We need a cool logo

[pir]

Sure, logos change over the years, as organizations feel they need to show they're going with the times -- that's not a modern phenomenon, that's been happening all along, though they're usually careful to not change too much all at once, because then you lose the brand association. If somebody designs an old-fashioned logo today, it's because the organization wants to evoke an old-fashioned feeling -- but they won't go all the way back in any case, because even for organizations that value tradition, they can't be seen as standing still. You won't get the same curlicues and laurel wreaths and eagles today, though you might occasionally see similar fonts because fonts are amazingly evocative of a period in time all by themselves.

The League of American Wheelmen is today's League of American Bicyclists, and their logo is a good example of that behaviour -- it has undergone a number of changes (I didn't search for long, so I don't know how many iterations in total; I've seen at least 2 more than the ones I copied here). In fact their name has changed as well, to adjust to a change in language (which is also happily gender-neutral now). It is actually quite interesting because they went hyper-modern for a while, and then more recently brought back a retro look of the original logo. Personally, I like that one a lot better than the very modern one, which to my eyes had lost all connection to the organization's long past, and was just a swish, and about a gazillion organizations have some form of swish in their logo now. The retro one is quite good; it is more stylized but still has "swing", it got rid of the Fraktur font, it plays a bit with the alignment, it's opened up the spokes, but it is still very reminiscent of the original. It seems to fit the organization because riding a bike IS a bit retro.

league of american wheelmen.png

d0d477867ec6f9f90148a390238f3cfc.jpg

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, I didn't know "wheelman" was an old word for bicyclist.

Would you really want a logo that's in style similar to the original LAW logo? I don't feel we are an old-fashioned kind of organization. But we might well be one that looks to both the past and the future; we value proven methods and cherish solid materials even if they are older, but are willing to experiment with new ways at the same time. Maybe we should have a retro-style logo.

[astromule]

I'm for a retro logo. Something that I wanted to add is that I wasn't proposing that we use a picture already taken (the one with Vargas Llosa and others), but to take the position of the figures and draw something similar. We could hire an illustrator, such as Bakunin did for his project. I don't believe that we should be representative of prospective members that perhaps will never come: most people here are studing several languages, so I don't see the problem in doing a theme with historical polyglots. Instead, we should put it up to vote with the members that we have now. We could divide the poll in several categories, such as retro/modern; with people (Mezzofanti)/without people; with words in it/without words, etc.

I thought that the name was already decided. Aren't we "Language Learners" (the same as the site adress)?

[Brun Ugle]

I thought the name was decided too, but it still says, "New name coming soon" under the name.

[tomgosse]

If you look at the best-known logos, you'll find they're quite simple, and visually striking through strong graphic design features, not complexity. They also, at their best, form some association between what's depicted and the organization they represent (though being visually striking is more important), and colours are carefully picked to lead people to infer certain characteristics (red-white-blue in the US is an appeal to patriotism). They need to display well at various resolutions, so they can't have too much fine detail. Depictions of people are rare, because you a) need instant recognition even when strongly stylized, b) strong association of that person with your brand, and c) permission, of course.

We need someone who can channel Saul Bass.
Some of his corporate logos:

Saul_Bass_Logos_t.jpg

[Zireael]

I just looked back at pjr's posting again, and the way he'd written ALLF hit me in the eye, and I read it as "Alf" (a one time common abbreviation of a one time common first-name "Alfred"). I think I'm going to think of this forum as "Alf" for some time to come ...

However, I also had a sort of mental image of a 3-D representation of those letters, drawn quite large, in outline. Could be done quite simply, or more elaborately. Perhaps with words in smaller letters (using some of the nice scripts emk refers to) saying something about what we do, in various languages, superimposed on the large ALLF, but still leaving it legible. Or something like that.

I like "Alf" as a forum's nickname and the idea with letters is really cool. The question is, what would the words be? UniLang has a similar thing going on with the "Hello!" in various languages in their logo...

[tommus]

I like HTLAL's animated logo. It is eye-catching. I think we need an eye-catching logo.

I suggest an animated hand writing logo something like "Welcome to our Forum" in a number of languages. Animated hands writing and drawing are becoming very popular in advertising and presentations. They are very attention-grabbing. Some people may find this kind of a logo annoying. Most probably would find it eye-catching. You only have to look at it briefly, unless you are fascinated and want to stare at it.

I don't know how difficult it would be to have such a logo. It might be as easy an an animated GIF. Some clever person would be required to build it. Or we could possibly buy it from a commercial animator.

We could have the writing repeat in many languages. If it needs to be limited to just a few, we could use the six official languages of the United Nations; Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Those are major languages on our forum, and they would provide an interesting variety of scripts for the logo.

Here is a sample from You Tube

[astromule]

We should adopt the Kleenex logo: "for all the times that you're going to cry while learning a new language".

If you look at the best-known logos, you'll find they're quite simple, and visually striking through strong graphic design features, not complexity. They also, at their best, form some association between what's depicted and the organization they represent (though being visually striking is more important), and colours are carefully picked to lead people to infer certain characteristics (red-white-blue in the US is an appeal to patriotism). They need to display well at various resolutions, so they can't have too much fine detail. Depictions of people are rare, because you a) need instant recognition even when strongly stylized, b) strong association of that person with your brand, and c) permission, of course.

We need someone who can channel Saul Bass.
Some of his corporate logos:

Saul_Bass_Logos_t.jpg

[smallwhite]

I have a suggestion for a banner / an illustration, not a logo but maybe the idea could lead to a logo.

A banner across the top of the page, filled with words in different languages, in font size about 10, ie. legible but not that easily. Then when you hover your mouse over this banner, you get a magnifying glass, and you can see sections of the banner magnified. Like how on shopping websites you get a picture of the product, and you can magnify different parts of the product as you move the magnifying glass around. So there's interaction, there's motion, a bit of fun, there's the sense of you exploring, and I believe there are ready-made scripts such that we just need to supply a static picture filled with words. The picture can be a group effort, eg. natives translating the agreed word or phrase, and supplying pics of the word in nice fonts.

[tomgosse]

I came across this site, Fiver, where you can commission artists to design a logo for you on the cheap. Cheap as in $5. I haven't used them, but it seems that you sign up, browse through artists' samples, hire someone, and they send you a logo. Since the administrators and moderators would be responsible for how and where the logo is used I'll leave it up to them to check it out further. I hope this helps get the ball moving.

[astromule]

Mmm... too expensive. But I'm willing to pay one Argentine peso, which oficially is 0.10 USD, but in reality is much less.

I came across this site, Fiver, where you can commission artists to design a logo for you on the cheap. Cheap as in $5. I haven't used them, but it seems that you sign up, browse through artist's samples, hire someone, and they send you a logo. Since the administrators and moderators would be responsible for how and where the logo is used I'll leave it up to them to check it out further. I hope this helps get the ball moving.