[Wikiml-l] Fwd: [Wikimedia Announcements] Along with Vector, a new look for changes to the Wikipedia identity

[Jyothis E]

All,

FYI.

Regards,
Jyothis.

http://www.Jyothis.net

http://ml.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jyothis
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jyothis
I am the first customer of http://www.netdotnet.com

woods are lovely dark and deep,
but i have promises to keep and
miles to go before i sleep and
lines to go before I press sleep

completion date = (start date + ((estimated effort x 3.1415926) / resources)
+ ((total coffee breaks x 0.25) / 24)) + Effort in meetings



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jay Walsh <jwalsh at wikimedia.org>
Date: Wed, May 12, 2010 at 10:48 PM
Subject: [Wikimedia Announcements] Along with Vector, a new look for changes
to the Wikipedia identity
To: wikimediaannounce-l at lists.wikimedia.org


Hi folks,

Over the next day or so you'll be seeing some exciting changes to the
Wikipedia user interface as Vector rolls out across English Wikipedia.

In an earlier note on that topic, User Experience team project manager Naoko
Komura mentioned another change - one that will bring some small
improvements to the Wikipedia identity, namely the Wikipedia puzzle globe
and the construction of the Wikipedia wordmark - the word and sentence
underneath the puzzle globe.

The first major change you'll see is a slightly different looking Wikipedia
puzzle globe. Over a year ago the Foundation began to recognize the need to
have the puzzle globe logo improved slightly - mostly because we had some
errors in the type characters featured in the puzzle globe, and also because
we needed a better quality version that could print better and at a larger
scale.  We also needed to do that without dramatically changing one of the
most recognized and beloved logos on the internet.

It seemed like an opportune moment to take our 2D globe, lovingly created by
WP user:Nohat and improved/modified a cast of many other volunteers back in
2003, and take it to a truly 3D object.  If we were going to undertake this
process, we knew we would first need to populate the 'dark side of the
puzzle globe' - and of course we turned to our volunteers to do just that.

Cary Bass worked with a team of volunteers to begin that process, and to
revisit the many suggested and improvised fixes to the globe that have taken
place over the years.  Most of that discussion played out on a meta page
here:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia/Logo

The results are fantastic, and now you can see many new languages and
scripts represented.  The final state for our puzzle globe is quite similar
to the original, fixes some errors, and has replaced the Klingon logo with
an Amharic character.

The actual 3D construction of the new mark was carried out by a professional
3D animator, art director, and graphic designer, Philip Metschan, who is
based in the SF Bay Area.  Through his career Philip has worked for
Industrial Light and Magic and Pixar, and currently he's also a
visualization and concept artist for the DIRECT program (not surprisingly,
it can be learned about on Wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIRECT
).

We've created a new page on the Foundation wiki that talks about the revised
3D globe as well as the other improvements underway to the wordmark:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikimedia_official_marks/About_the_official_Marks

You'll notice that the new variation of the typeface uses Linux Libertine as
an alternative to Hoeffler, the original typeface used to create the
wordmark.  In order to facilitate the creation of so many new variations of
the Wikipedia identity it was important to find a viable alternative -
Hoeffler is a commercial typeface that not every project would have access
to, nor own.  Linux Libertine is very close to Hoeffler in its shape and
style, and for on-screen viewing is almost identical to Hoeffler.

The User Experience team also investigated another minor improvement:
replacing the italicized "The Free Encyclopedia" with regular typeface.
 This ultimately resulted in improved on-screen readability, particularly in
non-roman character sets.

Right now volunteers are working with the new localization guide to create
the hundreds of new identities needed for each language variation of
Wikipedia.  You can see the Commons gallery filling up here:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia/2.0

If you're interested in supporting this effort you can simply follow the
guide referenced on the page, or reach out to the Foundation's volunteer
coordinator, Cary Bass, directly, cary at wikimedia.org.

It will take some time to create all of the marks, and initially the ops and
User Experience team are rolling out the new identity on English Wikipedia
and then focussing on other languages as soon as possible.

Hopefully the millions of dedicated users of Wikipedia will appreciate this
minor improvement to the Wikipedia identity across all of the project
languages.  This is also a great new tool for chapter and volunteer
representatives around the world - this scalable, crisper version of the new
puzzle globe is easier to work with in a variety of situations, but retains
the character and look of its predecessor. As with any important identity,
I'm certain it will see further evolutions and improvements.  We're open to
hearing your thoughts and views for the next iteration.

Later today we'll also be posting this news to the Wikimedia blog, alongside
updated news about the Vector roll-out, scheduled to unfold over the next 12
hours.

I'd like to thank again the dozens of volunteers who have worked over the
last year+ to navigate the challenge of filling up this now 3D globe with
new symbols and marks, and the countless others who have scrutinized the
first drafts of the logo to suggest improvements (like proper orientation
for characters).  Cary Bass has been instrumental in mapping out all of
these minor and major changes along with the volunteers, and the user
experience team - particularly Parul, Naoko, Trevor, and Nimish, along with
Hannes, should also be recognized for putting so much patience and
dedication into this effort.  Thanks as well to Philip Metschan for spending
so much time and investing so much effort and detail into the design.

We also have to recognize the dozens of (and next dozen of) volunteers who
will continue to localize the new identity in different languages, as well
as the original efforts of user:nohat and those early pioneers who brought
this identity to life in 2003.  This enormous and truly unique design effort
astounds me, and it's one of the most impressive examples of our
collaborative capacity outside of the work of Wikipedia itself.

Thanks!
jay


--
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 609, @jansonw


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