Here are a few tips:

1. You don’t have to use the dino head. Although the Mozilla dino is undoubtedly awesome, the creative possibilities will really open up if you look beyond the logo and explore the main themes of the challenge. There are plenty of Mozilla-related concepts, of course, but for starters the creative brief calls out openness, innovation and community. That’s certainly fertile ground for interesting ideas…the more abstract, the better.

As a relevant example, when we did the Firefox 3 t-shirt contest a couple of years ago, we got a ton of interesting designs that used the Firefox logo, but the winner was the one that went a step beyond and found a clever way to convey a broader theme (in that case, community).

2. If you must use the dino head, do it in an interesting way. In other words, think about how you can integrate it into a design that conveys the key themes mentioned above rather than just sticking the logo in the middle of the shirt and then designing around it. For example, Rogelio Calamaya, the winner of our Five Years of Firefox challenge, has submitted a design that uses the dino head, but only as one part of a larger scene. Cool stuff.

Also, it’s worth noting that our trademark policy prevents us from accepting a design that modifies the dino in any way (such as changing the color, distorting the various elements, etc). If that seems too limiting, definitely refer to point #1!

3. Avoid text! The Mozilla community is very global and includes speakers of pretty much every language, so creating a shirt with a lot of English (or any other language) isn’t a great way of celebrating that. Plus, t-shirts are a visual medium so think in terms of pictures to look at rather than words to read.

4. Remember that this challenge is about Mozilla, not Firefox (or any other specific product). We’ve already done a couple of Firefox-related challenges, and surely will do more in the future, but this one is all about Mozilla. So, make sure your design focuses on those Mozilla qualities of openness, innovation and community rather than any particular product or product logo.

5. Abstract is better than literal. Just to hammer home the first point a bit more, the name of the game is creativity, so ponder the themes, search around for inspiration and see where your muse takes you. Push yourself a bit…awesomeness awaits!

The design challenge ends on April 30, so put on your thinking caps. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

This post has been localized into Belorussian, thanks to PC

The first step is to create a logo that will represent the MDN to developers around the world (and also look great on a t-shirt, of course). To do this, we’ve once again turned to the talented folks at Studio Number One, who last worked with us on the logo for the Mozilla Creative Collective. And, as usual, we want this process to be as open and participatory as possible…in other words, we need your help!

The intended audience for this logo and the MDN in general is most definitely developers. As Jay’s creative brief notes, “the MDN brand will serve to unify our diverse developer communities and represent the innovation we bring to the world through the people, products, and technologies that define Mozilla.” Beyond that, the direction was pretty wide open – the key thing being that the MDN logo would feel both connected to Mozilla’s identity and history, but also be distinctly separate as its own unique entity.

Posted below are some early stage design options from Studio Number One (including different variations on similar themes). At this point in the process 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 Friday, February 19. Any and all feedback is encouraged.

Thanks!

Kerim Kalamujic has posted the details (and relevant source files) on the Mozilla BiH site, so be sure to check that out if you’re interested. And if you’re not local, I’d suggest doing a little research before you start designing to make sure you capture the right flavor.

The chosen logo will be used in a wide variety of places, so this is a great chance to make a huge impact on the look & feel of one of our most active communities. Submissions are due March 15th…looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

I’m also in the middle of a slow-moving visual refresh of intothefuzz.com, so bear with me if things look a little weird over the next couple of weeks.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the ongoing success of Firefox in 2009, and here’s to a great 2010!

The results from the Mozilla Creative Collective’s “Firefox Goes Mobile” design challenge are in, and I’m happy to announce that the winner is “Pocketfox”, by Yaroslaff Chekunov. As the official emblem of the upcoming mobile version of Firefox, we’ll be using this image as an avatar on social networking sites, on mozilla.com, on t-shirts and more. It makes a great addition to our portfolio of Firefox imagery!

Yaroslaff, who is based in Krasnodar, Russia, cites as his design inspiration, “the Firefox itself, your approach to the web-site execution, and of course my wife who always brings up new ideas.” Be sure to check out his other Mozilla work as well as his general portfolio.

The four runners-up in the challenge were Mauro Henrique de Bulhões Fidelix’s “Hot Navigation”, Emmanuel John Y. Villar’s “One Mask One Family One World”, Joyce Schellekens’ “Firefox All Around the World” and Eric Yeoung’s “MobiFox”. Interestingly, these designers all hail from different countries (Brazil, the Philippines, the Netherlands and Indonesia), which speaks to the incredible diversity of our community. Many thanks to them, and to everyone else who participated, for sharing their time and talents with Mozilla.

We’ve also launched a new challenge at the Creative Collective: “Five Years of Firefox”. Help us celebrate Firefox’s 5th birthday by creating designs based on this milestone. The possibilities are practically endless, but should generally focus on recognizing what a great accomplishment this is for the Mozilla community and what it’s meant for the hundreds of millions of people who use Firefox. The winner will be featured on this blog, turned into desktop wallpaper and t-shirts, and more.

The submission period for “Five Years of Firefox” ends on December 9th, but don’t wait to get started. Visit the design challenge page for more details, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Although my technical skills are hovering somewhere close to zero, I found an opportunity to help a organization called Hidden Villa. Hidden Villa is (and I’m quoting their site here) “a nonprofit educational organization that uses its organic farm, wilderness, and community to teach and provide opportunities to learn about the environment and social justice.”

They do some really cool stuff, but could use some help communicating it, so I’ll be doing some copywriting for them and advising them on how to present their web content. If you’re a designer and are interested in helping out, let me know and we can work on it together.

I’ll post a follow-up on my experience with Hidden Villa soon. In the meantime, there’s still time to help so visit the Mozilla Service week site to find out how you can get involved.

The Creative Collective is the hub of our growing design community, and a place for people around the world to use their talents to help the Mozilla mission and make connections with their fellow artists. The site – which was designed by the talented folks at Airbag Industries (now part of Happy Cog) and built by our phenomenal WebDev team (including freelancers Ryan Snyder and Craig Cook) – has a variety of features to facilitate sharing, social networking and generally getting involved, with more stuff on the way. Definitely check it out – there are already some hidden gems in the gallery.

As Tara noted in the official announcement, Mozilla actually has a long history of open source design projects, but we’d never had much in the way of an organized community until now. I love the idea of expanding the scope of the overall Mozilla community to include visual designers, and can already think of so many ways they’ll be able to contribute (more on that later).

Like any community project, the key to the Creative Collective’s success will be getting people to participate. Here’s how you can help:
* Contribute a design that inspires people to take action for Mozilla Service Week as part of our first mini-challenge (details at the Mozilla Blog). We have t-shirts waiting for our favorites!
* Upload Firefox or Mozilla-themed artwork you’ve created in the past, or do something brand new and share it with the world.
* Even if you’re not a designer you can join the Creative Collective and get things going by following your favorite artists or “liking” designs you enjoy.
* Help us spread the word by telling your designy friends, tweeting, posting on Facebook, etc. Every design detail page includes a widget to make sharing via your social networking sites super easy.

Huge thanks goes out to the following people for everything they did to make the Mozilla Creative Collective launch possible: Tara Shahian, Jeff Zeller, Mike Morgan, Ryan Snyder, Craig Cook, Ryan Doherty, Greg Storey, Ethan Marcotte, Stephen Caver, Helenita Johnson, Stephanie Schonauer, Studio Number One, Stephen Donner, Krupa Raj, Raymond Etornam, Shyam Mani, Catherine Brady and Paul Kim.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that this is still a beta site, and we’re counting on the community to help set the agenda for what comes next and generally make it better. So, if you find any bugs or have ideas for features and functionality that you’d like to see, please let us know. See you on the Creative Collective!

Another cool thing about the milestone is onebillionplusyou.com, which was organized by our summer marketing interns, Shannon Prior, William Reynolds, Irina Sandu and Jeff Zeller. In addition to the site itself, which nicely ties in the significance of one billion not just for Firefox but for the web as a whole, there are two subtle underlying messages I like:

1. We have awesome interns, no doubt about it.
2. Internships at Mozilla provide the opportunity to do interesting, high profile, meaningful work…not just low level stuff or running errands (and that applies across the company, not just in marketing).

(And none of this is meant to overlook the amazing work on this from WebDev, QA, IT and l10n, each of whom deserve their own post for their consistent excellence at pretty much everything.)