[ANN] the result of Ruby official logo contest

[Yukihiro Matsumoto]

Hello All,

As a chairman of the recently formed Ruby Association LLC[1], I
happily announce the result of our Ruby official logo contest.

We received 203 logos from 103 people. TLDs of their mail addresses
are .ac, .am, .as, .au, .biz, .com, .cx, .de, .dk, .edu, .es, .id,
jp, .net, .org, .ru, .to, and .uk.

And the prize goes to Tom Schaub, from Lexington, Kentucky USA. He
will receive a winner plate and 100,000 JPY (roughly 872 USD). We
are now preparing a nice plate.

The selection criteria is following

* avoid japonesque ones

Even though Ruby is from Japan, and I am a Japanese, Ruby uses live
all over the world. Relying on single culture may not suitable for
the world dominating language.

* avoid cute ones

In Japan, we have tradition to value cute things high. But in
worldwide, cute things are often considered immature. I don't want
Ruby to be considered juvenile.

* avoid Rails related

Ruby is far older than Rails, and perhaps will live longer than
Rails. Ruby on Rails rely on Ruby, not in reverse.

* select Ruby (jewel) related

Alter all, the top image of the language is Ruby jewel. So I
avoided rabbits, fairies, and other creatures.

In a process of selection, I strongly felt how good the previous one
was. It's beautiful, simple and embodies the image of the language.
I belive the new one inherites those properties in spirit. I really
appreciate the original designer, John Long.

I especially prefer the image part of the new logo, so we might use
the logo without "programming language" text.

matz.
[1] http://www.ruby-assn.org/
[2] http://www.ruby-assn.org/logo-contest.html.ja
[2] http://www.ruby-assn.org/ruby-logo.jpg

 

[Stanislav Sedov]

Hello All,

As a chairman of the recently formed Ruby Association LLC[1], I
happily announce the result of our Ruby official logo contest.

We received 203 logos from 103 people. TLDs of their mail addresses
are .ac, .am, .as, .au, .biz, .com, .cx, .de, .dk, .edu, .es, .id,
.jp, .net, .org, .ru, .to, and .uk.

And the prize goes to Tom Schaub, from Lexington, Kentucky USA. He
will receive a winner plate and 100,000 JPY (roughly 872 USD). We
are now preparing a nice plate.

The selection criteria is following

* avoid japonesque ones

Even though Ruby is from Japan, and I am a Japanese, Ruby uses live
all over the world. Relying on single culture may not suitable for
the world dominating language.

* avoid cute ones

In Japan, we have tradition to value cute things high. But in
worldwide, cute things are often considered immature. I don't want
Ruby to be considered juvenile.

* avoid Rails related

Ruby is far older than Rails, and perhaps will live longer than
Rails. Ruby on Rails rely on Ruby, not in reverse.

* select Ruby (jewel) related

Alter all, the top image of the language is Ruby jewel. So I
avoided rabbits, fairies, and other creatures.

For me, the old logo looks much more simple, clean and stylish. The new
one is almost unusable on low resolutions and probably would look badly
on dark backgrounds (from my point of you).

Good work anyway, but will not be better to stay with the old one?

 

[Todd Burch]

And the prize goes to Tom Schaub, from Lexington, Kentucky USA. He
will receive a winner plate and 100,000 JPY (roughly 872 USD). We
are now preparing a nice plate.

Congrats Tom!

 

[Jeremy McAnally]

You can see my comments on the http://www.rubyinside.com/ page, and I
think I'm certainly not the only one with those sentiments.

In a nutshell: I don't like it. And I think plenty of people would
have chipped into a funding drive to get someone experienced in brand
design to take care of designing something rather than tossing the
contest out to a bunch of programmers who know very little about
design.

Alas, it's chosen now, but I'm still open to putting up some money for
another one to be designed, even if it isn't the "official" one and
merely used by those of us who don't care for the one chosen.

--Jeremy

Hello All,

As a chairman of the recently formed Ruby Association LLC[1], I
happily announce the result of our Ruby official logo contest.

We received 203 logos from 103 people. TLDs of their mail addresses
are .ac, .am, .as, .au, .biz, .com, .cx, .de, .dk, .edu, .es, .id,
.jp, .net, .org, .ru, .to, and .uk.

And the prize goes to Tom Schaub, from Lexington, Kentucky USA. He
will receive a winner plate and 100,000 JPY (roughly 872 USD). We
are now preparing a nice plate.

The selection criteria is following

* avoid japonesque ones

Even though Ruby is from Japan, and I am a Japanese, Ruby uses live
all over the world. Relying on single culture may not suitable for
the world dominating language.

* avoid cute ones

In Japan, we have tradition to value cute things high. But in
worldwide, cute things are often considered immature. I don't want
Ruby to be considered juvenile.

* avoid Rails related

Ruby is far older than Rails, and perhaps will live longer than
Rails. Ruby on Rails rely on Ruby, not in reverse.

* select Ruby (jewel) related

Alter all, the top image of the language is Ruby jewel. So I
avoided rabbits, fairies, and other creatures.

In a process of selection, I strongly felt how good the previous one
was. It's beautiful, simple and embodies the image of the language.
I belive the new one inherites those properties in spirit. I really
appreciate the original designer, John Long.

I especially prefer the image part of the new logo, so we might use
the logo without "programming language" text.

matz.
[1] http://www.ruby-assn.org/
[2] http://www.ruby-assn.org/logo-contest.html.ja
[2] http://www.ruby-assn.org/ruby-logo.jpg

--
http://www.jeremymcanally.com/

My books:
Ruby in Practice
http://www.manning.com/mcanally/

My free Ruby e-book
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/

My blogs:
http://www.mrneighborly.com/
http://www.rubyinpractice.com/

 

[James Britt]

You can see my comments on the http://www.rubyinside.com/ page, and I
think I'm certainly not the only one with those sentiments.

In a nutshell: I don't like it. And I think plenty of people would
have chipped into a funding drive to get someone experienced in brand
design to take care of designing something rather than tossing the
contest out to a bunch of programmers who know very little about
design.

FWIW, I announced this contest on a mailing list for Web designers and
developers in the Phoenix, AZ, area. I did not see any reaction, and
have no idea if anyone bothered to submit anything. Too bad.

It may be trickier than imagined to rouse interest and get folks
motivated; some Rails-style hype would have come in handy for this.

There was much more interest when the ruby-lang.org redesign was
underway. Many of the logos produced for that project would make better
choices.

James

 

[Marc Heiler]

I just looked at the Python logo
http://www.python.org/images/python-logo.gif too, to compare.

It looks somewhat okay, but also a bit like a company's site logo ...
And didnt Python have a logo-snake in the past? It looked not good, but
python did put a lot of emphasis on "FUN" ... the new webpage looks more
professional, but less "fun"... Anyway that is just my opinion.

(Btw that Python logo has a TM notice while the ruby logo has not, maybe
thats also a different philosophy behind a language? *grin*)

PS: I actually like the proposed logo. If there is only one aspect I
could change, maybe I would try to make it more crisp/sharper, but I
side on the people that like the logo anyway so it aint important for
me.

PSS: I will put the "official" one on my webpage as link to the ruby
site too

 

[Gerardo Santana Gómez Garrido]

I just looked at the Python logo
http://www.python.org/images/python-logo.gif too, to compare.

It looks somewhat okay, but also a bit like a company's site logo ...
And didnt Python have a logo-snake in the past? It looked not good, but
python did put a lot of emphasis on "FUN" ... the new webpage looks more
professional, but less "fun"... Anyway that is just my opinion.

(Btw that Python logo has a TM notice while the ruby logo has not, maybe
thats also a different philosophy behind a language? *grin*)

PS: I actually like the proposed logo. If there is only one aspect I
could change, maybe I would try to make it more crisp/sharper, but I
side on the people that like the logo anyway so it aint important for
me.

PSS: I will put the "official" one on my webpage as link to the ruby
site too

Here are better ones:
http://www.goodbyehelicopter.com/2007/10/30/fwiw-my-ruby-logo-submissions/

It's funny that you didn't mention Perl, or PHP.

Perl's is not precisely a great logo either. But everybody associates
the camel (and not a pearl) with Perl (after "the Camel" book), so it
works great for Perl, and therefore it's a great logo (oops, reductio
ad absurdum?

PHP's, well, it's simple and does the job. I wonder how it got chosen.
It reminds me the first logo in the URL above.

 

[Jeremy McAnally]

Oh, I didn't mean to make you sad!

I just thought it best to be frank about it. I'm not a brand design
expert or anything, but I think this logo sort of fails on a number of
levels.

Can I ask you why you're seeking something other than the gem itself?
Is there a specific need you were wanting to fill with this logo that
it wouldn't? I didn't see any sort of information like that anywhere.
"Promotion of Ruby" doesn't really say much, especially when I think
the gem on its own would probably work for that.

--Jeremy

Hi,

In message "Re: [ANN] the result of Ruby official logo contest"

|You can see my comments on the http://www.rubyinside.com/ page, and I
|think I'm certainly not the only one with those sentiments.

Those comments made me down. X-<

If it could be improved as Mikel and Trans expressed, I'd ask the
author to touch up. But...

matz.

--
http://www.jeremymcanally.com/

My books:
Ruby in Practice
http://www.manning.com/mcanally/

My free Ruby e-book
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/

My blogs:
http://www.mrneighborly.com/
http://www.rubyinpractice.com/

 

[Phrogz]

I'm saddened by the outpouring of criticism that this logo has
created. A few thoughts:

1) It's hard to unit test a design, because it's largely subjective.
(This can be one of the most rewarding and frustrating things about
art, for me. You don't know when you're 'done'.) It may be that
different people have different ideas about what makes a good logo.
(Should it be 'sexy'? Simple? Cutting edge? Retro? Is a simple clear
recognizable favicon important?)

2) Like open source software, this was an open project. I'm
disappointed that so many people choose to outpour and outcry "THAT
SUCKS, I COULD HAVE DONE BETTER!" If you could have done better, you
should have done so. I feel that this behavior is similar to not
voting in an election and then complaining bitterly about which
candidate won. You could have helped, but you didn't; you need to
learn to respect those who actually stepped up and tried to help out.

3) In being saddened by this, it's important to realize that (a) some
people don't have the necessarily skills to help create a good icon,
but (b) that doesn't necessarily mean they don't have valid
criticisms. As long as the criticism is accurate and clear, it can
prove very useful to improving the end result.[1]

4) I wish to express my thanks to Tom Schaub (the winner) for his
efforts. Tom, I wish you luck in seeing any valid criticism openly,
and discarding the unhelpful vitriolic easily. I also want to thank
everyone else who made submissions. Finally, I want to thank people
who have clearly conveyed what they don't like about the logo. 'Right'
or 'wrong', at least you've provided something less subjective than
"gag", or "hideous" or "abortion" or "a joke". Something that might be
useful in a future iteration or design choice.

5) I hope that this can be an open, iterative process. I don't think
that we want the Ruby logo changing monthly, but perhaps once a year
the community can work on and improve the official face of Ruby, if
only slightly, continuously improving the marketing to match the
beauty of the language.


[1] http://phrogz.net/nodes/criticismwithoutasolution.asp

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

Here are better ones:
http://www.goodbyehelicopter.com/2007/10/30/fwiw-my-ruby-logo-submissions/

It's funny that you didn't mention Perl, or PHP.

Perl's is not precisely a great logo either. But everybody associates
the camel (and not a pearl) with Perl (after "the Camel" book), so it
works great for Perl, and therefore it's a great logo (oops, reductio
ad absurdum?

PHP's, well, it's simple and does the job. I wonder how it got chosen.
It reminds me the first logo in the URL above.

Well ... there's the PostgreSQL elephant and the MySQL dolphin. As far
as a logo for Ruby is concerned, I don't have any strong opinions one
way or another about the new one, except that at first glance, it looked
to me a lot like the Rails logo.

 

[Austin Ziegler]

Here are better ones:
http://www.goodbyehelicopter.com/2007/10/30/fwiw-my-ruby-logo-submissions=

/

Oddly enough, I thought all of the ones on that page, well, sucked.
They were boring.

I can't say that the chosen logo "turns me on", but I think it can be
cleaned up; maybe with a few more black lines to darken the gem;
possibly wash out the red/orange background gradient.

But I don't think it's a *bad* logo at all, and it's certainly better
than some of the Web 2.0 style logos that I've seen touted as
"better".

-austin
--=20
Austin Ziegler * (e-mail address removed) * http://www.halostatue.ca/
* (e-mail address removed) * http://www.halostatue.ca/feed/
* (e-mail address removed)

 

[Peña, Botp]

From: Phrogz [mailto[email protected]]=20
# 5) I hope that this can be an open, iterative process. I don't think
# that we want the Ruby logo changing monthly, but perhaps once a year
# the community can work on and improve the official face of Ruby, if
# only slightly, continuously improving the marketing to match the
# beauty of the language.

totally agree.
kind regards -botp

 

[Peña, Botp]

From: Austin Ziegler [mailto:[email protected]]=20
# On 10/30/07, Gerardo Santana G=F3mez Garrido=20
# http://www.goodbyehelicopter.com/2007/10/30/fwiw-my-ruby-logo-
# submissions/
#=20
# Oddly enough, I thought all of the ones on that page, well, sucked.
# They were boring.

oddly, we differ. i think they were better.. the old ruby logo in =
ruby-lang is better too..
=20
# I can't say that the chosen logo "turns me on", but I think it can be
# cleaned up; maybe with a few more black lines to darken the gem;
# possibly wash out the red/orange background gradient.

i suggest we remove all those fill colors and all text. ie we start with =
the plain outline, the sliced gem and the box. if we do not like the =
outlined result, then it's really not what we want. but looking at it =
now, i guess a plain smoothed outline is not bad (in fact i may be happy =
even without those colors ) can anyone experiment on this, pls?

# But I don't think it's a *bad* logo at all, and it's certainly better
# than some of the Web 2.0 style logos that I've seen touted as
# "better".

along the lines w this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo

kind regards -botp

 

[Andi Cutman]

I especially prefer the image part of the new logo, so we might use
the logo without "programming language" text.

Me too.I like the image part of the new logo too.And,may be see
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=44469

 

[Todd Burch]

Oh, it doesn't really matter!
Let's get back to things about code.
How many languages actually have or are known for logos?
Not many really.
No logo will please everyone, and it doesn't really have to.
It's not a democratic activity.

We have a very nice language here, that's what matters.

This reminds me a local Mexican Food resturaunt, "El Patio". It has a
separate bar room with two signs on the door. The top sign says "Club"
and the bottom smaller sign says "No Minors".

It has come to be known as "Club No Minors". In years past, it had a
fancy name and fancy sign, but people kept stealing the sign. What
endures is the bar, not the name. With Ruby what will endure is the
language, not the logo.

Todd

http://www.elpatio.com/club.htm
(Great cheese enchiladas)

 

[John Joyce]

Hi,

Hello All,

As a chairman of the recently formed Ruby Association LLC[1], I
happily announce the result of our Ruby official logo contest.

I changed the logo on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_(programming_language) to a non-text
version of the selected logo, identifying the license as CC by-sa
3.0. I
hope no one minds; otherwise, feel free to revert.

Arlen

Arlen, it looks like you adjusted the logo a bit. Colors are more
saturated. Contrast is higher.

 

[Ce Jacas]

* select Ruby (jewel) related

Alter all, the top image of the language is Ruby jewel. So I
avoided rabbits, fairies, and other creatures.

Hi,

I think the selected submission does not fulfill the purposes of the
contest: to work in low resolution (even black and white), with and
without text, etc.

For those curious about other ideas, you can see what I submitted at:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2175/1809915337_9442f7f7d3_o.png
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2253/1809915191_57963f4009_o.png
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2050/1810811502_f58ec2bcb8_o.png
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2173/1810867632_99e749a793_o.png

Will the new logo work as an image for files with .rb extensión inside a
file explorer? As a favicon? Printed in black & white?

I think something like the process used by the Open Logo Project
(http://olp.spreadshirt.com) would have been more interesting.

 

[botpena]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2050/1810811502_f58ec2bcb8_o.png

this is fine. just remove the text and the sparkles (the sparkles look
like thorns). remember, we need a _logo_.

 

[botpena]

this is fine. just remove the text and the sparkles (the sparkles look

like thorns). remember, we need a _logo_.

btw, mind if i copy it? you wont need it anymore since the contest is
finished, right? ;-)

kind regards -botp

 

[lefteus]

Those comments made me down. X-<

Matz, this is not your regular dissensus, which certainly every logo
decision would have caused.
The new logo is simply painfully ungraceful, archaic and amateurish,
thus reflecting everything that Ruby is not.
Unfortunately, the other proposals shown in various comments seem even
worse, except for this one:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2176/1806344630_72ee335896.jpg?v=1193785158

I think the single-gem logo concept hits the spot and the next
logo, with some minor typographic tweaking, should be based upon it:
http://www.ruby-lang.org/images/logo.gif

Willem