[Foundation-l] The new Wikipedia logo-v2 is ugly

[Teofilo]

When I read and edited the English language wikipedia this morning, I
saw that the logo had changed. I had a strange feeling, at first not
being sure if this was only a feeling of surprise or if there was some
real problem with that new logo. After performing my editing tasks, I
had a closer look at the new logo and compared it with the older one,
and I found the following design flaws :

* the diameter of the sphere has become shorter than the Wikipedia
word below (some harmony is broken).

* It is darker.

* It is fuzzier (while the older one was brisk, with contrast).

* It bears geometric flaws : when you look at a planet, the meridians
which are farther should be closer to each other than the nearer ones.
The same kind of problem occured on the old logo, but as it was
bigger, the proportions were different, and that problem was less
conspicuous.

I suspect a management flaw in the way the Wikimedia Foundation is managed.

1) I suspect this logo change has very little to do with usability. So
I don't understand why the "usability people" have been authorised to
touch this.

2) When the city council of a big city decides to redesign the statue
located on the main square of the city, usually an artistic contest is
organised, with a jury of professionals whose job is to find the
proposal which has the greatest artistic merit. The same sort of
organisation should take place when redesigning something as important
as the Wikipedia logo.

Also I feel sorry for the designer of the old logo. It seems that
his/her talent is not recognized as should be.

Useful links :

New logo at  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-v2-en.png
Older logo at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia-logo-en.png