access to your settings and friend information. You can still get home by clicking the logo.
  
  
• To use search for a couch, just click on Surf/Host! This section will expand in the future to include useful tools for hosts.
  
  
• Community is no longer a jumble of links (whew!). Now, it's where you'll find the most useful tools for connecting with your local community, including your groups and events.
  
  
• The Messages tab will be pretty much the same. Don't fix what isn't broken!
  
  
• Share is a place to share your opinion of the project and your support of the community through donation and CS gear. Shirts with the new logo are coming to CS gear soon!
  
  
• The Organization tab will fill you in on all the details about how CS runs, who's heading up the effort, and how this non-profit organization is structured.
  

Think something's missing? Don't worry, it's all still in there. Remember, this is just a preview. We haven't changed the layout of any of the pages other than the navigation. You'll find all your way around all of favorite features in no time.

And that's the story! We can't wait to reach that millionth member and show the world our brand new look. Besides making the new site more beautiful and easier to use, these changes are also a testimony to the forward thinking, globally interconnected, and incredibly diverse member base. One million is just the start. We're going to keep growing and spreading the CouchSurfing vision to more and more people.

Thank you, CouchSurfers, for bringing us all to this milestone! Stay tuned for more info on how you can join in the celebration!