Meet the SUMO Logo Candidates
Last month I shared our plan of creating an official logo for SUMO and asked your help in brainstorming ideas around the design concept. We got a lot of great feedback from the community in the form of inspirational words and even some cool illustrations. Then, we incorporated all of these thoughts into the formal brief and engaged Rubber Design in rendering the actual logo. The creative direction was left relatively open, but it was important for the final logo to be:
- An illustrated logo based on the concept of SUMO, and not a typographic solution based on the word or acronym. To avoid confusion, it should also be detached from the traditional meaning of “sumo” as it relates to wrestling.
- A graphic image that can stand alone, like the Firefox logo. But may also be supplemented with wordmark options of: “SUMO” and/or “Open Source Support”.
- A natural fit within our existing family of visual identities – following a similar color palette and circular frame.
- Flexible, scalable, and effective across a variety of mediums.
After a few design rounds, we identified the strongest concepts to be those centered around the idea of “hands” – hands holding hands, reaching out, connecting, collaborating, supporting, and more. Rubber Design had some interesting solutions, and the resulting logo candidates are presented here:
Which one is your favorite? We feel that the right logo is in this batch, but need the help of the SUMO community to choose which one. (Read on for the designers’ interpretation of what each option represents.)
Logo descriptions provided by Rubber Design:
A) “This logo represents a place where people from all directions come to support SUMO. A place to connect, problem solve, join discussions and find solutions in an interconnected forum.”
B) “This logo is an interpretation of a SUMO member-supplied icon of a hand in a circle. The gear shapes provide reference to the working format of SUMO – constantly churning ideas and movement toward answers.”
C) “This logo represents the nurturing aspects to the SUMO forum. A place where people across the globe come for discussion and answers from all points of view and experience.”
D) “This direction is a representation of the aggregate nature of SUMO. People coming together – lending helping hands, providing voice to discussions. A supportive community for open discussion.”
November 3rd, 200812:47 pm at
Selection ‘B’ is my un-favorite. It makes me think of a person being chewed up in the cogs of a machine, with just their hand sticking out & waving in a “help me!” gesture… Or perhaps, a person sticking their hand into a machine, with the hand about to get crunched by the gears.
The others all look pretty cool to me.
November 3rd, 20081:03 pm at
Awesome logos! From my perspective — highly technically knowledgeable, knows Firefox, follows the Mozilla and Open Source scenes, and hasn’t actually used SUMO yet (but there’s always the possibility I could), I’d wanna feel welcomed to ask for help. Considering that, I think:
B’s least effective. It may as well be irrelevant, since it doesn’t strike any bells to me about what SUMO’s about.
A’s second least. I actually like how this looks, but it’s too general. Doesn’t strike any bells about SUMO either, other than that “it helps people.” It doesn’t strongly indicate its “open community” feel — just a little bit.
C’s better at indicating the “open community” feel, and it’s really strong at that. It feels the most welcoming of the four. However, it doesn’t communicate the “it helps people” point very strongly — and if it did, I’d really like this one.
D more or less drives the point home (tho I really wish the font was changed.) It communicates both “it helps people” and an “open community” feel in a straightforward symbol of two hands. Simple and straightforward! However, C’s still more welcoming to me — I dunno. I think it has to do with colors; blue’s more calming than either green or yellow.
So for me, it’s probably a tossup between C or D. C because it’s more welcoming; D because it better communicates its points. That’s my two cents.
November 3rd, 20081:36 pm at
Shame for the use of hands: “Avoid hand gestures or body positions in icons. Almost any hand gesture or body position, however stylized, can be misinterpreted or be offensive in some cultures.”
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/guidelines/a8.jsp
November 3rd, 20081:40 pm at
I personally think that our logos are commonly less blue, in particular, I miss red in the proposals.
I was a bit afraid of cultural acceptance for the hand, but the hand seems to be a lot less troublesome than the foot. Just following a conversation about the gnome foot and thailand.
In which sizes is the logo supposed to be used? Like, do we care about a favicon?
Detailed comments on the proposals:
B) looks like a warning sign, “put your hand in here and we grind it to pieces with steel gears”
C) is too boring for me
A) and D) might want to get a number review from China, i.e., are 2, 3, 6 lucky or unlucky numbers. Coming back to my question above, I don’t see how those work as favicons
November 3rd, 20081:48 pm at
I like B, but without the cog. I think a combination of B and C would be perfect. Combining a wider circle with the globe at the center AND a raised hand in the middle would bring the best of my two favorite logos together.
A just looks scary to me with hands everywhere, like people trying to grab you. And D just doesn’t have the right feel compared to our other Mozilla-related logos.
Great job overall by Rubber Design! I can’t wait to see the final pick… but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we’ll be able to combine B and C as I described above.
November 3rd, 20082:03 pm at
I am sorry to be negative. I don’t like the concept of a hand. I don’t know why. I also think the logos lack depth. I like the nurse at the mozilla.com Features page better.
November 3rd, 20082:06 pm at
C seems the best of this set to me, and meshes interestingly with the other globe-like icons used by Mozilla. (eg. Firefox)
D makes me think of Web 2.0 chat room or VoIP startups; B reminds me of cautions against industrial accidents; and A makes me think druids want to start promoting recycling.
Of course… see mmc’s comment on the use of hands and potential offense internationally.
November 3rd, 20083:32 pm at
I don’t like A because the arms just look wrong – how did someone bend their arm into that shape?
I like B because to me it looks like someone putting a hand up to ask a question, which lets face it is what the site is all about – a place for people to ASK questions, at least initially when they are new to Mozilla. I get the points people are saying about putting their hand into a machine, so how about replacing the white gears with green continents or something?
C is OK, but a bit plain, and I’m sure even more so at a small size. I think the hand could do to be more obvious, and maybe have two a bit like A.
D just looks amateur
November 3rd, 20083:55 pm at
Perhaps I’ve been on the Internet for too long, but circles with hands always makes me think of goatse.
I’ve definitely been on the internet for too long.
Ian
November 3rd, 20084:05 pm at
Honestly, I don’t like any of them… :-/
A) A mash up of hands flailing everywhere. Kind of distracting and it’s unclear what they mean.
B) It’s unclear what gears have to do with SUMO or, support in general.
C) If I had to pick a favorite, this would be it, but only because of its simplicity. The hand reaching around the globe feels more like an environmental or humanitarian logo.
D) I like this one the least. The speech bubble with the hands looks and feels weird. Not a fan of the overlay of colors either.
Overall, the designs feel fairly uninspired. I’m not sure I like the idea of “hands” in general (though I’m also not sure what would be better… a phone? a foundation? greek columns?). It’s a hard concept to execute and it doesn’t always bode well in other cultures.
Like Axel, I miss the red in the proposals. It’s such a core color to Mozilla overall, it definitely makes them lack…
Come to think of it, what made you come to the conclusion that SUMO needed a graphical illustration as a logo as opposed to a wordmark of some kind? Something along the lines of Mozilla Labs might be better, especially with such a hard concept to convey…
November 3rd, 20085:26 pm at
None of these feel Firefox, Mozilla, Support, to me.
Maybe A) and C) could mean Community, but they don’t feel right.
November 3rd, 20085:38 pm at
as jesper said, the nurse is better, and the style of those graphics are really more inspired than these, more organic and warm.
November 3rd, 20086:50 pm at
C gets my vote!
November 3rd, 20088:13 pm at
I pick D.
November 4th, 20083:50 am at
I pick C !
November 7th, 20087:20 am at
After view the cool Slide show from David Tenser http://djst.org/blog/2008/11/07/mozcamp-2008-slides/
why not consider using the nurse seen here in a simple mock up here http://www.graphicsguru.com/sumo_oss.jpg
November 7th, 20087:47 pm at
Is it wrong that I don’t like any of them?
November 7th, 20089:15 pm at
I vote for A!
November 8th, 200812:20 pm at
I like B.
A looks weird with its nine hands and D just doesn’t match with SUMO. I’m neutral to C.
I also like the nurse that jamey linked to.
November 10th, 20081:12 pm at
[...] Logo Candidates. Post your feedback on Tara’s blog post. [...]
November 10th, 20089:44 pm at
I also prefer the nurse to the “official” candidates. I like the reasoning behind the hands metaphor, but I just don’t think in practice showing a hand really conveys all those feelings. Hands on their own IMO symbolize touching, moving, manipulating. None of which apply to SUMO.
“hands holding hands, reaching out, connecting, collaborating, supporting” These are all great concepts that describe SUMO when they’re all put together. Connecting and collaborating on their own though only convey a piece. Holding hands can mean help, but it can also mean romance or parenting. The image of the hand cradling the earth does convey the idea of support, but it evokes ideas of greenpeace, not user support for a web browser.
The nurse on the other hand conveys the idea of someone knowledgeable, professional and happy to help. Rather than trying to convey an abstract idea of how great the community is (which it is, don’t get me wrong), she gives the viewer the impression that they’ve found a friendly place to ask questions and fix their problems.
November 10th, 200811:38 pm at
All the colours used are too cold. There is a predominance of blue, while Mozilla and Firefox are mostly red.
All the four logos end up to be far too impersonal, not reflecting the effort of many people and many communities behind the curtain and the “warmth” of Mozilla and Firefox.
November 11th, 20082:29 am at
I was hoping for more yellow/orange. The big yellow search box is a key design element on the sumo page and I kinda wanted those colors reflected in the logo to draw your attention to it.
If I had to pick from these, I’d pick B because while it can send the wrong message (Dan Holbert, you are correct that it looks like something you see on a warning sign), I think it has the most /design/ sense and fits best with the existing visual identity. Second choice would be D if you lose the word bubble.
Since we’re proposing stuff, how is this set:
Any one of these individually or as possible elements of a visually complete set representing forums, livechat, knowledge base (or something like that). I apologize for the quality, it was mostly done with screen captures and the magic wand tool… except for the hideous globe thing. I assume that it will be done much much better by real professionals.
November 11th, 20082:30 am at
Hmmm… my link with fancy tagging got stripped: http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8012/sumologoma3.jpg
November 25th, 200812:49 pm at
There’s been a lot of feedback already, but I wanted to pitch in my 0.02 to say that all four seem to lack the usual “punch” that a lot of firefox and mozilla logos have.
if forced to choose I would go with D because the hands in the first three repel me for some reason. I wish I could explain why, but it’s just a gut reaction.
I would love to see other colours in the mix. My favourite colour scheme for Mozilla stuff is the old red/yellow/black of the “Hack”.
December 4th, 20085:20 am at
Why don’t we use foxkeh who is used for LiveChat?
http://support.mozilla.com/en/kb/Live+Chat
February 3rd, 20093:38 pm at
[...] logo to represent SUMO and its ongoing mission as a community-powered support channel. The top 4 candidates were presented for your vote, and with careful consideration of everyone’s feedback we [...]