[Mediawiki-l] MediaWiki logo experiments

[Erik Moeller]

As MediaWiki 2.0 is slowly moving closer, I think we should consider
replacing the current logo. The problems I have with it (and I say
that as its co-designer) are that the colors feel washed out, the
flower is asymmetrical, and the square brackets look just a tad bit
too square and ordinary.

I found a very nice flower photograph on Commons, and decided to
experiment with it a bit. The result can be found at:
http://scireview.de/wiki/logos/

The flower used here looks more like something airbrushed than a
straight crop of a photo (even though it is the latter), which I think
is an advantage for a logo. I do like the notion of using a complex
flower rather than a purely stylized one; I think that this is
allowable in the context of an entirely web-based product.

I think the colors/brightness and the brackets could use some
tweaking. I'm also not sure if I prefer the version with a shadow
behind the flower or the one without (the two people who have sent me
feedback so far prefer the one with, I have a slight preference for
without). If you want to play with it, there's an XCF link for editing
in the GIMP; all the elements of the picture are represented there as
layers.

For favicon size, we probably want to draw something from scratch
rather than resizing the logo. In the "Powered by" button size, it
could use some tweaking (perhaps some pre-processing before scaling
down).

I'd appreciate your comments on these experiments. Perhaps we should
start an open logo process when MediaWiki 2.0 comes within grasp.

Erik