LWJGL Logo, finishing touches

[Matzon]

First of all, I would like to thank all who participated in voting for the new logo, but mostly to the people that contributed the artwork to vote on: (in alphabetical order)

Fantus
Glen Moyes
Mac Systems
Mickey
Ryan Kitlitz
Skippy0
Thomas Schuster
Umar

if I forgot anyone, or you want to have name removed or changed, contact me

We had to do two iterations, but in the end we ended up with the winner of both votes. The winner is:
Glen Moyes - http://glenmoyes.com who created the winning entry: http://lwjgl.org/logo/take-2/6/

I have contacted Glen, with regards to the issues about creating variants of the winning entry, and he has agreed to do so based on comments from the users.

Please note that the this final polish is not meant to be a lenghty process with comming up with 432 new ideas and basically new logos, but rather just minor details that can  be tweaked on the current logo to get it perfect.

[Matzon]

right, I'll start out with a comment.

Of the two logos, I definately dont like the one with the slimmed LW part. I much prefer that the text is the same size.

I like the smaller 'powered by' logo - and I think the colors are just fine. However the larger logo looks kinda ... boring - or corporate as Glen put it
Some colors to either emphasize either one or more of the letters ought to look nice - however, I am not sure if that should propagate to the smaller one?

I like the orangy color on out site - and that might be a color we could try on the logo, unless it's too much ?

[kevglass]

I agree with the weighting issue (i.e. stick with equal weights for the letters). However, I think adding any more colour would dilute what you've already got. The crispness of the logo is enforced by the strict colours.

Maybe some sort of blue glow on the letters (or a background shape of pale blue) would work.

Kev

[princec]

Don't forget it's got to look excellent in poster monochrome as well.

Cas

[Orangy Tang]

I prefer the consistant, chunkier letters myself. But the slate blue is a tad drab I think. Also, like the smaller "powered" logo, I think the text in the larger one should be a different colour underneath the LWJGL bit.

[Metsys]

Here's the current list of things that I want to change in the logo:

Re-render the logo so that the perspective is better.
Make color variations
Explore other font solutions

Obviously I'm going to fine-tune the shape of the logo. The basic idea of the WASD keys is successful. So the concept won't change unless I somehow come up with a REALLY good idea. I might try and add something besides an oval in the back just to see what happens.

Color is going to be important. Since the only information I had to go by when creating the logo was the information on the web page, I decided to default with "corporate colors", in otherwords a mid-saturated blue. I will most certainly do some color studies.

And I'll look at other font possibilities, just for kicks. I agree that using the same font weight for the LWJGL text is more successful.

So that's what I have planned. However, in order to make the logo more successful, I'd like to find out what type of reaction you want people to get when they see the logo. Making a five-star logo is hard because you have to say exactly what you want visually. It's visual communication. You can say a lot with just shapes. Colors and combinations of colors give a specific emotional response. So does the font used, the line quality, and so on. So, in order to nail the logo, I'd like to know exactly what people want to say with it.

All I had to go buy was simply the acronym "LWJGL" and that it stood for a coding library for games. In reality that's all it is, in the same way that Apple Computers makes electronics and software. But the Apple logo says, "hip, cutting edge, clean, and high-end." That's all said visually.

So, instead of me guessing what you want the logo to say, I'd like to know what you want people to think when they see the perfect LWJGL logo. Do you want the logo to say what the OpenGL logo does, which is "universal, can be used for corporate purposes?" Or do you want to say, "we are all about making hardcore video games." Or do we want to say, "this is mainly ment for games, but you can use this for scientific simulations as well."

Put simply, what do you want LWJGL to be in the long run? If it was a product who would you market it to? If I understand what you want the LWJGL brand (as designers call it) to be, then I'll be more able to get that logo to say it.

Again, the concept of the logo, as it stands right now, won't change unless I have some stunning revelation. But on a scale of 1 to 5 when it comes to communicating what the LWJGL project is and what it's long-term goals are, I think the current design is about a 3 or a 4. The concept is successful, but I'm going to bring it up a notch or two. And if I can get that information out the community (specifically the developers ), I can bring the logo further.

On a side note, I won't be able to work on the logo until Friday. But it's a four-day weekend, so I'll have a lot of time to work on the logo then.

[Fool Running]

Has the final logo come through yet?

[Matzon]

I haven't heard from Glen for a while - I'll send him a mail

[Fool Running]

Almost a month.... Not to seem impatient, but any word? :?

[Matzon]

I got a mail from him yesterday. He has been without internet access for a while (!) but he send me the original eps/ai files.
He hasn't done any other work on it due to not having much time, and not having gotten much input on the whole reworking subject on this thread.

I therefore think we should just go with what we have now - and then update later on, if ever.

[Fool Running]

OK, thanks  

[MickeyB]

Not that I would push mine, and the logo of choice is very nice, but I am amazed it got so many votes.  There were others, other than mine , that were more eye capturing.  Anyway, good luck and looking forward to using it.