Pug Logo

[ForbesLindesay]

Unfortunately, as per #2184 we need a new logo. The original discussion around the logo was in #1882.

@GarthDB and @viktorbezdek have both volunteered to help with the designs.

[baoang]

So, will the file suffix be changed correspondingly to pug from jade?

[gristel]

Just saying I love what @benedfit did with the logo :) @christopherdowson Your is also very nice, but I'm not a fan of the collar. (Just my personal taste)

[christopherdowson]

I'd just like to see some movement on this.

@gristel personal taste is fine, as I tell my branding clients, however it's what is best for the project which matters :)

[gristel]

@christopherdowson I totally agree :)

[timothyis]

I agree @christopherdowson. The branding that best suits the project is what matters and that's why I like yours so much. I was listening to a talk recently by the creator of Gulp and he was mentioning that Gulp started off slow until the right branding came along. I genuinely think your logo could be the right branding for Pug. It just seems to fit in my mind. (Obviously personal opinion)

[jimmytheneutrino]

I personally prefer @KyleKing's logo simply because I so much adore the styling @GarthDB created for Jade (and if you think about it, it was not so long ago, less than a year ago).

Of course, the animal could have shorter ears to adhere to being a pug but otherwise it's nearly perfect. It's fun, positive, recognizable, and good for icons.

[danwarman]

I agree that @GarthDB's Jade logo is great. Could you swap out the rabbit for @peeofive's Pug?

[christopherdowson]

https://github.com/andrewfairlie/good-feedback I think this might be a good guide for this branding exercise.

We appear to have wandered into "can we just try" territory.

That's never good. Neither is combining concepts....

I knew Timehop would be useful one day.

[benedfit]

^ this

I'd also suggest identifying a few key stake holders who have the ultimate responsibility of making the decision. They can then ay up the pros and cons of each suggestion and determine which meets the need of the project (this may also need determining)

[christopherdowson]

^^ Also this.

An outline of the goals of this part of the project is essential. A nice logo is great, unless you don't use it well, in which case you might as well pick anything at all.

[diquinnyonk]

^ agreed

what does the key stake holders want? is it just changing the duck for a pug? in the original logo? or a new direction completely for the logo?

otherwise many circles and loops we shall traverse

[christopherdowson]

Isn't it a bunny?

[whaaaley]

Those are cute pugs, but I'd like to see something more in vein of the original as well.

Here's something I drew in Photoshop in 5 minutes with my mouse that is more of what I was thinking, along with a vector version I quickly traced. This is just a concept.

[fregante]

I like the above. Keeping colors and style simplifies the transitions considerably as it doesn't look like a completely different product.

[christopherdowson]

To be honest I was never a huge fan of the original logo. I think it holds it back in terms of perception in the industry.

I never recommend holdovers to clients for the sake of familiarity.

On 28 Feb 2016, at 10:41, Federico Brigante notifications@github.com wrote:

I like the above. Keeping colors and style simplifies the transitions considerably and it doesn't look like a completely different product.

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[whaaaley]

I didn't really like the stamp-like look on the original, but I loved the general shape of the rabbit. It's too bad the rabbit can't live on anymore somehow.

Maybe we could strive for a happy medium? I think the dark/dull color scheme could be brightened up a bit or swapped entirely, but I think the minimalistic, slightly imperfect style of the original should be kept.

[Creativenauts]

Logos look great but why such a big emphasis on a dog? At first glance, logos look like a pet store. Perhaps, creating a concept that compliments how useful the technology is would be a better solution?

[christopherdowson]

Yeoman have a Beefeater. They're not a site for the Tower of London.

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On 29 Feb 2016, at 19:49, Derek Stevenson notifications@github.com wrote:

Logos look great but why such a big emphasis on a dog? At first glance, logos look like a pet store. Perhaps, creating a concept that compliments how useful the technology is would be a better solution?

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[Creativenauts]

@christopherdowson I guess I'm just not a fan of a dog representing the product and the brand, just seems a bit silly but everyone has their own preference.

Perhaps you should do a few more mock-ups that are not of a dog? Of course these are suggestions but you know as an artist, taking in constructive criticism makes for a better end product. Hope this helps and good luck.

[christopherdowson]

I'm a cat person myself.

The product is called pug, in industry terms it's niche, often overlooked - literally an underdog. I think the dog imagery suits it perfectly.

But that's not a preference (see above), it's advice from experience. Always happy to accept critique, if it's useful, though :)

(Also I'm not an artist, I'm a designer.)

Sent from my iPhone

On 29 Feb 2016, at 20:04, Derek Stevenson notifications@github.com wrote:

@christopherdowson I guess I'm just not a fan of a dog representing the product and the brand, just seems a bit silly but everyone has their own preference.

Perhaps you should do a few more mock-ups that are not of a dog? Of course these are suggestions but you know as an artist, taking in constructive criticism makes for a better end product. Hope this helps and good luck.

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[Creativenauts]

If I had to choose from the logos listed above, I'd go with @peeofive concept as it looks more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Personally for me, I like the less is more approach for the brand.

I look forward to seeing the finalized logo in the near future.

[smaili]

@ForbesLindesay I'm starting to think at this point it may be better to select the major stakeholders and have a vote between all of the available choices.

Or if you'd like to make it truly open, maybe create a poll somewhere and let everyone submit their choice. Keep it open for like a week or so to make sure everyone's had a chance to voice their opinion.

Otherwise I'm afraid we'll continue down an endless path of I like this I like that.

[gristel]

Agreed with @smaili

[christopherdowson]

^ yep

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On 1 Mar 2016, at 09:33, Gristel Periwinkle notifications@github.com wrote:

Agreed with @smaili

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[danielbayley]

@peeofive's original pug is definitely the way to go here I think… with the bolder rounded type.

won't hit the same licensing issues as DIN

Miso Bold/Chunky (a personal favourite) is a drop in replacement for DIN Rounded and only ~£7.

[NoNameProvided]

I really like @peeofive and @christopherdowson logos, I lean toward @christopherdowson's logo tho, but I have a few remarks about it.

In my opinion the wrinkles above the nose of the pug makes it looks older and tired, kinda angry too. The logo should looks more happy, maybe a smile on it's face?

[baoang]

Is it a must that the logo, the suffix, together with the name, Jade, be changed? I had thought only the name was necessary.

[christopherdowson]

@NoNameProvided To be honest, I tried it with a smile but it just looked... wrong. Pugs don't look happy!

[whaaaley]

I had an idea for a hexagon shaped pug logo that I've been messing with that kind of goes along with the node's hexagon logo. I can post some screens later today.

[justincorrigible]

Can I offer my approach to a mascot? (please ignore the Camo suit, Old .ai file and my laptop has only Sketch ATM). Think of Octocat ;)

[ghost]

Adding my hat to the ring! Hope I'm not too late!

[Creativenauts]

@melissakeller looks really nice! The dog looking happy rather then snobby is definitely the way to go!

[ghost]

@xstortionist thank you! I thought we needed more happy looking pugs in here!

[NoNameProvided]

Maybe we should create a new thread, what only list the images so we can simply like the ones we want to see as the logo. (And redirect users to this thread for discussion.)

[whaaaley]

Here's a few more unhappy test pugs. I haven't had much time to refine them, but I'm trying to narrow down the general taste of everyone in this thread.

Also, if anyone has any visual references of "happy" looking pugs, I'd love to see them. Pugs to me have always been very grumpy looking and that's what makes them iconic.

[ForbesLindesay]

Thanks so much to everyone for your input. These are all great.

In particular, I really like @peeofive's abstract pug, but I think it might be a bit too abstract for people to get what it is (especially if English is a second language so they might not know what a pug is). I like @melissakeller's as a happy looking pug, but I'm starting to worry if maybe it's a little bit too "silly" (same probably goes for Emily Moore's latest creation). I'm intrigued by where @dustindowell22 is going with that latest angular looking pug. There's something that doesn't feel quite right about the colours. The black and white one lacks any definition to the edge of the face and the colour one feels "too brown". I'm neither a designer nor an artist though, so I really don't know what I would do to improve any of these.

I think my current favourite is @christopherdowson's pug:

I like that it clearly scales well into black and white or greyscale. I think it might be nice to increase the contrast slightly on the "P" pendant for the largest two pugs in colour. Perhaps the smallest favicon sized pug might look better with the pendant removed altogether? It kind of ends up looking like a chin at that size. @christopherdowson would you be OK to sort out making finished versions of these and provide the SVGs? I'll sort out a repo for storing the various files in.

[christopherdowson]

No problem at all - I'll sort it out when I get home. Just about to do the daily commute back to civilisation :)

Sent from my iPhone

On 5 Apr 2016, at 16:43, Forbes Lindesay notifications@github.com wrote:

Thanks so much to everyone for your input. These are all great.

In particular, I really like @peeofive's abstract pug, but I think it might be a bit too abstract for people to get what it is (especially if English is a second language so they might not know what a pug is). I like @melissakeller's as a happy looking pug, but I'm starting to worry if maybe it's a little bit too "silly" (same probably goes for Emily Moore's latest creation). I'm intrigued by where @dustindowell22 is going with that latest angular looking pug. There's something that doesn't feel quite right about the colours. The black and white one lacks any definition to the edge of the face and the colour one feels "too brown". I'm neither a designer nor an artist though, so I really don't know what I would do to improve any of these.

I think my current favourite is @christopherdowson's pug:

I like that it clearly scales well into black and white or greyscale. I think it might be nice to increase the contrast slightly on the "P" pendant for the largest two pugs in colour. Perhaps the smallest favicon sized pug might look better with the pendant removed altogether? It kind of ends up looking like a chin at that size. @christopherdowson would you be OK to sort out making finished versions of these and provide the SVGs? I'll sort out a repo for storing the various files in.

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[christopherdowson]

@ForbesLindesay Do you want to drop me an email and we can start sorting out the file requirements?

[NoNameProvided]

I like these too, but still, the wrinkles above the nose of the pug make it looks so sad, maybe trying to remove it? (From these three above I like the third the most because wrinkles are gone, maybe you should try to check that with colors back?)

[christopherdowson]

Hi Attila

Thing is, Pugs have wrinkles. It’s kind of part of their charm - also the fact they look slightly sad. If you take those aspects away, especially when using an illustrative style of logo design such as I’ve opted for here, then you don’t have the essence of the subject matter. At best you’d have a fairly squat French Bulldog. 

The variant without wrinkles shows usage in a purely mono (black and white scenario) where there are huge restrictions on what can and can’t be shown, and demonstrates that under those extreme usage scenarios it can still work, but only in tandem with the colour/greyscale variants. It’s not an either/or choice, but aspects of the same whole concept.

Everything on this concept has a purpose for being there. I’ve been designing logos for half my lifetime, and I never ever include anything which doesn’t work towards the brand goals.

Apologies if this appears slightly ranting. Unless there’s a technical reason or restriction, I won’t be adding/removing any aspect of the design going forward. The exception is removing the collar on the smallest favicon as I agree it becomes indistinct. The collar itself could be introduced as an alternative logo to be used in certain situations or for a submodule of the overall project. There are a lot of options.

It is, after all, what I do for a living. I’m only a front end developer because my current position requires it and I happen to use Jade in my EECMS templating. I’m traditionally a designer. Most specifically branding.

Christopher Dowson Freelance designer

+44 (0) 7809 336 960    |    studio@christopherdowson.info

christopherdowson.info
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[Creativenauts]

@Ohtilob That's a killer logo, I absolutely love it!

[hackape]

I definitely love @christopherdowson's work! Everybody wants a happy-looking pug. Given his wrinkle face, this is terribly hard to get it right in abstraction. You either get a wrinkle-less puppy or wrinkle-full moron looking pug. Chris had it at the right point of detail-abstraction balance, his pug has the essence of cuteness.

[christopherdowson]

Thanks @hackape

I like the green background pug as an illustration, but not as a logo - my worry would be that it's quite fat which suggests code bloat to me.

It also wouldn't stand up to be stripped down to the essentials and/or reduced to small sizes.

[luxlogica]

Logos are BRAND ICONS, not illustrations. The rule-of-thumb (or 'acid test') of a good logo design is: you should be able to doodle it in 5 seconds. Think about all major brands, like McDonald's, Apple, Coca-Cola, etc.

A logo needs to be simple for many reasons. These vary from cognitive - research shows you are more likely to remember a simple shape than a complex one - to the practical: you can apply a simple logo to a wide variety of media (like embroidering on a t-shirt).

Although many of the images suggested above are beautiful and really well made illustrations, they are not really suitable for use as a brand logo. The one that comes the closest - and which would get my vote if we had to choose among the current pool - is the one by @smaili.

[christopherdowson]

@luxlogica Thanks. I think.

[luxlogica]

@christopherdowson Your images are wonderful, and you're obviously extremely talented, so here is a proper challenge for you:

give us a PUG that anyone would be able to doodle in 5 seconds

The challenge here is to try to come up with something extremely simple and stylised, while still being recognisable as a pug, and being able to be drawn by anybody (not just a talented artist) in 5 seconds or under.

[christopherdowson]

Oh I can't draw, good lord no. That's why I work digitally!

Also if you want to doodle logos, go nuts! I have deadlines.

[Creativenauts]

@christopherdowson Agreed. No sense in doodling, you're doing the team a favor by creating the logo.

[hackape]

@luxlogica man I think you're asking for too much. Challenge you propose is based on a assertion that I can easily prove wrong by the same mean you justify it. check http://frogdesign.com

[luxlogica]

@hackape That is a textbook example of what NOT to do in a logo design. Saw it, 10 seconds later, cannot even remember it, let alone describe it to you. Certainly can't remember what company or organisation it was supposed to represent.

It's wonderful to have so many people trying to help and chime in with support, but people should know their strengths, so they can better help the project with skills that are most suited. I just hope, for the sake of Pug, that this doesn't end up being another example of "Boaty MacBoatface".