Create a new Druplicon logo for Bartik

For 10 months, Bartik had a black header as the default. Then it had a dark grey header by default. Then on the last day of Bartik's life in contrib, the default was switch to blue.

I grabbed the grey Druplicon out of Stark way back when I first started making Bartik, mostly because I wanted something, and I didn't want the same blue Druplicon that Garland uses. When Bartik had a black/grey header, it worked. Worked ok.

I do think we can do better, and that a new logo would go a long way in making a better first impression. Either that, or turning off the logo by default.

I contacted Mortendk last week, to see if a logo for Bartik could come from the same land that created these fun druplicons: http://cph2010.drupal.org/swag Maybe something like this, without the glasses:

Are their other illustrators around who'd be interested in drawing something up? Druplicon seems like the right object, just maybe one that has a bit more life and energy than the one we're used to seeing in Garland and Stark.

Retitling.

Bump! Any illustrators out there?

Great initiative.

Apart from creating a new druplicon, we could also think further and develop a wider range of ideas.
Since Bartik is the new default theme, branding is an issue here and the logo should be drupal-related. But this does not tie it down to druplicon-similar shapes.

What I experienced when there were competing mockups for logos, is mostly the one which dared to go furthest away from what the client wanted won - well not exactly, but for sure the one that introduced the most bold and striking idea.

So how about visual brainstorming around drupal - drupal can be a lot. Community-software, serious business software, and of course all the great things that have been done to druplicon over the years.

When creating some alternative mockups for header and sidebar blocks, I tried myself at typographic symbols, but did not get up to much, since the time was too short. Working around a D or a B would relate to drupal or bartik and allow for quite some variants.

One thing should be kept in mind: the new logo must look good on any color. So either it is half-transparent (which probably won't work since it would disappear on shades of colors that are the same) or/and one makes it dark with a soft bright outline, or bright with a soft dark outline, which works on any background.

As to working on any color probably keeping it in the white / gray / black area is the most secure option. Really recoloring the logo probably won't be possible since

@eigentor I think you are going too far with this :) We are not going to start drupal branding discussion I hope, we want to add a temporary logo here, which most of the people will change anyway.

Either go with an abstract logo, that won't say much if its Drupal or not (making the theme more generic), or go with a simplistic druplicon.

I will try to come up with something this weekend.
Any other ideas that might help?

Yeah, we aren't rebranding Drupal with a new logo, created by group discussion in an issue queue.

We are using Druplicon.
What I'm asking for is a new drawing of Druplicon.
That is it.

Please do not get distracted by eigentor's wide open discussion of all the possibilities in the universe. He's been doing this on Bartik issues for months. Reframing the original discussion to be so wide that nothing ever gets done does not help. So we aren't doing that. We are using the Druplicon. Thus the title of this issue: Create a new Druplicon logo for Bartik

Anyone got a drawing? You can use the images at http://cph2010.drupal.org/swag as a staring place. I think if the DrupalCon organizers weren't so busy organizing DrupalCon (and WOW are they doing a lot of work right now), we could have gotten something from over there. Since that's not happening, does someone else will illustration skills want to step up?

I think having a friendlier looking Druplicon in Bartik is a great idea.

Lets all mob Morten at DC CPH and force him with threats of cheap Swedish (low alcohol no less) beer if he doesn't come through - I'll bring the beer, you hold him down ;)

I like the funny versions of Druplicon! They have the message, that Drupalers are kind, happy people. Those druplicons work well as logos of special Drupal related events.

But!

The original Druplicon identifies Drupal. I believe, that the strongest visual element of the Drupal identity is the Druplicon. So we are not alowed to use anything else in the default theme of a fresh Drupal install, just the original blue Druplicon, without any modification!

(We may include some funny druplicons in theme's folder to let people play with them if they want to do so... just don't set any of them as default.)

Bartik, to me, seems clean and elegant. A tabula rasa for ideas. I think a cartoony logo, while friendly, might detract from the first impressions someone could get from an elegant interface. If it were going to change substantially from the original, I'd say go more abstract. Create a simple outline, transparent png, so the white would fade over whatever colors the user chose.

The abstract variations such as this one seem more grown-up. I think this is Dev Seed's?

The blue figure of the Drop.org logo had a nice shape and outline. It had a short point, it was rounder. Even without the face, it has a nice character.

How about a simple, no-face logo, with a white outline, and white to transparent fade? Too subtle? Wouldn't work on a white/light background tho. Or a plain white drop? Plain outline?

Maybe I'm too boring!

For reference: The Druplicon (including vector artwork)

Even if we took that druplicon and played a bit with lines/effects, it might be enough to give it some pop in Bartik.

I'd love to give this illustration need a shot. I create design in a variety of different mediums, Illustration being my favorite.

www.mean-e.com is my portfolio site, illustration work can be seen under "Personal Styles"

Let me give some effort into this and post back with something.

Here are two ideas. One is Druplicon-inspired - guess which ;) The trick to keep it adapting to the color of the header is to use a PNG and keep the black border opaque, but make the white fill demi-transparent.
It could also be inverted: grey, semi-transparent fill with white outline.

@skulldugs: Man, you make absolutely wonderful logos. Looking forward for your ideas!

@eigentor — We are using the Druplicon logo. Changing that is not open for discussion. This issue is about refreshing the Druplicon logo. Nice try, to distract us again :P Not falling for it. Setting #14 to > won't fix.

Another possible logo solution. The logo is transparent, so it would work with any color scheme applied to Bartik. Still a druplicon with a face, but face-forward, altered eyes and a bigger smile.

Wow, this looks great, especially on Blue Lagoon and Plum. +1 from me.

Re: the logo in #16 — I think the illustration itself could use some polish/improvement, but I *love* the idea of making it translucent so that it changes colors with the background. That is genius. And you've found just the right level of translucency.

Yeah the idea in #16 is awesome!

These logos in 20/21 look awesome tsi - very modern, love the translucency - can we get a patch with these sorted out so we can test more.

Great idea by dead_arm in #16, and wonderful execution by tsi in #20/etc.!

I'm still working to get a revised Druplicon. Perhaps sitting next to Mortendk will help! :P

And we need to include an IE6 fallback...

1. What are we going to do about IE6?
2. Have fun with #819222: logo.png copied to files/color/... and will only be updated on new save while testing the logos in different color schemes.
3. The differences between #16 and #20 really come down to how different we want Bartik to look. They're both transparent, which is awesome. #16 is a little softer, and more friendly looking. #20 is a great modernization of the Druplicon.
4. Both of these need work, especially when used with Ice, for example. Go Jen/Morten go!

@tim.plunkett: well, isn't it that Garland did not work for IE6 neither did the logo? If we care there could be some fallback solution like an outline version that also outlines the upper half-circle.

I like the Version of #20 #21 very much. Even though it uses default druplicon, the half-moon-like allegory gets some techno punch into it. Feels modernized a lot.

Hope the impression of Druplicon beint decapitated, cut in half is triggered for some people. Might be and must be checked.

Do we really need an IE6 fallback (however we would ever do that?).

Could be some issues with contrast here - wondering that this actually looks like to users with low contrast vision issues?

I don't know how this would work on these druplicon images since most of the image is semi-transparent, but the discussion at #703490: Use PNG24 images that degrade to PNG8 on IE6 could prove useful here.

I lookad at the screenshots of #20 a few times today. And I still feel the contrast is to high.
It feels like the sun is 'burning' on druplicon, and maybe it would be better if it was 'shining' ;).

But it just could be my brain adjusting to this new and nice logo.

I could get used to that one ;)

For quick reference the logo.png from #32 in each color scheme.

This maybe sounds silly but why don't we keep the current druplicon for IE6 and make it blue? (in garland druplicon doesn't change colours does it?)
OR we use the new and fancy one, put it onto a blue theme and cut it out.

The maintainer of this theme is the person always telling me sites don't have to look the same. ;)

I'll make a screenshot how it looks like with the new and old icon in IE6 (probably awful)

It looks really bad :). Before and after...

My biggest worry about #32 is still the contrast. Here's the Garland version on the left, the new one on the right.

The bottom no longer looks like a shadow, it looks like a completely separate hemisphere.

I think #16 had a better handle on the gradient, maybe meet somewhere halfway?

When you line them up side by side like that I see what you mean - yes maybe somewhere half way.

Image from above:

If we make the shadow just a litte bit more transparent I think we will be in good shape ... I love how this is shaping up :)

screenshot from #40

Looks *much* *much* better.

Just realized that a transparent logo will not work with a patterned or image-based header. A transparent logo assumes that the header will be a solid color or gradient, but with Noggin someone can upload an image.

@43 - don't think that's really the concern here, it just has to work on a default install, not with every conceivable header image, background etc (which is basically impossible).

Screw IE6.

On viewing these again I'd lean for 34, I really like them - see what Jen says.

What's all this "screw IE6" stuff? Core includes a fair amount of support for IE6, I think it is irresponsible for the default theme to disregard that with a new logo.

I'm not saying we have to create a logo that works great in IE6, but we should take IE6 into consideration.

Including a link to this again for reference: #703490: Use PNG24 images that degrade to PNG8 on IE6

@45 IE6 support only has to be to the extent that the theme is not broken, I don't rate this as breaking IE6, not looking at is best granted, but if you want to jump through hoops for a dead browser, be my guest, frankly after 9 years of doing so I'm a little tired of it.

Garland recolored the logo background, which required pixel perfection positioning, if the logo moves just 1px vertically it looks bad.

I cant see how that technique you linked to will work for a re-colorable background (and a gradient at that).

For easy comparison...
Top is from #34.
Bottom is from #41.

Personally, I favour #34, but I'm no design expert ;)

Image from 48.

My vote goes to top row / #34... it makes the logo pop very well.

Also, w/r/t image backgrounds; 99% of people who actually build a real site will be removing the Druplicon. All we need to ensure is that the theme looks gorgeous out of the box—after that, it's up to a themer.

I like geerlingguy's reasoning in #50 ... +1 for #49 top row

Looks like the majority are in agreement here:

RTBC to http://drupal.org/files/issues/logo_0_2.png

FYI - I'm using this as the default logo for Antonelli at the moment and it just looks great ;)

Wait, I thought there was more consensus for the bottom row, #40 (http://drupal.org/files/issues/logo_0_3.png)? At least dead_arm, aspilicious and me.
Since it is a less harsh, more faithful adaptation of the original Druplicon, and doesn't look like a Druplicon sunny-side up.

You're out-voted 4 to 3, that's a majority in my book ;) I've tried both on a lot of variations of the background gradient and I really do think that overall the one in #34 works better. I like that it pops and screams a bit, why the hell not?

Back to RTBC then

Please wait for jensimmons to sign off. 4-3 including the designer is a slim margin.

Yep. This needs Jen's sign-off.

(Though fwiw, I like the bottom row of #49 better :P That's probably an argument for using the top one. ;))

Hello from Beijing. Like webchick, I like the bottom row in #49 better. The highlight just looks like a subtle highlight, rather than a harsh one.

Let's commit that one.

I did have hopes (as expressed in comment #2) of getting a new drawing, something a bit friendlier. It hasn't happened. So let's commit what we have. Perhaps something will happen later with a new drawing. Perhaps it won't / or it will simply be too late.

I like the work that has been done here. The idea of making whatever logo we was translucent is a good one. Thanks everyone for all the great work.

Hooray! OK so to be clear that's RTBC for http://drupal.org/files/issues/logo_0_3.png

Now that we've decided on which version to commit, I have to point out that both versions were a little bit bigger than the current Druplicon in Bartik. The image dimensions are they same (65x73), but the original Druplicon has some whitespace built into the image.

tsi, would you mind uploading another one with closer dimensions, or uploading the vector and I'll do it?

Oh, yeah, we don't want to make the logo bigger. Good catch Tim. Setting to needs work.

tsi ... would you mind uploading the vector in either case, so its attached to this issue.

Nice work tsi, but am I the only one who thinks this tiny little logo looks naff? The big one is so much awesomer!

Oh well, you win some you loose some :)

Committed to CVS HEAD. Thanks.

I ran the druplicon through ImageOptim to shave off some bytes.

Created a follow on issue: #922094: Smush Bartiks images to take care of Bartiks other images.

Setting needs review for #67

Committed to HEAD. Thanks!

See next post:

Here's a high-res version of the glossy icon.

This can be further processed in Gimp or Photoshop for resizing or compression.

I'm looking for cool logos mentioned in #2 . the link (http://cph2010.drupal.org/swag) is not working any more. Does any one can help me?

I see the DC CPH site was turned into static HTML, so all paths now have .html - like so: http://cph2010.drupal.org/swag.html

Thanks.