Discussion:
Changing the MediaWiki logo?
Chad
2012-06-12 21:47:46 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

Little bit of a different thread today--but something's been kind of biting
at me over the last couple of weeks and I thought it'd be best to get it
out there :)

What support would there be for changing the MediaWiki logo and
being consistent with it?

I'm not suggesting a drastic change, like substituting puppies for the
flower. I'm looking at a more subtle change, as in moving from our
current logo to something like[0]. Originally, I didn't like the SVG version
but over time it's managed to grow on me quite a bit. Although, I stil
think the text could use tweaking, something closer to the current color
would be nice. There's a couple of pretty big reasons I think we should
switch to this (or something like it):

1) It scales much nicer. The current version looks absolutely awful at
higher resolutions, and at lower ends becomes rather featureless. A
version natively designed as an SVG (but keeping the original design
ideas) takes care of that.
2) It fits much nicer with the other WMF logos (other than the puzzle
globe, which will never match :)
3) We've already started selling stickers based on the SVG version[1],
so it might be good to update it on MediaWiki.org to match.

So...thoughts? Should we do this more formal-like in an RfC or
something? Other colors you'd like to paint the bikeshed?

-Chad

[0] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mediawiki_logo_reworked_2.svg
[1] http://shop.wikimedia.org/products/wikimedia-project-stickers-pack-of-12
David Gerard
2012-06-12 22:01:23 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chad
What support would there be for changing the MediaWiki logo and
being consistent with it?
Very little, I'd hope. I think the SVG rendering is horrible compared
to the photo version.
Post by Chad
1) It scales much nicer. The current version looks absolutely awful at
higher resolutions,
Well, it will if you scale it up from 135px ... the original photo's
in pretty darned high resolution.
Post by Chad
and at lower ends becomes rather featureless.
Would pixel-tweaking help? What applications are you thinking of?


- d.
John Du Hart
2012-06-12 22:03:40 UTC
Permalink
I support that fully.
Post by Chad
Hi,
Little bit of a different thread today--but something's been kind of biting
at me over the last couple of weeks and I thought it'd be best to get it
out there :)
What support would there be for changing the MediaWiki logo and
being consistent with it?
I'm not suggesting a drastic change, like substituting puppies for the
flower. I'm looking at a more subtle change, as in moving from our
current logo to something like[0]. Originally, I didn't like the SVG version
but over time it's managed to grow on me quite a bit. Although, I stil
think the text could use tweaking, something closer to the current color
would be nice. There's a couple of pretty big reasons I think we should
1) It scales much nicer. The current version looks absolutely awful at
higher resolutions, and at lower ends becomes rather featureless. A
version natively designed as an SVG (but keeping the original design
ideas) takes care of that.
2) It fits much nicer with the other WMF logos (other than the puzzle
globe, which will never match :)
3) We've already started selling stickers based on the SVG version[1],
so it might be good to update it on MediaWiki.org to match.
So...thoughts? Should we do this more formal-like in an RfC or
something? Other colors you'd like to paint the bikeshed?
-Chad
[0] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mediawiki_logo_reworked_2.svg
[1]
http://shop.wikimedia.org/products/wikimedia-project-stickers-pack-of-12
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Lewis Cawte
2012-06-12 22:15:57 UTC
Permalink
I support this, for all the reasons listed below. I don't think I can
find any problem in doing so either...

-- Lewis Cawte
Post by Chad
Hi,
Little bit of a different thread today--but something's been kind of biting
at me over the last couple of weeks and I thought it'd be best to get it
out there :)
What support would there be for changing the MediaWiki logo and
being consistent with it?
I'm not suggesting a drastic change, like substituting puppies for the
flower. I'm looking at a more subtle change, as in moving from our
current logo to something like[0]. Originally, I didn't like the SVG version
but over time it's managed to grow on me quite a bit. Although, I stil
think the text could use tweaking, something closer to the current color
would be nice. There's a couple of pretty big reasons I think we should
1) It scales much nicer. The current version looks absolutely awful at
higher resolutions, and at lower ends becomes rather featureless. A
version natively designed as an SVG (but keeping the original design
ideas) takes care of that.
2) It fits much nicer with the other WMF logos (other than the puzzle
globe, which will never match :)
3) We've already started selling stickers based on the SVG version[1],
so it might be good to update it on MediaWiki.org to match.
So...thoughts? Should we do this more formal-like in an RfC or
something? Other colors you'd like to paint the bikeshed?
-Chad
[0] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mediawiki_logo_reworked_2.svg
[1] http://shop.wikimedia.org/products/wikimedia-project-stickers-pack-of-12
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Tim Starling
2012-06-13 00:03:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chad
1) It scales much nicer. The current version looks absolutely awful at
higher resolutions, and at lower ends becomes rather featureless. A
version natively designed as an SVG (but keeping the original design
ideas) takes care of that.
In the proposed logo, the lines between the petals are hard to see at
135px, and are almost invisible at 75px. With no shading, it just
looks like a yellow blob.

The solid brown circle in the middle draws the eye, it seems large and
dominating, and it doesn't match the colour of the original.

I'm not opposed to switching to a vector logo, I just think we should
try to do a proper job of it, say by contracting a graphic designer.
It doesn't need to be expensive.

I don't know what file you're using as a source when you scale up the
logo: I couldn't find Brion's full-resolution original on Commons.
It's in /trunk/artwork in Subversion, admittedly only at 612px width,
still too small for print, but definitely better than trying to scale
it up from 135px.

-- Tim Starling
Tim Starling
2012-06-13 00:39:54 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tim Starling
I don't know what file you're using as a source when you scale up the
logo: I couldn't find Brion's full-resolution original on Commons.
It's in /trunk/artwork in Subversion, admittedly only at 612px width,
still too small for print, but definitely better than trying to scale
it up from 135px.
I converted it to PNG and uploaded it to

Loading Image...

-- Tim Starling
Chad
2012-06-13 01:00:03 UTC
Permalink
Post by Tim Starling
Post by Chad
1) It scales much nicer. The current version looks absolutely awful at
higher resolutions, and at lower ends becomes rather featureless. A
version natively designed as an SVG (but keeping the original design
ideas) takes care of that.
In the proposed logo, the lines between the petals are hard to see at
135px, and are almost invisible at 75px. With no shading, it just
looks like a yellow blob.
The solid brown circle in the middle draws the eye, it seems large and
dominating, and it doesn't match the colour of the original.
Indeed, it could use some cleanup. That being said, I like
the original *intent* of it.
Post by Tim Starling
I'm not opposed to switching to a vector logo, I just think we should
try to do a proper job of it, say by contracting a graphic designer.
It doesn't need to be expensive.
We've also got quite a few talented graphic artists amongst the
community, as well as a couple of people inside the Foundation
who are good at this too. Perhaps we should see what they can
come up with first :)
Post by Tim Starling
I don't know what file you're using as a source when you scale up the
logo: I couldn't find Brion's full-resolution original on Commons.
It's in /trunk/artwork in Subversion, admittedly only at 612px width,
still too small for print, but definitely better than trying to scale
it up from 135px.
It would seem a product of me using a poorly sized image
and expecting it to scale. The example in your followup e-mail
does look fine at larger resolutions.

-Chad
Amir E. Aharoni
2012-06-13 06:29:19 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chad
What support would there be for changing the MediaWiki logo and
being consistent with it?
I like the general idea of moving to SVG, but the current SVG image is
too blocky.

Something like [1] with less blocky petals may change my mind.

[1] Loading Image...

--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
‪“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬
Derric Atzrott
2012-06-13 13:11:18 UTC
Permalink
Agreed. If we want to do this, then it needs to be done right.

I fully support the idea of switching to a fully SVG logo as well though. Vectors are almost always the proper choice for logos.

Thank you,
Derric Atzrott

-----Original Message-----
From: wikitech-l-***@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikitech-l-***@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Amir E. Aharoni
Sent: 13 June 2012 02:29
To: Wikimedia developers
Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] Changing the MediaWiki logo?
What support would there be for changing the MediaWiki logo and being
consistent with it?
I like the general idea of moving to SVG, but the current SVG image is too blocky.

Something like [1] with less blocky petals may change my mind.

[1] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikitech-logo.png

--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com ‪“We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

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Antoine Musso
2012-06-13 07:43:36 UTC
Permalink
Chad wrote:
<snip>
Post by Chad
What support would there be for changing the MediaWiki logo and
being consistent with it?
That was asked back in Nov 2010:

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/50637

I haven't change my mind: if we want to clone the existing one, make
sure the end result is colourful and as good as the current one.


Organizing a logo context, just like we did for the Wikipedia logo, is
probably the best idea. Thanks Trevor for remembering us about it.
--
Antoine "hashar" Musso
Chad
2012-06-13 20:29:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by Antoine Musso
<snip>
Post by Chad
What support would there be for changing the MediaWiki logo and
being consistent with it?
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.technical/50637
I haven't change my mind: if we want to clone the existing one, make
sure the end result is colourful and as good as the current one.
Organizing a logo context, just like we did for the Wikipedia logo, is
probably the best idea. Thanks Trevor for remembering us about it.
I think a contest may indeed be in order then :)

-Chad
David Gerard
2012-06-13 20:31:41 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chad
Post by Antoine Musso
Organizing a logo context, just like we did for the Wikipedia logo, is
probably the best idea. Thanks Trevor for remembering us about it.
I think a contest may indeed be in order then :)
The key objection last time was that the current logo looks alive, all
proposed replacements look dead. Just please note that for the contest
...


- d.
Chad
2012-06-13 20:35:30 UTC
Permalink
Post by David Gerard
Post by Chad
Post by Antoine Musso
Organizing a logo context, just like we did for the Wikipedia logo, is
probably the best idea. Thanks Trevor for remembering us about it.
I think a contest may indeed be in order then :)
The key objection last time was that the current logo looks alive, all
proposed replacements look dead. Just please note that for the contest
...
So we'll have some contingency in the rules saying "if they all suck, we'll
just stick with the current one." Easy enough.

-Chad
Brandon Harris
2012-06-13 20:33:05 UTC
Permalink
Post by Chad
I think a contest may indeed be in order then :)
Clearly more unicorns are required.


---
Brandon Harris, Senior Designer, Wikimedia Foundation

Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Antoine Musso
2012-06-13 21:01:11 UTC
Permalink
Post by Brandon Harris
Post by Chad
I think a contest may indeed be in order then :)
Clearly more unicorns are required.
lets open a context on reddit :-]
--
Antoine "hashar" Musso
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