History of Wikipedia's logo

Wikipedia was created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. They lunched wikipedia on January 15 2001. There first logo was short lived. Changed the first logo in the same year Wikipedia was launched. Wikipedia's second logo was used in 2001 to 2003 properly doing it's job of representing Wikipedia. A international contest held from July 20 to August 27 2003, gathering 150 proposals. After the early proposal by Chuck Smith on October 12, 2002, the contest was first proposed on June 14, 2003 by Erik Moeller, who argued that the logo (adopted in January 2002 from the Logo suggestions) was unaesthetic, not international, and portrayed a text-only Wikipedia.
The winner was Paul Stansifer and his design was the best fit for Wikipedia, but some changes was needed. After remodeling Paul Stansifer's Wikipedia's logo the official Third Wikipedia logo was created. By 2007, users discovered that the logo had some minor errors. The errors were not immediately fixed, because, according to Friedland, he could not locate the original project file. Friedland added that "I have tried to reconstruct it, but it never looks right" and that the logo "should be redrawn by a professional illustrator." Kizu Naoko, a Wikipedian, said that most Japanese users supported correcting the errors. In an e-mail to Noam Cohen of The New York Times, Kizu said that "It could be an option to leave them as they are. Most people don't take it serious and think the graphical logo is a sort of pot-au-feu of various letters without meaning."

Wikipedia's First logo
2001-2001

Winner of the international
contest for wikipedia's logo

Wikipedia's second logo
2001-2003

Wikipedia's Third logo
2003-2007

wikipedia's forth logo
2007-present

Logo notes

What is a Brand?

• Brand is the "perceived" emotional corporate image as a whole,it is the reputation both claimed and perceived.

What is Branding?

• An organization brand or branding is essentially their public image
• A designer can create the framework for a brand, colors, fonts, artwork, style

Branding Example

• Apple is an IT company that projects a humanist image, positive corporate ethics, and support of good causes
• When people use the products they connect the brand emotionally

What is Identity

• Corporate Identity is comprised of the visual aspects that form the brand
• Close attention is paid to executing a consistent experience for the viewer 

What is Identity Design?

• The corporate identity includes strict usage of colors, font families, graphic elements and other guidelines, usually detailed in a corporate identity guide
• The identity can include the logo, logo variations, business cards, labels, envelops, letterhead stationary, advertisements, tv commercials, packaging, etc.

What is a Logo?

• A logo is for identification
• A logo is the simplest way a company or organization can represent itself, through the use of a mark or icon.

Summary

• Brand-The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole
• Identity- The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand
• Logo- Identifies a business in its simplest form via the use of a mark or icon

Logo Design

Why Vector Art?

• We create logo's as vector art because it is flexible, power and easily edited, this is important when clients what to makes changes
• Vector art can be scaled up infinitely without losing quality!

Pencil to Vector

• Creating a logo design required many phases
• Many meetings and review sessions are required to arrive at a design that work
• Converting a simple pencil sketch to vector art requires establishing graphic style, color, line shape and typography

Final Art: Graphic Style

• Decide what your "graphic style" will be
• Will it be bold, simple
• Will it be sleek, technical and sedate?
• Will it be cartoony, fin and cool?
• Will it be high tech and 3D?
• There is a wide range of style to choose
• Choose what fits your concept and market

Final Art: Line Quality

• Line Quality refers to the smoothness and precise nature of your lines
• We use the pen tool to create perfect smooth lines
• Take your time with this part, if it doesn't look right try again!
• If you have line art in your logo your line shape is important!
• Do you want an artistic look to your line? 
• Try a custom "Art Brush" from the Brush Library in AI
• These line shapes are all created with the Stroke Palette in AI

Final Art: Line Shape

• If you have line art in your logo your line shape is important!
• Do your want an artistic look to your line? Try a custom "Art Brush" form the Brush Library

Color Matters!

• Color makes a huge difference, use color that are appropriate for your design 

Logo Design 

• General Rules and Styles for Designing Logo's

Logo Design Rules

• Describable
• Effective without color
• Memorable
• Scalable

Design Style

• Style 1: Typeface Focused. This style relies on typeface to create the logo design, creativity is utilized in the proximity, contrast, color, customization of the letter forms
• Style 2: Mixing typeface. This style uses 2 different type faces to create the logo design. Strive to create to the logo design. Strive to create a balanced design, typeface that are too similar will lack contrast in style.
• Style 3: Typeface plus graphic elements. This style uses simple graphic elements in addition to the typeface to create an emphasized and balanced design. Graphic elements remain abstract.
• Style 4: Typeface plus shapes/symbols. An even balance between art and typography is achieved in this style.
• Style 5: Graphic focused design. In this design the graphic elements are the focus or dominants aspect of the design, the typeface plays a supporting role.