I don’t believe there was anything special about selecting an owl as our mascot other than the fact that owls are wise, and we were an education app. Greg Hartman: Luis and Severin knew they wanted a mascot to represent Duolingo from the beginning. Where did the idea for creating this character come from? Was it out of a love for owls or is there a deeper backstory? Duolingo offers over 100 total courses across 40 distinct languages, from Spanish, French, German and Japanese to Navajo and Yiddish. The company’s mission is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. The app makes learning new languages fun with bite-sized lessons that feel like playing a game. Today Duolingo is the most popular language-learning platform and the most downloaded education app worldwide. The company is based in Pittsburgh and currently employs around 500 people.

Can you share more information about Duolingo, when the company was founded and how the app works?ĭuolingo was founded in 2011 and launched the Duolingo app in 2012. Today we speak with Greg Hartman, Head of Art, Zaria Parvez, Social Media Manager, and Sam Dalsimer, Global Head of Communications, at Duolingo to discover the world of Duo. The story of their brand mascot, Duo, is less well-known than its app. With more than 500 million total downloads worldwide, people can learn from 103 total language courses for 40 distinct languages just by using Duolingo. Today, Duolingo is on a mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available for all. As Duolingo quickly became the most popular way to learn a language online, the brand had to figure out if their mascot was universal enough for a global brand.

Oh yes, and then there was the challenge in overcoming some negative folklore and superstitions associated with owls. That’s a bit of an inside joke between the company’s co-founders Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker. It was described as… creepy.ĭuo wasn’t supposed to be green either.

When he finally did receive an expression, it wasn’t cute. He didn’t have an expression on his face. Duo, the cheerful owl mascot for the language-learning website and app Duolingo, has an unusual origin story than most brand mascots.

Duolingo owl