Official Ruby Logo Contest – Win a Plate And 100,000 Yen!
The Ruby Visual Identity Team are on the look out for a new "official" Ruby logo to represent Ruby in a more powerful way online. The team says that while they've released the current logo pack, it's "not well known as a logo that represents the programming language Ruby itself." To resolve this, the team are looking for a new Ruby logo that can be used to represent Ruby officially, and have launched a contest. The full details of the contest and how to submit your entries are available here.
Unlike the Rails(tm) logo, the team specify that while copyrights are to be assigned to the Ruby Association, the logo will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike license. Bravo! A little birdie has told me that someone is organizing an effort to design a new, less restrictively licensed Rails logo, but I haven't got the details on it yet.
September 3, 2007 at 2:19 pm
What's wrong with the current logo exactly? And how does starting over again solve ensure that the new logo will become recognized widely where the other one "failed"? Why not just publicize the one you have? I quite like it.
September 3, 2007 at 4:48 pm
@RSL: Take a look at this post on this site for some background: http://www.rubyinside.com/david-heinemeier-hansson-says-no-to-use-of-rails-logo-567.html
September 3, 2007 at 5:20 pm
RSL you bastard, however, I do agree with you.
September 3, 2007 at 6:11 pm
I agree wholeheartedly with RSL.
Let's let the first logo fail before moving to another. I can't think of anything else that logo has become associated, so I'm pretty sure its problem is obscurity, not dilution.
September 3, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Maybe one could use POVRay to create a Ruby crystal refracting a laser-beam. The laser-beam could be writing some glowing code on the background (an IRB session?). Maybe the glowing letters also could be visible through the crystal. But then again I am too lazy to do it ;)
September 3, 2007 at 6:56 pm
@Bill: Rails isn't Ruby...
September 3, 2007 at 6:57 pm
the current logo is perfectly fine.
September 3, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Good contest. How much does 100000 Yen end up being in USD?
September 3, 2007 at 7:34 pm
just so you know:
100,000 yen == 861 US$ == 630.35 Euros == 427.04 UK£ == 1 050.38 AU$ == 908.95 CAN$ == 6 681.36 Bolivian bolivianos == 6 495.22 Chinese yuan == 807 692.30 South Korean won == 6 713.45 HK$
September 3, 2007 at 9:11 pm
The existing logo is okay, but bear in mind this contest is being run by the official Ruby identify people (including Matz) so clearly they fancy a change, and they're the ones in charge really ;-)
September 4, 2007 at 3:52 am
The contest is organized by the Ruby Association (www.ruby-assn.org), which is recently formed to help Ruby development. I (Matz) am the primary board member of RA. It is the contest for the official language logo, where the current logo (which is good) is for the web site.
The current logo will remain to be the official logo for the official web site, even after we choose the language logo.
In addition, the current logo is automatically submitted as a candidate. If it wins, the prize of 100,000 JPY will goes nowhere (i.e. me, the copyright holder will receive no money for the case).