Welcome to the official RatSkep logo contest

We need an official logo to go with the site. Something neat and clean looking

How to enter
Just post your entries (as many as you want) here in this thread or send them via email to info@rationalskepticism.org.

Deadline
Deadline is midnight (GMT +1:00) June 30th, 2010.

Judging
All entries will be evaluated by the staff and the finalists will be put up in a poll for the members to vote on.

Prizes
- A RatSkep shirt (colour free of choice) with the winners logo printed on.
- A copy of the book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" by Carl Sagan.

Submission guidelines and rules
The purpose of this rationalskepticism.org contest is to design a logo for the rationalskepticism.org website. The logo will be used online, in print and on merchandise. Flexibility is a key requirement, including the need to resize easily and to look good in black and white as well as color. The final version of the logo will need to be suitable for high quality printing.

Entrants should take care to ensure that their entries are not in any way similar to existing logos or other copyrighted images. A logo that cannot potentially be registered as a service mark, no matter how well crafted, cannot win the contest.

The winning entry will become the sole property of rationalskepticism.org and may be displayed publicly on rationalskepticism.org and associated websites. The winning entry may also be registered by rationalskepticism.org as a service mark and the entrant agrees to transfer all right and title to the entry to rationalskepticism.org in accordance with the rules of this contest.

Participation constitutes the entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these rules. By participating in the contest, the entrant is representing and warranting that he/she has read and understood, and agrees to be bound by, these rules. Including the guides and rules referred to herein, these rules constitute the entire agreement between the entrant and rationalskepticism.org in relation to the contest. They govern the entrant’s participation and supersede any prior or other agreements between the entrant and rationalskepticism.org and relating to the contest.

If you've got any further questions post them here in the thread.

Now knock yourselves out
Bernhard

This competition is discriminatory against people who are artistically useless.

But my idea is a rat (with a hat?) looking through a magnifying glass. If anyone with the Drawing superpower wants to run with that, be my guest.

j.mills wrote:This competition is discriminatory against people who are artistically useless.

But my idea is a rat (with a hat?) looking through a magnifying glass. If anyone with the Drawing superpower wants to run with that, be my guest.

Well the problem is talkrational.org already have a rat.

[Goes and looks.] Oh yeah. Clearly I was not at my most inventive...

Okay, so, like, a life belt, with the name of the site round it. Bit like this:



Only, ya know. Better.

Do other related/similar sites already have a lifeboat (or sth like that) in their logo?

@LIFE: New logo means new banners, eh?

walkingthedeadline wrote:Do other related/similar sites already have a lifeboat (or sth like that) in their logo?

Nope they don't In fact, it was suggested here as well a while back...I never got around to include one though.

walkingthedeadline wrote:@LIFE: New logo means new banners, eh?

Not necessarily. I guess they'll just be added to the rest...

Too bad I suck at drawing :/

We can always pay tens of thousands of pounds to the people who came up with this classic.





Erm, are you wanting "RatSkep.org," "RationalSkepticism.org" or both versions?

I can't look at that now without seeing Lisa Simpson...

Oh, they're not the only ones to cock up a logo. Remember the Office for Government Commerce?

Ah! Once you see it...

I'm With Stupid wrote:Erm, are you wanting "RatSkep.org," "RationalSkepticism.org" or both versions?

Whatever floats your monkey!

j.mills wrote:[Goes and looks.] Oh yeah. Clearly I was not at my most inventive...

Okay, so, like, a life belt, with the name of the site round it. Bit like this:



Only, ya know. Better.

I dunno, I think people could think they've stumbled across some sort of lifeboat charity or the website for the Bolivian coastguard. And yes, I'm fully aware that Bolivia is unlikely to have a coast guard.

Couple of pointers: firstly,any logo should initially be done entirely in black and white, good logo's are capable of being rendered in a variety of ways, to ensure that they don't become boring, this means they need to be reproducible in a variety of colours, and sizes, and on different backgrounds, so colour shouldn't be a part of the primary design. For example, each sub-forum could have it's own variation of the logo, specific colours have specific associations, so an easy way to achieve a suitable variation for each forum would be to alter the colour. This is not possible if the logo has to be a specific colour.
Secondly, a logo should be an icon, not a picture, barring the words, the logo should be a single simple image, think of the Nike swoosh, the world wildlife foundation panda etc. This simplicity allows the logo to be reproduced at a range of sizes without losing readability. Happily, it also eliminates the need for incredible drawing skills, a stick figure is a far better logo than a realistic figure.
Logotypes, that is the words, should not be in full capitals (apologies to whoever put the current one together ). ALL-CAPS ARE THE VISUAL EQUIVALENT OF BEING SHOUTED AT. It's a subtlety, but logo design is about subtlety. Capitalising the first letter of each word is fine.

I'm With Stupid wrote:Erm, are you wanting "RatSkep.org," "RationalSkepticism.org" or both versions?

I'd advise against "RatSkep.org", for the simple reason that's not the name or address of the site. If you were putting together a logo for addidas and used addi, it wouldn't make a lot of sense, logo's should make finding the site easier, not confuse the issue. Unless LIFE is willing to change the site name and address, stick with rationalskepticism.org
Finally, as LIFE mentioned logos need to be reproducible at a range of sizes, so for the final version they should be produced as vector graphics. I'd be happy to finalize the logo for anyone that needs it, but if you want to do your own (and it's better if you do, you're guaranteed to get it the way you want then) you can download inkscape from http://www.inkscape.org/ vectors are small files which can be reproduced at any size with no loss of quality.

shh wrote: Logotypes, that is the words, should not be in full capitals (apologies to whoever put the current one together ). ALL-CAPS ARE THE VISUAL EQUIVALENT OF BEING SHOUTED AT. It's a subtlety, but logo design is about subtlety. Capitalising the first letter of each word is fine.

Ain't that just personal preference?

Famous logos like Wikipedia, Wal Mart, AOL, Sony are all caps and I'm sure at least the last 3 must have had the budget to pitch some decent logos, no?

shh wrote:

I'm With Stupid wrote:Erm, are you wanting "RatSkep.org," "RationalSkepticism.org" or both versions?

I'd advise against "RatSkep.org", for the simple reason that's not the name or address of the site. If you were putting together a logo for addidas and used addi, it wouldn't make a lot of sense, logo's should make finding the site easier, not confuse the issue. Unless LIFE is willing to change the site name and address, stick with rationalskepticism.org

Well if the length of the domain name is too much of an obstacle I'd raise it with the staff if they'd be ok with a name change. If we do change this would be last moment to do so before we print the logo anywhere...

RatSkep rings better than RationalSkepticsisiiscmiscm to me. Also easier to remember, and shorter, probably easier to work with altogether.

j.mills wrote:This competition is discriminatory against people who are artistically useless.

But my idea is a rat (with a hat?) looking through a magnifying glass. If anyone with the Drawing superpower wants to run with that, be my guest.

i was thinking something like banksys rat art lol but couldnt find anything close except this


heres something i found thats has the magnifying glass

shh wrote:I'd advise against "RatSkep.org", for the simple reason that's not the name or address of the site.

Well it is the address of the site. Type it in. Anyway, I've already tried an acropolis themed logo, and one with the impossible triangle, but I don't think I'm cut out for this logo designing. But if anyone thinks they can do a good job with either of those ideas, be my guest. I think I'll try a thought bubble themed one next.

LIFE wrote:Ain't that just personal preference
Famous logos like Wikipedia, Wal Mart, AOL, Sony are all caps and I'm sure at least the last 3 must have had the budget to pitch some decent logos, no?

To some degree it is, but the legibility thing is a fact. Also, AOL is different because it's initials, IBM is similar, and the others are famous brands, not famous logos. Other than Nike I can't think of a classic logo that's all caps, and with Nike it's actually the swoosh that's classic, not the logotype.
This kind of thing can be hard to judge, what you're going for is the highest number of preference, so you might get 30% of people who prefer all-caps, but you'll almost always get a majority preferring lower-case, so you'd generally go with lower-case.
But again, the legibility thing is a fact, and the tone is certainly friendlier with lower case: RATIONALSKEPTICISM.ORG or
RationalSkepticism.org or rationalskepticism.org.
The all caps is definitely the least accessible of these.

Well if the length of the domain name is too much of an obstacle I'd raise it with the staff if they'd be ok with a name change. If we do change this would be last moment to do so before we print the logo anywhere...

RatSkep rings better than RationalSkepticsisiiscmiscm to me. Also easier to remember, and shorter, probably easier to work with altogether.

Probably my preference too tbh, but your call, either way, I'd say make sure the logo matches the actual name. Might be worth deciding this first, I doubt it'd be too hard to adapt the designs, but if it's gonna cost money or a lot of effort, I'd decide it first.

I'm With Stupid wrote:
Well it is the address of the site. Type it in. Anyway, I've already tried an acropolis themed logo, and one with the impossible triangle, but I don't think I'm cut out for this logo designing. But if anyone thinks they can do a good job with either of those ideas, be my guest. I think I'll try a thought bubble themed one next.

It's not what it says in the address bar, and a google search brings up posts from here that say ratskep, but not the main page, typing it into the address bar brings me here, but I don't know if that's because I come here so much or not. Anyway, it's better to have one consistent name rather than several, whichever is chosen in the end.
From what I've seen in the t-shirt ideas thread there'll be plenty of mentions of rational skepticism on a lot of the t-shirt designs, regardless of which the site is called.

I was actually thinking about stuff to do with this last week. I had an idea that it be more generic, sciencey, inspiring… some inclusion of an image of an eye - representing the importance of observing, of seeing things as they are, of continuing to look into things. Also an obligatory DNA double-helix weaving perhaps through the background of the domain name, and perhaps some subtle renditions of atoms.

This may be too intricate for a "logo", as such - it's more detailed banner artwork, really. But I'll toss my ideas out there just in case they inspire someone with teh talentz to do something better than they might otherwise have.