UPDATE 6: Post-PAX East 2011
So it's been about a month since PAX East and I figured that it's time to regroup and open up the thread for critique of our successes and failures with the current forumer logo. I'm not opening it up to a full redesign just yet, but I want to know what people thought as far as seeing it en masse and having it on stuff. If there are huge parts that need to be redesigned and stuff and a lot of people agree, maybe we'll get another design. Otherwise, I thought it was a great logo, and we should keep it as the official logo. Post away guys.
By the way, I miss all of you guys a lot, and can't wait to be back in Boston next year.
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As I have seen HRM (His Royal Moderatorship) Moe Fwacky post in the Challenge coin threads, having a PAX Forumers logo for the community that is here would be a great thing, and so I am thinking of taking it upon myself to design one, as well as encouraging others to design one as well. So I am posting this here to get some momentum behind the idea as well as getting suggestions for what should go on the logo.
EDIT: To answer a question from below, the main reason to do this is because if this logo or crest for the forums were to be on anything that is for sale, it DIRECTLY violates the copyrights of the Penny Arcade Expo and Penny Arcade. It can READ "Penny Arcade Expo" in a font, but it cannot have the PAX or PAX East logo on it.
Post suggestions and let's get this thing made.
UPDATE 1: Questions To Answer
We have our first big questions so we need answers for them!
1) What do we as a forum/subculture/community/tribe value above all else?
2) What are the common factors that connect us all as PAX Forumers?
UPDATE 2: Community
The current logos are looking awesome, but someone brought up a good point. "What is the definition of community?"
When I originally thought about this logo, I thought that the community we are focusing on is the forum community. I mean this in the sense that the things that we take upon ourselves to plan, execute, organize, and report on. Therefore, any events that we don't have a direct effect in planning are not considered "community events". For example, Omegathon is not a community event, but Cookie Brigade is. So I think that for the most part, we need to focus on the things WE do to personalize the PAX experience.
UPDATE 3:
The wonderful Yamara has been working hard on getting this design done, and the most recent logo draft is awesome. What we have so far is this:
And also an example of the logo on shirts:
It really depends on what you all think, though. Post comments below!
UPDATE 4: False Alarm!
So it seems that there is still some unsure thinking behind the "final draft" that we had for a while, so I think it would be better for me to pull the final draft label off and say it needs more work. Luckily, we still have some time before PAX East, where I personally would like to make it a big reveal of sorts.
The main critiques that I have seen are "too busy" and "doesn't include X". I apologize for any comments regarding what is and isn't a community event, especially any I have made. However, I have a feeling that satisfying both of these criticisms would lead to nothing happening. So I am making this an unofficial official thing (with moderator blessing of course):
We need to get a final draft finished that feels simple and can generally be well liked by all. so to allow for any needed printing and shipping needs (for example, the forum badges and so on using the logo), I am setting a deadline of
JANUARY 31, 2011 AT 11:59PM EASTERN STANDARD TIME. Whatever the consensus is at that point is going to be the final design. If we can all agree on that, it will make things more even.
UPDATE 5: FALSE False Alarm!
In agreement with a bunch of people, we now have a final plan. The current "final draft" as designed by Yamara is provisionally accepted as our logo for PAX East. In other words, any and all needed uses of a PAX forum community logo will be Yamara's design. Think of it as a beta test. Once we see the reactions and comments from people at PAX East as well as people ordering stuff with the logo, we will regroup here in April (enough decompression time from the event) and discuss positives and negatives and work from there.
Posts
The design will either need to be simple or tastefully complex, an example of the latter being found in all examples of heraldry. Not that I am suggesting we need heraldry. But a logo that represents a group should encapsulate its identity. But our identity is more than videogames/dice/board games/etc., so our logo would need to incorporate something more than that, something which conjures the spirit of the PAX community.
This is a tall order, and I have my own ideas of what identifies us, the main imagery of which I incorporated into the East coin. I might just elaborate on them later.
First we need to identify what makes us us, what brings us together, so on and so forth.
Then we need to develop appropriate imagery for those things. Please offer your ideas on what these may be if you have any.
1) What are our values?
2) What are our common bonds?
Hooray! Badges confirmation.
Are we or are we not allowed to incorporate "official" Penny Arcade stuff into this cresticle? I could see this being used one day on an item like the challenge coin and running into trouble.
Legality aside for the moment, my thought would be to do as Moe suggested and have something approaching a 'real' crest/coat of arms. Picture this:
But on the sides of the shield there would be a Deep Crow and maybe the Owlbeast from Lookouts.
The shield itself I would keep a little simpler, more like this:
Have various dice - d4, d6, d12, d20 - going down the center. The other quadrants of the shield could incorporate a DS, game controllers, a PC. Perhaps the merch, pac-man, etc.
You could use the 'tubes in places a normal crest might have swords, obviously.
/end dump
Organizer of the Post-PAX Party. You should come!
Satellite Theater for life!
Me too, with a phrase in latin somewhere on it. Not too fussy though
Well my understanding is that you can't use the official logos/characters/art on anything that's for sale. The official logos are all over the trading cards and forum badges, for example. Those are all basically personal-use, though, produced by each person and not sold for money. Like I said, it would be a Bad Thing if the forum logo was designed using PA IP and then we wanted to put it on something like the coin. No dice. (heh)
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Those are good suggestions. Those cover basic tabletop, video games, and arcade. Would we want to cover something like card games as an additional "base genre" ?
also it needs something (maybe around the edges) that stands for community
PS2 multi-port? haha
No suggestions Kropotkin? With you doing the badges I think you are a great person to come up with a new logo for us. Something that would look awesome in the center of those badges.
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
I think a good thing to concentrate on are some of our traditional symbols: Things that have in the past helped to define who we are, or things that have been born of the community. One such symbol would be the blue ball. Though it was a fad, it was a strong fad, and a product of the community. Out of nothing, a sensation was created that only we could have created. Penny Arcade had nothing to do with it, though it happened under their roof. It would work as one of the symbols in a shield or heraldry design, for instance. I should also point out that this is not uncommon: Heraldry designs often incorporate visual elements that are seen as having been hallmarks of or mainstays of the groups that they represent. And, again, I'm not convinced that videogames are our domain: Videogames are the domain of gamers. We are gamers, but we are a proud subdivision of gamers, an exclusive consideration.
Those are my current thoughts on the matter.
I am many things sir but a graphic designer isn't one of them. I shall however rise to the challenge and do as you ask. It could be regarded as a 'work in progress' kind of thing though.
The Atari 2600 represents home console gaming, the arcade cabinet is harking back to retro as well as MAME cabinets. As for magic cards, Wizards of the Coast will be onto us faster that you can say 'law suit'. I did consider it though
Moe, can you post a link to the Prime 2010 bar crawl topic? You seem to have disappeared it, and I am too much of a PAX forum noob to know where you put those.
Here's the link anyway http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=122674
Seriously though, the buttons look good. What level of involvement did you have in their creation?
I like the idea of a heraldric logo, but I think it might be too "busy" for some purposes, like incorporating into other community things. But, it's cool. So, I suggest two logos: a simple text one for sticking on tiny things like buttons, or other cases where a more minimal look is needed; and a heraldric one which incorporates the text logo, to be used when it needs to stand alone, like t-shirts and such.
Everyone has really good ideas on what the PAX community is to them. I can try to whip something up incorporating it.
So why the long windedness? To illustrate my opinion that whatever the logo winds up as, it should have more to do with the community itself than our roots per-se. Having references to Penny Arcade or Gaming isn't a bad thing, hell it might even be required, but I fall in line with papaprinny, and I think ZeroHourHero is on the right track.
I hope all that made sense XD
~The Management
Also, this is sounding a lot like this:
http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c59aa53ef013485689c61970c-pi
Not that that`s a problem, it may be a good reference point.
...unless that`s been the purpose this whole time.
I've also been thinking about the community aspect of the images on the shield and I think we should use some of the following instead of the gaming stuff:
1) Steering or car wheel to represent the CCST
2) A cookie for the Cookie Brigade
3) A button badge
4) Train tracks for the WCTT
5) Blue ball for 'All Hail the Ball'.
6) Inflatable sword (care of Bioware)
7) Pint of beer with a pointy hat on it for the Tri Wizard drinking tournament
8) Computer in a bag for BYOC
9) Steel Battalion controller
10) DS with Pictochat running on it.
The surrounding it will be icons of gaming, such as a the D20, NES D-Pad and other items. To the average person the shield images would not be recognisable. To a PAX attendee however, they would mean something.
Let me know what you think. If people like it, we should run it by Khoo to make sure it's sufficiently different enough for PA's liking.
People seem to prefer the community icons to be more about the community and less about just the gaming. So, from that end, I've been making a list, expanded from ZeroHourHero's list and other chime-ins, of what the community is, and maybe what could be used for it:
I'm not sure I can cram all that in, but I will do my best. Also, given the community changes from year to year, we could change around things for this whole heraldric idea if new themes emerge. I was thinking the we could use the phrase "strangers are friends" in Latin. I like idea of "All Hail Ball", but I'm not sure it would fit the look (and it doesn't seem to translate).
Like itzerokewl says, the community logo should embrace both events. That's why I'm avoiding symbols like the space needle. Let me know what you think so far.
Additionally, I'm not sure that I'm very wild about the four primary colors on the shield. The only alternative that makes sense to me is to use a plain white background, possibly with variations in the field. Variations in the field can be eschewed for whatever designs we place over the shield.
However, in a complete reversal of my rationale for avoiding the font because Kiko did it, I do like the idea of the horse on the right appearing as red, while the horse on the left would appear as blue (right horse = PAX East = red, left horse = PAX Prime = blue). Since the horses are considered to be the "supporters" in the heraldic design, it is fitting that they hold up the PAX community. Without PAX, the community does not exist. The only problem is that this would completely ignore the future plight of PAX Europe and, say, its green color. The response to such a concern is that PAX Prime and PAX East are the originals, that which PAX grew from. When PAX South Africa 2035 rolls around, people would ideally look at the red and blue horse on the design and see that PAX had its roots in East and Prime.
As for community imagery, I am going to state my own, unbridled opinions of some of the strongest symbols of the community, which I have been unwilling to do thus far so as to appear somewhat impartial.
For the shield:
The DS is perhaps the biggest symbol of PAX. Everyone who has a DS brings theirs to PAX. It is the most prolific and common thing at each event, and has been since PAX 2005. Sure, it's a commercial symbol, but we have made it our own. The PAX attendee carries a DS.
Another thing I like about the community is the fact that we literally make great stuff out of nothing. One of the greatest things to be produced out of nothing in all of PAX lore is the blue ball. We took something unremarkable and turned it into a phenomenon, literally (and remarkably) the high-point of PAX 2006 for everyone involved. Such is one of our greatest achievements that continues to be talked about to this day.
These two things would fill up two quadrants. These, to me, are shoe-in imagery that absolutely deserve to represent what the community is capable of, as well as represent the community's roots of greatness.
What the other two quadrants should be filled with is still up in the air for me.
As for the idea of using imagery for things such as the magical mystery tour... How long has that been a tradition for? I am disinclined to celebrate traditions that are not yet tradition, as they may fall by the way side. I would be most interested in celebrating a strong PAX tradition that has stood the test of time.
Now... for those of you dedicated to the idea of making this great, I have some links for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraldry#The_rules_of_heraldry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms
Yes, there are rules and common conventions for the construction of a heraldic design or a coat of arms. An investigation into heraldry leads to things such as the rules of heraldry, the supporter, the motto, the crest, etc. An understanding of heraldry and its intricacies will help us to better select appropriate imagery that not only will work as symbols that we understand, but as symbols that withstand comparison with other, more traditional heraldic designs.
If the DS is included, I see it as being more faded into the background of the shield as a whole, but I do not view it as necessary to the piece.