[Foundation-l] Wikimedia visual identity guidelines

[Delphine Ménard]

Hello Peter,

On 6/29/06, Peter Jacobi <pjacobi.de at googlemail.com> wrote:
> At common's deletion discussion the question surfaced, whether the Wikimedia
> visual identity guidelines apply only to the trademark or also to the
> Wikipedia logo.
> Especially concerning the ''The logo should not be turned around or
> distorted'' part.
>
> See:
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Deletion_requests#Image:Bouncywikilogo.gif


Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

The case is a difficult one, for many reasons.

First. At this stage, the Wikimedia Visual Identity guidelines do
indeed apply to the Wikimedia Logo only.

Second. There is a fundamental difference between the Wikimedia logo
and the Wikipedia logo in this that the Wikimedia logo still needs to
be established in the mind of the general public. It represents the
organisation, and the wish behind the Wikimedia Identity guidelines
was to make sure that no derivation of the logo would be used to ends
that do not serve the organisation, or for misrepresentation. The
Wikipedia logo is well established and recognizable, even when
transformed.

Third. The Wikipedia original logo has already been derived many a
times, if only by being translated in all the Wikipedia languages, and
historically for marking events, milestones etc. which makes it
difficult to assert a "non derivative" policy for the Wikipedia logo,
such a policy being in my opinion non desirable.

So this is my take on this:

At this time, there is no official policy concerning the use of
projects logos, whether Wikipedia or other projects.

It is high time we did this.

My personal opinion on projects logos is that they *can* be
transformed, as long as they are properly tagged with the Wikimedia
copyright notice and *only* used in the Wikimedia projects.The
Wikimedia logo however should at all times follow the present
Wikimedia Visual identity guidelines.

However, this needs to be formalized, so as to avoid endless
dicussions on the subject and  legitimate questions such as yours.

I believe the communications committee should create a "visual
identity and trademark use" subcommittee that will reflect on the best
way to go about this and that will issue a general policy for the use
and derivation of projects logos, use in projects/banners/advertising
etc. So this is an appeal to the Communications committee.

It is also high time for a general logo and trademark use policy
concerning non commercial use (ie. information, news, sponsors etc.)
which is drafted somewhere but was never brought to a conclusion.

No need to say that I am very interested in being in that committee, I
know Elian was also interested as we started reflecting on the matter
together.

Hope this answers some of your question.

Best,

Delphine
-- 
~notafish