Project logo

[bbatsov]

It'd be really nice if we had a proper project logo Obviously I don't have the skills required to create a decent logo, otherwise I would have done it by now :-)

I'm turning to cider's users, who might have some sense of art and the skills required to create a good looking logo. :-) I'm thinking of something that has ties to cider, Emacs and Clojure, but alternative suggestions are also welcome. Perhaps a bottle with some purplish liquid (reference to Emacs) in it and a sticker inspired by Clojure's logo?

Please submit your ideas here. In case we get several nice suggestions we'll have a vote for the "official logo".

Thanks in advance to everyone who decides to help!

[Josh-Tilles]

The Emacs-ish "E" could be in steam over cider.

If someone's feeling artistic, the Clojure logo's shapes could be depicted in color-swirls on the surface of the cider. Otherwise, the Clojure logo could just be a design on the side of a mug that's holding some steaming cider. Perhaps with a couple sticks of cinnamon peeking out too =)

I'm not particularly attached to these ideas; I'm just getting the ball rolling.

[dbushenko]

Hi, I've got one logo for you: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzmL7xzGeOtOdEpJc2p5WVpMbGM/edit?usp=sharing Bozhidar: if you like it -- you may use it as you want, but please mention Natalia Scherbo somewhere since she is the author of the logo. The source is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzmL7xzGeOtOUC13M1Y1blp6RG8/edit?usp=sharing

[bbatsov]

@dbushenko Thanks for the suggestion!

I'll keep waiting for a while more in case someone fulfils my dream for a logo with a bottle or a glass in it :-)

[tapeinosyne]

If you were content with a graphically simple logo, I would propose this idea: two sets of matching brackets forming a glass of cider. (While it is possible to draw a more sophisticated version that includes a lambda, the presence of square brackets might be sufficiently indicative of Clojure.)

[bbatsov]

@ndr-qef I like that concept very much! I think it'd be great if there are two variants of the logo - one would be just the glass, the other would have some text next to the logo. I'm thinking of something similar to what @dbushenko suggested - two lines of text to the right (or left) of the glass. The first would be just "cider" (not sure what letter case would look best) with some bigger font size, and the second would be "The Clojure IDE for Emacs".

[tapeinosyne]

This is how it would look with two variants of Proxima Nova and spaced to approximately fit in the GitHub readme.

[bbatsov]

Yeah, this is exactly what I meant. Now that I see, however, I'm thinking of a few details:

• There is a lot of empty vertical space, so maybe the glass should be less tall (relative to the text).
• The second line of text is currently much longer than the first - maybe the first line should use even bigger font size and the second one smaller? Or maybe we can come up with some shorter text for the second line?

[timvisher]

What about this for the CIDER Cup?

The sides and bottom are made from parentheses from Adobe Source Code Pro Black and the Cinnamon Stick is a square bracket from Adobe Source Code Pro Light.

I'd love to work some steam that would be suggestive of the Clojure logo in there but I don't have time to just now.

[bbatsov]

@timvisher Very impressive work! I'd love to see a version of this with some text incorporated in it. I'm in no hurry to select a logo, so take your time refining this.

I'm very happy to receive another excellent logo suggestion - picking a winner at the end will be tough. :-)

Btw, both you and @ndr-qef might consider some artistic way to incorporate curly braces into the logo as well (not necessary in the glass), as maps play a pretty central part in Clojure's philosophy.

[purcell]

An apple might also work, of course, perhaps made out of parens.

[timvisher]

I used Avenir Medium for the text, which is the same Font used on clojure.org, for future submitters. :)

[timvisher]

BTW. For anyone who wants to mess around with my design, I'm doing all my work in Sketch.app although I'm also Exporting an SVG (which isn't quite working at the moment :), and it's all in this Dropbox folder.

[ghoseb]

@timvisher Very nice design, but I feel the padding around ide is very distracting. I don't think there is any need to spell out the IDE part in Cider, it's a nice name as it is :smiley:

[timvisher]

@ghoseb What do you think of that?

[timvisher]

I'm actually a little disappointed in the name (although I'm very conscious of how much work has been done already to get it integrated) as I think describing CideR as an IDE elicits negative responsive from many corners of the Clojure and development world. My intention is to somewhat downplay that part of the name while still incorporating it.

But I'm not a designer by any stretch. :(

[timvisher]

And with slightly more visual balance.

[timvisher]

And perhaps going a bit to far.

[timvisher]

Make that:

[timvisher]

Upon the advice of a designed friend of mine to use less colors:

[timvisher]

[bbatsov]

@timvisher Very very nice designs!

I wonder if we cannot reshuffle things a bit however. Maybe use a { as the straw and use ][ for the bottom part of the glass as @ndr-qef suggested. Though this might make the logo too high... Alternatively we can have both a { and [ as straws I guess.

I think that we might have a lowercase R. The meaning of cider is less important than the name itself IMO (though I officially claim it's an abbreviation - which is obviously a homage to SLIME :-) ).

I also think we might put some emphasis on the E in Emacs, since Emacs is pretty central part of cider :-)

[timvisher]

@bbatsov Thanks! :)

My biggest problem with the long stemmed glass is that it says 'Champagne' to me, not Cider. Also, it makes the logo quite tall, as you pointed out, and I find logos that are roughly square to be best, in general, as they're the most widely applicable.

It's funny, but I'm assuming the straw you're referring to is what I've been thinking of as a cinnamon stick. Maybe things are in the eye of the beholder! :)

[timvisher]

[bbatsov]

:-) To be honest I've never drank cider from a glass, so I'm not sure how it's served. Yep, I assumed that the cinnamon stick was a straw.

I did a Google search for cider glasses and it seems they generally look like this:

https://www.google.bg/search?q=cider+glass&espv=210&es_sm=91&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mJZ6UqvCFcuGswbYroGIDw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=1008#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=t8a03Ptwwqo7wM%3A%3BGUvOk2hp6AFWsM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fus.123rf.com%252F400wm%252F400%252F400%252Fmg7%252Fmg70911%252Fmg7091100075%252F5923272-glass-of-mulled-apple-cider.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.123rf.com%252Fphoto_5923272_glass-of-mulled-apple-cider.html%3B795%3B1200

Maybe we can have very short square braces at the bottom?

Design is certainly much harder than coding! :-)

[timvisher]

To complicate things further, the google results for 'hot cider' would suggest mug (which is what I've been going for, and what you would generally stick a cinnamon stick into).

https://www.google.com/search?es_sm=91&espv=210&q=hot+cider&tbm=isch&imgdii=_&cad=h

[bbatsov]

Ah, I did not even know there was "hot cider" (I guess you've figured it's not the most popular drink in Bulgaria :-) ). I have one comment about the last version of the logo you've submitted - the inside of the glass somewhat reminds me of a frozen chicken in a supermarket.

I have another idea how we can incorporate a curly brace in the design - we put it under the text "Cider" and it points downwards toward "The Clojure IDE for Emacs". I think that might look nice.

[timvisher]

LOL. The chicken resemblance was unfortunate and a nice catch!

[timvisher]

I would advocate against attempting to incorporate further typography in the textual area. I think that would look very busy and further complicate an already very complicated logo.

But anyone else can feel free to give it a shot! :)

[timvisher]

[ghoseb]

@timvisher Jst write Cider plainly which you did in the last few examples. It looks much better now :smile:

[runexec]

Here's my attempt. Tell me what you think.

[timvisher]

:+1: @runexec

I like the color schemes you're using. Well done on the font! :)

I'm sure this is going to be only me but I would be very confused by the champagne glass. Others would probably be confused by the 'coffee' mug.

Regardless, I'd loose the border, personally.

What would the icon version of this be?

[runexec]

Thanks. Here's an update with the icons you requested.

[bbatsov]

@runexec I think the letter "i" would be better depicted as a bottle instead of a glass.

@timvisher Pretty sure the version of the mug with a ( as its bottom looked nicer. Perhaps { were just not meant to be in the logo.

[runexec]

Here's another update with an alternative for the letter "i" in Cider.

[timvisher]

[timvisher]

[andrewmcveigh]

This is how we drink it in the UK...

[bbatsov]

@timvisher Like the direction you've taken with the text. Other ideas:

Enjoy with Clojure on Emacs Best served with Clojure on Emacs An Emacs sip of Clojure fun

Don't really like any of those, but I definitely think you're onto something.

[timvisher]

@andrewmcveigh Really dig your mug there! :+1:

Maybe make the top square brackets slightly less exaggerated?

Also, I like the idea of the mustache but I think it's a little too cutesy/disembodied. Just my 2¢.

[runexec]

[timvisher]

@runexec That's pretty intense. :) Can't say I'm a fan but it's bold!

[timvisher]

Riffing off of @andrewmcveigh's excellent mug. :)

[timvisher]

And a little favicon action. :)

[timvisher]

[timvisher]

[andrewmcveigh]

I think you guys in the US have a different "cider" than us in the UK/northern Europe? Our cider is made similar to beer, and drunk accordingly. The mug/straw combo, although the last one looks nice, reminds me more of a piña colada than a pint of cider ;)

[bbatsov]

@andrewmcveigh I guess you're right. Excerpt from Wikipedia, about the cider in the US:

During colonial times apple cider was consumed as the main beverage with meals because water was often considered unsafe for drinking (in reality that was a myth, and cultural norms brought about this attitude about water).[53] Ciderkin, a slightly alcoholic beverage made from cider pomace, could also be found on colonial tables. Sometime after Prohibition the word cider came to mean unfiltered, unfermented apple juice. In current U.S. usage the term is used for both fresh-pressed juice and fermented products, although the latter are often called hard cider. Apple juice, meanwhile, refers to a clear, filtered, pasteurized apple product.

The cider we have in Bulgaria is all imported from the UK and is pretty much as you described it. :-)

[dgutov]

I really like @andrewmcveigh's moustached mug...

The latest logos by @timvisher are onto something, too, but the mug handle looks redundant so close to the letter "C". Maybe also move the mug to the right?

[timvisher]

Who knew cider would cause such cross-cultural confusion!? Maybe the logo should be internationalized. :)

FWIW,