New Ubiquity Logo: Semi-Final Round

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Wow!

We’ve received an amazing amount of feedback regarding the new Ubiquity logo. There have been convincing arguments for why we should choose a particular logo, and many why we shouldn’t. There have been over a hundred and fifty voices, across the blog posts and twitter. The open-design process has been a wonderful, rich, and educational experience.

Unfortunately, we have to choose one logo in the end. Here are Sebastiaan’s higher-fidelity mockups we were working from:

(Note that although the Sun is pictured in the solar-model, in the final edition we were thinking of that the Firefox globe would be in the center, orbited by the moon.)

Before revealing which logo won, here are the criteria we used:

Emotional Connection. Strong logos affect strong emotional connections. The ineffable Mike Beltzner said it well: “Ubiquity is an emotional, conceptual thing more than it is a set of concepts that can be represented by verbs. To me, that implies a more emotional and conceptual logo.”

Remixable. We want a logo that begs to be played with, remixed, and reworked. Something that makes its way onto t-shirts, badges, stickers, and wallpapers. Something that’s meme-able (has memeing, if you’ll excuse the pun), and that people can make into their own.

Strong Metaphor. We want a icon that shouts “extend, empower, and connect the web”.

We also took into account the standard considerations: working at small sizes, being visually stimulating and recognizable, etc.

Drum Roll Please!

When Sebastiaan announced on Twitter that a logo had been chosen (without giving away which one it was), he was immediately pinged back by numerous folks saying that they hoped it was the Ubiquibot. That was relieving, because indeed it was.

Ubiquibot had by far the strongest emotional connection — with numerous commenters falling in love — and has already inspired (credit: Dietrich Ayala). The win is less dramatic in the strong-metaphor camp, but with the addition of the glowy lines, it pulls ahead slightly, with a sense of enhancing/pervading the web.

The Organic Globe was a close runner-up: inspirational, iconic, and fresh. But it just wasn’t as remixable or emotionally impact-full. The solar-model is classy, but emotionally cold.

Other Directions

We tried hard to incorporate language and magic into the concepts (runes, letters, and magic dust). And we even tried starting all over again, given the feedback. None of them really worked.

What Next?

Sebastiaan isn’t done polishing the logo yet. The some funky perspective and the globe is a bitmap (which explains the blurry edges). Expect to see refinements soon.

We need feedback for the finishing touches to the Ubiquibot. Should something be hiding under his head-plate? Does Ubiquibot have any extensions himself (like Firefox ears?). Also, if you think the wrong decision was made, we want to know that too! Having emotions run high is no mean feet for a piece of software!

About this entry

You’re currently reading “New Ubiquity Logo: Semi-Final Round,” an entry on Aza’s Thoughts

Published:: 1.20.09 / 4am

Category:: WEBLOG

Dries 1.20.09 / 5am

Altough I fully understand the choice for ubiquibot (more iconic and memorsiable), I feel that it’s somehow a pitty to go for a “robotty” icon instead of the organic one.
For me ubquity has nothing to do with robots, ubiquity enhances the ‘flow’ of the web from my point of view. Robots remain full of 1’s and 0’s (cfr osx’ automator icon), whereas organic stuff is more about ’somehow’ creating stuff.

r3l4x 1.20.09 / 5am

I totaly agree with Dries!

Alex Faaborg 1.20.09 / 5am

While I was personally a fan of solar model, Ubiquibot is a great choice. Robots imply a more natural interaction, a synthetic intelligence. Also robots are capable of learning new tricks, which is very ubiquity-ish. And since his eyes are blue instead of red, you know immediately that he is a “good” robot instead of an “evil” one :)

Danny Hope 1.20.09 / 6am

Great decision, Ubiquibot makes an emotional connection, is remixable and is a strong metaphor.

The only reservation I have about the final logo is it’s boldness and scalability, I think the socket needs to be more distinct from the bot.

Other than that it think it’s cool and think it’ll do a good job of helping to popularise Ubiquity.

Minh Nguyễn 1.20.09 / 6am

Wow, I’d love to see that Sun-and-Moon icon incorporated into something. After a moment, it even starts to look like a person with an outstretched arm, holding the Earth and marveling at it.

tylerstyle 1.20.09 / 6am

Personally, I only like ubiquibot out of the three candidates. So there was no real choice for me and I am more then happy, with the result. It looks very promising and is in my opinion a natural fit for the whole project.
As soon, as the design is refined and perfected it should be implemented as often and as much as possible. Into Ubiquity itself (on about:ubiquity at least), on labs and later on the addons page.

I think people will enjoy this icon.

Tyler out!

p.s.: Check out the promising port of songbird’s ubiquity on the addons page there.

Christo 1.20.09 / 6am

I liked the organic globe first, but it looks even better with the ubiquibot on it- the Firefox globe coming together with nature and spreading technology. That one is my new favorite.

Joakin 1.20.09 / 7am

Sincerely, it feels like the robot feet are a plug, the only thing missing are holes in the Earth globe.

The 3 choices are great, just hoping you don’t put firefox logo where the globe is. If you do so it would look like the fox is going to eat the robot, and probably too many elements in stage.

Good work!

David Wilhelm 1.20.09 / 8am

I know I’m totally too late..but I can’t help myself. I was thinking a big U - shaped magnet would be cool. Something like this (without the filings):
http://mirror-uk-rb1.gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/natural-science/horseshoe-magnet-red-silver-iron-filings-AHD.jpg
Symbolism = Something to do with action at a distance, ‘pulling things together’…a kind of scientific magic. Also, the bane of robots :p –see Looney Tunes.
Sorry. good luck with Ubiq. love the app, whatever the logo :)

Mike Beltzner 1.20.09 / 8am

Congrats on picking a design; I’m glad that the varied feedback that you got helped. Ubiquibot will end up taking on a persona that, I hope, will forge the emotional connection and embody the concept.

Have you considered having Ubiquibot extend arms or other “feelers”, either connecting different spots on the globe or reaching out helpfully to the user / offering information to the user?

Louie 1.20.09 / 8am

I’m still a fan of the solar model. :)

Phil Cook 1.20.09 / 8am

I have to say ubiquibot of all the logo’s will help push ubiquity further. Hopefully people will be intrigued by the logo and want to find out more and therefore spread the word more.

Bret 1.20.09 / 9am

I like the Ubiquibot and it’s shaping up nicely, but the globe almost seems to be a distraction. In fact I think that there should almost be more of a focus on the head of the Ubiquibot. Focus on this area and make it logo.

I do agree though that currently I almost feel sad for the little guy since he looks like wimp. It’s a well created identity, but the face of Ubiquibot looks like a very week bot compared to the power of what it can do. It would be nice if that power was represented in the face.

Funtomas 1.20.09 / 10am

You guys, who like the new logo, are too obsessed with robots. I suspect Sebastiaan is big Star Wars fan.
Frankly, browsing has nothing to do with robots. It used to be mere strolling information highway. Time has changed and web is about media of all kinds. To me, Ubiquity provides literally “hands down” experience, command line to the web, mouse-free browsing.
The winning logo is like to be of the new plug-in Prius.

…or call it NATT

http://www.ikea.com/cz/cs/catalog/products/70081535

shawnee 1.20.09 / 10am

He’s very cute, but needs a name. Ubi. Bot’s name should be ubi. :)

Rich I. 1.20.09 / 10am

How about a wallpaper sized version of this image?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3328/3211619593_e96817bf3c_o.png

Chanux 1.20.09 / 11am

Even though I’m a big nature lover I’d choose the ubiquibot over the green thing in this case.

sep332 1.20.09 / 12pm

The bot is cute, but a little too… “smooth”? Characterless. There should be some attention given to what this bot’s temperament is, gender, strength to cute ratio, etc. It really needs some character.

Shane McCallum 1.20.09 / 12pm

Great job, not only did you pick the best design but you made it look even cooler. Open = Better.

Eric 1.20.09 / 1pm

I like the bot icon and the idea behind the program, but why use Ubiquity when it is limited to Firefox only? (other than the fact that Ubiquity is alive and fresh and Enso is… well.. dead)

I prefer Enso because it facilitates the use of any program with selectable text (including Firefox) AND it launches programs in custom defined ways…

..and controls iTunes.. etc. etc. etc. the possibilities are endless… *sigh* it’s a shame Enso is no longer being officially developed.

Sean Martell 1.20.09 / 2pm

Congrats on all of these designs! An excellent final design choice as well. I’m a fan of the lil guy already!

Mark Surman 1.20.09 / 2pm

Love the Ubiqibot, but not nearly as much as I loved watching the process. Really rocking. We’re totally going to steal how you did this as we roll into the mozilla.org visual refresh process.

-=Ben=- 1.20.09 / 2pm

Hey Aza.
These are great images.
My Vote goes for this one:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/3211620235_afaa9dcc36.jpg

-=Ben=-

Sean 1.20.09 / 3pm

Looks like robots are the new ‘in’ thing. See:

http://tapbots.com/weightbot

I’m afraid none of the logo’s did it for me. Sorry.

Zachary Lym 1.20.09 / 4pm

It’s a good mascot : )

I am anxious for the silhouette version, something I can use as a watermark on videos. Will it just be his head and those glowing eyes?

Ian Thomas (thelem) 1.20.09 / 7pm

The sun/moon icon would make a great generic-firefox-addon icon.

Gerv 1.20.09 / 8pm

As I commented on the last round, it would be really bad to have a US-specific plug/socket in an icon which represents “ubiquity”. The current version moves a little bit away from the US-style, which is good. If we have to have a plug and socket, it shouldn’t look like any of the existing power ones. How about an inverted U shape? OK, that looks less like legs, but you could highlight the front edges of the ends of the U to restore that effect.

Zacqary Adam Green 1.20.09 / 9pm

I really liked the Ubiquibot concept but I was hoping the angle wouldn’t be quite as high. One, the logo seems a bit too tall this way (especially with such a wide bottom half and narrow top half), and two, he does, as some people have said, look very tiny compared to the globe.

Blair McBride 1.20.09 / 10pm

Looks like we have a new pet/mascot/butler!

shawnee 1.20.09 / 11pm

I just had a thought about Ubi’s presence . . . he might be best presented as a robot-type footed-leg plug _in front_ of the generically unbranded Mozilla Firefox globe, rather than “on top of the world” . . . this would give the impression of the world being his background, and source of ideas, rather than it being his source of control.

Fits! Just an idea.

It would be great to see a rendering Ubi in *front* of the globe (with part of the globe obscured behind him), rather than this current jackhammer-type presence operator that give the impression of being “on top of the world.”

Edit: That is, Ubi can or should be able to be viewed as a *friendly* bot, one willing to help users “plug into” just about any idea they wish; one where they finally get the idea that they do indeed have a friendly friend in the world, not an all-encompassing seeker of control or manifest (ack! Microsoft).

Don’t forget that GIMP has some awesome ability to do transparency! Let’s give Ubi some human characteristics before we place him on top of the world.

Abi 1.21.09 / 7pm

The closeup of the robot’s face is my new wallpaper!
Can’t wait for the t-shirts. :)

Morton 1.22.09 / 2am

I also prefered the organic logo but I can see the benefit of the robotic one. Keep it simple is my opinion, so no ears or other addition things but i would like to see a bigger head like the one of Marvin from a Hitchikers Guide to Galaxy (okay, may this is a bit playful).

David 1.24.09 / 1pm

The Ubiquibot is excellent. My only complaint is that it’s not immediately clear that the robot is plugging into the globe. It took me a while before I noticed it wasn’t just standing on it.

Johnny K 1.27.09 / 1am

“Does Ubiquibot have any extensions himself (like Firefox ears?)”

I like that idea. Not so much the idea itself, but the idea around it. That Ubiquibot has some personality, perhaps even a secret identity. That he is just another friendly robot, and there are things to be discovered about him.

I’d like to see this aspect of the character emphasized. I’d like to get to know him.

Great work!

Tom 1.27.09 / 2am

[Left] Too generic-looking

[right] Too many details. This is bad for any logo. Looks like a joystick from far away

[Middle] Just right. Color contrast is great. The idea is great. It looks great.

Go with the middle one.

Winston 1.31.09 / 10pm

My 2 cents..

I don’t feel emotionally connected to the Ubiquibot as it looks cold and unfeeling, but maybe it’s just me.

I don’t understand why Ubiquity should be metaphorized as a robot as well; I can’t see the link between the two.

Moreover, the chosen logo is too complicated, and the angle is weird. I would really prefer something simple.

That being said..

I like the concept of the “plug”, but it’s not evident on first glance.

There’s potential in branding and marketing with a robot, even if the metaphor doesn’t seem clear for now. The robot can be characterized to be cute and friendly, and soon everyone will fall in love with it.

I’ll still support Ubiquity whatever the logo is.

Leo 2.3.09 / 12pm

Hey Aza!

I really like the robot :) It seems cute enough. Might i suggest that the globe would be the firefox globe, as that would better represent what Ubiquity is. The globe now reminds me of non-branded artwork that more or less fits an Linux distro, but there’s something really appealing about that lil’ robot :)

Abdul Muneer 8.10.09 / 2am

Aza,
My vote goes with Ben’s choice.

New Ubiquity Logo: Semi-Final Round

Drum Roll Please!

Other Directions

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