Erik wrote:
>I have used the second place design by
User:Neolux
>as the more important Wikimedia logo. I think it looks
>very nice on the Wikimedia Foundation page, please
>do take a look:
>
I like it, too.
On this point, I'll do whatever I'm told to do, because I'm not in any
mood to argue about the logo with anyone. :-) However, I do have a
question.
Is it really sensible to have different logos for the Wikimedia
Foundation and Wikipedia itself?
So, I hope the answer is "Yes, of course, the Wikimedia Foundation is
an umbrella for many differently-branded products, and so just as
AOL-TimeWarner has a logo for AOL and a logo for Time Magazine, we can
and should have different logos, too. The Microsoft logo is not the
same as the XP logo. And so on."
But, I wonder. We're not a huge media organization, yet. And the
beneficial branding impact of a logo depends on people actually seeing
it a lot.
If millions of people visit Wikipedia (and they do, and they will)
then if I send a letter on Wikimedia Foundation letterhead to the Ford
Foundation, say, then if that letterhead has the Wikipedia logo on it,
there's a good chance that someone there will instantly have happy
feelings towards us, because they'll instantly know who we are and
what we do.
But if the logo is different, and on a website that we don't really
expect a lot of people to visit (as compared to Wikipedia proper),
then it'll just be an abstract thing. They'll think "Gee, why is the
UN earth peace council sending us a letter"? (ha ha)
So, what am I supposed to do when I print letterhead? Should we
really do this? Or should we use the puzzle-ball logo for everything?
I agree with Jimbo on this. Having completely different and unrelated
logos on different projects makes no marketting sense at all. Adopting
the 2nd and 3rd place logos from the voting to represent different
projects is contrary to the purpose of having a logo in the first place.
If there is any place where the puzzle ball most belongs it's WikiMedia.
Although not the original or biggest project, it has become the root
project through which everything becomes related. The puzzle ball is
more important to WikiMedia than to WikiPedia. By using the puzzle ball
in WikiMedia we can establish a theme that has linking thematic threads
that run through all the other projects in the same way that the word
"wiki" has been made to run through them all. That may be accomplished
by using variants of the logo, by using my previous puzzle piece idea in
each logo, by using a scaled down mini-ball as part of each logo, or by
anything else that preserves the thread.
My response to the question about what to use on the letterhead: Use
the puzzle ball on WikiMedia letterhead.
Ec