Semantic Web logos and technology buttons for your consideration

Dear SWEO IG and W3C Comm Team,

Starting in June 2007, a small group of people from the SWEO IG
and the W3C Comm Team met to work on a set of logos as part of
Semantic Web branding. Led by Benji Nowack, the SWEO IG had
developed some draft logo designs [1] earlier this year.  Joint
SWEO/Comm discussions led to refocus the project.  Benji, Susie
Stephens, Ivan Herman, Marie-Claire Forgue, Fabrice de Comarmond,
and I met several times over the past few months to develop a set
of logos to meet the goals identified below.

I am pleased to share with you the results of those discussions:
  http://www.w3.org/2007/09/draft-swlogos.pdf

On that page you will find:

 a) Two Semantic Web logos (one horizontally oriented, one
    vertically, to be used according to context).

 b) An initial set of technology buttons. We anticipate making
    each technology button available (initially) in five colors, 
    and to add technologies as needed.

Please give us your feedback (including expressions of support!) on this
set of logos and buttons. Please send comments by 13 September (end of
business Boston time) to both the SWEO IG and the Comm Team mailing
lists.

Although these logos will be public during this review, please do
not disseminate them more broadly at this time. I hope that we
can announce logos before the end of September.

I would like to thank Benji for his initial efforts and
contributions that helped shape the current proposal. Marie-Claire has
kept us moving forward. Fabrice and his designers have helped us think
through options and design goals, and provided these attractive logos.
Susie and Ivan have helped us keep in mind the needs of various
communities. Thanks to everyone!

Notes on the designs:

 1) The designs prioritize the brands in this order: W3C,
    Semantic Web, individual technology. We have chosen at this
    time not to provide logos for Working or Interest Groups;
    naturally it is possible to use the designs in conjunction
    with a group name on a Web page, for example.

 2) Our goal is to bring the Semantic Web to a large audience,
    including a non-technical audience. To this end, until such
    time as the brand is more recognized, the Semantic Web logos
    include both the phrase "Semantic Web" and the three-colored
    cube. Only three sides of the cube are visible, hinting at
    the RDF triplet via a familiar geometric form. The top
    of the cube is peeled coyly back, suggesting that something
    valuable or special is inside, and inviting the viewer to
    look more closely. 

    We considered at one point reusing the familiar RDF icon [2]
    and simply reassigning to mean "Semantic Web" more generally.
    We chose a new visual to avoid confusion, but also because
    the current design was preferred.

 3) For the technology buttons we had several goals:

    a) The buttons needed to feature both W3C and Semantic Web
       branding. We accepted that due to size constraints, we
       would not be able to include the words "Semantic Web"
       in addition to the three-color cube. We hope that the
       cube will catch on and will speak for itself.

    b) Web designers want logos to fit into their designs.
       We have chosen a small number of colors (5) to provide
       some choice. Perhaps in the future we can imagine enabling
       or endorsing arbitrary background colors, but at this
       time we did not want to go that far.

    c) The size for the buttons (80x15 pixels) is one
       commonly used by Web designers. Note that the PDF file
       distorts the sizes somewhat; they will be smaller when
       they appear on their own (in PNG, etc.).

    d) It should be easy to integrate new buttons in the future as
       other Semantic Web technologies mature.

 4) The logos that the SWEO IG developed [1] include some
    interesting design elements we would like to reuse in other
    contexts (but not in the technology buttons). For instance,
    we discussed using the OWL eyes on T-shirts. The idea would
    be to create something that is technology-specific but
    make it work with the proposed elements as well. Thus, the
    W3C logo and Semantic Web cube would also figure on such
    a T-shirt. Although Fabrice showed us a T-shirt model as
    an example of his thoughts, we do not have a T-shirt design
    plan in place right now. That is something we can turn to
    once we've deployed the proposed logos and buttons. 

    I would add that I have enjoyed working on this and, if 
    T-shirts are to follow, I would happily continue this this
    pattern of a small group bringing design ideas back to the
    SWEO IG and Comm Team.

Thanks and let us know what you think!

  Ian Jacobs

[1] http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/Logos
[2] http://www.w3.org/RDF/icons/rdf_w3c_icon.48

-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447