Mozilla Creative Collective Logo, Round 1: Your Input Needed!
Work on the Mozilla Creative Collective site is coming along well…Tara, Ryan and I have been working with the team at Airbag Industries to define the scope and figure out a million tiny details. We’ll be moving to wireframes and actual page designs soon, and I’ll be sure to share those when they’re ready.
However, we also need a logo. Not just any logo, either: we need something that can serve as a rallying point for the entire project and will inspire designers around the world to lend their talents to the cause. So, we enlisted the fine folks at Studio Number One, who have done all sorts of awesome work for a variety of interesting clients, to help. (Side note: using Studio Number One also brings us full circle, more or less. The agency was founded by famed artist Shepard Fairey, who created the original Mozilla dino back in 1998.)
To recap, the goal of the Creative Collective is to build up a community of visual designers who’ll spread the word about Firefox and the Mozilla mission around the world via their art (many more details here). We asked Studio Number One to design a logo that embodies the grassroots, “power to the people” spirit of this initiative in a bold, graphic, visually interesting way.
Following in the spirit of other Mozilla design projects ranging from the Mozilla.com redesign to the Ubiquity logo creation, we want to make this process as open and participatory as possible. In other words, we need your help! There are nine initial concepts below, and we need to start focusing on one for further refinement. Which one should that be? What stands out to you and why? Try to envision these on a website, t-shirt, poster, sticker, etc and let us know what you think (by Tuesday, March 10 if at all possible). Any and all feedback is encouraged.
Here are the logos…I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts (and be sure to read the accompanying explanations from Studio Number One below for additional context):
Notes from Studio Number One:
Comp 1: The circular lock-up with the rope surrounding the logo references turn-of-the-century labor union graphics. We like the way this feels alongside the word collective. The mark contained inside the wreath works in a couple of ways: it resembles a person reaching out; it contains the letters cMc, and although this isn’t the order of the letters of the name, hierarchically you see the M first and the C’s upon further inspection; the mark has a similar feel to an infinity symbol or a linking of things together, which is a goal of the collective. The red, black, and white, references a time period when people were working together, and relates back to the existing mozilla dino logo.
Comp 2: Same lock-up as comp 1, minus the stars and utilizing the dino head.
Comp 3: The constructivist style M here is divided in the middle making it feel like a stencil graphic, the dot added above each vertical makes the icon feel like its linking two people together.
Comp 4: Similar to comp 1 with a different colorway.
Comp 5: This is a propaganda style mark with an individual waving a flag promoting the collective. The silhouette provides a sense of an anonymous everyman: inclusivity. The square cut typeface makes the mark feel more strong and references the constructivist period.
Comp 6: Same lock-up as comp 5 but with the dino head.
Comp 7: The shield lock-ups reference labor union graphics and European football (soccer) clubs: strong organizations. In this first comp MCC is formed to the shape of the shield in a direct way.
Comp 8: This shield has a different shape to it and utilizes the dino head, as well as a hint of lightning bolts at the bottom.
Comp 9: This is a combination of the previous two images bringing in the banner, and lightning bolts but keeping the MCC as a focal point.
March 8th, 2009 at 1:17 am
Same Anonymous here from the first comment (13475), responding to John’s comment 13476. Several people have already made the point pretty clearly, notably comment 13485: “I general I feel that all these logos were inspired by the the word ‘collective’ used in the context of communist regimes.”. With a name like “Mozilla Creative Collective”, and the unclear understanding some people already have about FOSS, you don’t want your logo to give people one more reason to associate your group with communism. Take the logo in another direction entirely, to avoid throwing fuel on the fire.
March 8th, 2009 at 7:17 am
I love #1 and #6. Mozilla and Open Source is a movement, so #6 is a perfect match. #1 is very cool if we make stickers, chop or seal…
March 8th, 2009 at 10:20 am
Vote for #8. It describes you best!
March 8th, 2009 at 11:34 am
I came up with an idea last night that I think shows the concept of creativity really well and would still work with the rest of the concept going on.
Show the dino’s brain
My drawing skills with a mouse don’t quite permit it but it might be cool to put a glass dome around the brain. I think this would fit in well with the shield designs which already incorporate lightning bolts.
March 8th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
I’m going to go out on a limb and say I like #5 and #6 – #5 is slightly better in my opinion.
However, I might ask – since we’re on a “wartime propaganda” theme – have the artists in question considered using an American wartime propaganda theme, around the time of the Second World War? Rosie the Riveter is an obvious example (that I wouldn’t want you to copy), but there were other motivating posters out there in the 1940’s.
March 8th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I really love the 8th one. I’m always a fan of anything 3d. I love dimensions. I also like the color mixing the most in that logo.
March 9th, 2009 at 3:19 am
I like #2 and #6. I think Dino’s head is important, and rather gets lost in #8.
March 9th, 2009 at 4:46 am
Since developers prefer black T-shirts, I found the logo mock-ups no. 7 to 9 unsuitable for that task.
All of them look great though.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:37 am
I like #1 and #2
#3 is creepy, what is it? Snake eyes? Keymaster and Gatekeeper meet up?
#4 < #1
#5 #6 are old
#7 #8 #9 are like football/soccer club logos
March 9th, 2009 at 5:45 am
This particular red, white and black colour scheme has some fascist connotations (do some googling for examples). When you add in the flag-waving motif and the wreath in the first one, it really seems like that’s what you’re going for. Seriously, I’d start over.
March 9th, 2009 at 6:46 am
[...] private and then unveiling the new design to the world, John Slater, Creative Director at Mozilla, asks the readers of his blog for feedback and direction: We also need a logo. Not just any logo, either: we need [...]
March 9th, 2009 at 7:44 am
I’d lean toward #8 myself.
March 9th, 2009 at 8:30 am
8
March 9th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
#8 is popular, but I think it looks very NFL Sunday or something personally.
For a collective, I like the classic direction of #1-4 and the head definitely has the immediate brand recognition.
March 9th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
As I’m in a bit of a hurry and have a very short span memory, I’ll just criticize and I’m sorry for not being more constructive. However, you asked for input and input you’ll get!
Logo number 3 is quite similar to a rather large and well known anti-violence and anti-narcotics organization in Sweden, http://www.mentor.se/.
And number 5 and 6 are a bit too much Soviet kitsch I think. Many people in Europe have grown up with similar (war) posters and associate them with oppression, terror, war and death. I think they would feel like a big turnoff for millions of people.
I actually think all of the logos are a bit clunky and won’t stand out in smaller sizes.
However, I like that they are non-web 2.0 and that they are a bit provocative and eye catching. And I think I like the color scheme the “MCC” part of logo no 5 most.
March 9th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
First off, I think it’s awesome you’re letting us participate in coming up with a new logo.
I think 1, 3 and 4 are trying to be too clever. They just don’t do anything for me, and after the “okay, I get it now” they’re still just blah to me.
For 5 and 6, the propaganda style and that font do evoke that feeling of common people united (against …?) but it has a “bygone era” connotation that I’m not sure you’d want.
Number 7 is too red, and I don’t think continuing the letters below the “creative collective” bar really works, but I like the simplicity.
The head on 8 obscures too much of “MOZILLA”. You can’t really make the head smaller, so that leaves making the shield a bit taller, or moving the head down. To make room, you could use an inverted version of the banner from 9, though that probably won’t look all that great.
Logo 9 is okay, sans the (crooked) lightning flash.
I think I like logo 2 the best though. It allows you to drop the rope where needed and still have a nice logo. Maybe use the red/black head on a white inner circle.
In general, I’d look at using a different colour scheme.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
These are really good comments. To update my previous comment (#13503), I agree that the “badges” look like sports club logos, rather than something creative.
I kind of feel that if you hadn’t thrown in designs that remind people of Nazis and USSR, the color scheme would have gotten fewer negative remarks. I think these colors could be OK if you don’t use “suggestive themes”.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Don’t like at all look russian and old.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I like 6 the best. I think the dinosaur head is important. Color Scheme doesn’t bother me. I think the dino has always been red and black. I really don’t like the shields at all.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Again, thanks to all for the really excellent feedback. I’ve summed up what I took as the general consensus here and sent it off to Studio Number One. Will share more details about that, plus next steps, in a post tomorrow.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
[...] Friday I posted the first round of potential Mozilla Creative Collective logos from Studio Number One, and asked for feedback. I [...]
March 12th, 2009 at 1:52 am
a big minus for 5 and 6, reasons are mentioned already by other posters.
For me, No. 2 is the best and No. 8 holds the 2nd place.
March 12th, 2009 at 8:03 am
The couple of logos with the flags and the very socialist art style are fun but I would be cautious. When we used this style in the past we received comments than it was uncomfortable for a bunch of people for whom it reflected more than an art style.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
[...] design process for the Mozilla Creative Collective in the open, and your feedback in response to round 1 was extremely helpful. I wrote a more detailed summary in an earlier post, but the two main points [...]
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:06 pm
[...] create a new MCC logo, and the feedback we’ve received from the community in response to the first two rounds has been truly invaluable. Really great stuff…thanks to everyone who commented for [...]
March 27th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
[...] needs to get people as involved as possible in processes like these, so I’ve been posting each round of the comps for everyone’s [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:07 am
like number 1 because there is nothing superfluous.
July 27th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
7,8,9 as logos of football clubs)))
I like number 8.