Logo/History
This page in a nutshell: This page overviews the history of the Wikipedia logo, from the original US flag example to the current puzzle sphere logo. Originally written in 2003 by Jrincayc and Eloquence. |
MediaWikiEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2003-2021 | The third place logos (International logo contest/Results) were appointed as the logo for MediaWiki by logo contest organizer Erik Möller on October 15, 2003. Designed by User:Anthere (tournesol flower) and User:Eloquence (combination, concept), reworked by User:Aka, vectorized by User:Chrkl; brackets fixed by User:guillom. | |
2021-Present | A vote on MediaWiki determined the winning logo, by User:Serhio Magpie, on April 1, 2021. |
Meta-Wiki / Wikimedia communityEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2006-Present | The Wikimedia Community Logo was created in 2006 by user:WarX as a public-domain logo intended to be free of trademark and visual identity guidelines, that community members and groups could use and remix as they wished. In 2008 it was chosen as the new logo for Meta-Wiki, replacing the Wikimedia movement logo, with "Wikimedia Meta-Wiki" underneath. |
WikibooksEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2003-2004 | Developed by Rei-artur. | |
2004-2009 | Modified by Rei-artur. | |
2009-Present | Developed by User:Bastique, User:Ramac et al. in a community discussion that began in 2008 (following an inconclusive discussion in 2006–2007) and concluded in January 2009. |
WikidataEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2012-Present | A vote determined the winning logo, by Arun Ganesh (User:Planemad), on July 12, 2012. |
WikimaniaEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2006-Present | Derived from Wikimania 2006 banner by User:Kaganer, vectorized by User:Tlogmer and text added by Guillaume Paumier (User:Guillom). |
Wikimedia CommonsEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2004-Present | A vote on Wikimedia Commons determined the winning logo, by User:Reidab, on November 12, 2004. |
Wikimedia FoundationEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2003-2006 | The second place logo (International logo contest/Results) by Neolux was appointed as the logo for Wikimedia by logo contest organizer Erik Möller on October 15. A version was adopted by Neolux for the Wikimedia Foundation on October 15, 2003. | |
2006-2012 | Introduced in January 2006 based on modifications made by Wikimedia Foundation. | |
2012-2016 | Introduced in March 2012 based on modifications made by Wikimedia Foundation. | |
2016-Present | Introduced in July 2016 based on modifications made by Wikimedia Foundation. |
Wikimedia IncubatorEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2006-Present | A vote on Meta-Wiki determined the winning logo, by User:NielsF, which was announced on July 31, 2006. |
Wikimedia Cloud ServicesEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2011-2017 | Developed by User:Brandon Harris and vectorized by User:Isarra. | |
WikiTech: 2013-2016 | ||
2017-Present | Updated name from "Labs" to "Cloud Services", per rebranding. |
Wikimedia movementEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2003-Present | The second place logos (International logo contest/Results) by Neolux was appointed as the logo for Wikimedia by logo contest organizer Erik Möller on October 15, 2003. |
WikinewsEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2004-2005 | Temporary logo used while Wikinews was in Beta. | |
2005-Present | A vote on Meta-Wiki was held in January and February 2005 and determined the winning logo by User:Jasonp55 and User:David Vasquez. |
WikipediaEdit
Progression of logosEdit
Image | Title | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Test logo | 2001 | In the early days of Wikipedia, founder Jimbo Wales uploaded an American flag as an example logo. Needless to say, it was never intended to be the permanent logo. See the following discussion at OldWikiPediaLogo. | |
Nupedia logo | 2001 | The Nupedia logo was originally sent to a Nupedia logo competition by Bjørn Smestad, and was used by Wikipedia until the end of 2001. It continued to be used after this time on special pages such as search results. | |
Cunctator logo | 2001-2003 | This logo was designed by The Cunctator and won the first Wikipedia logo contest, which took place from November to December 2001. The leading submissions of that early contest (which is separate from the much larger international logo contest held in 2003) can be viewed at Logo suggestions/Leading candidates. See #2001 logo contest for more details. | |
Paullusmagnus logo | 2003 | This logo was created by Paullusmagnus during the International logo contest. After the two-stage International logo contest/Vote instructions, this logo won with considerable support– see International logo contest/Results. The English Wikipedia switched to it on Sept 26 2003. | |
|
Nohat logos | 2003-2010 | This "silver ball" was created after the International logo contest/Ratification as an improvement of the Paullusmangus logo. The English Wikipedia switched to this on Oct 12, 2003 after it achieved a general consensus of 21 preferring it, with only 3 preferring the previous logo (vote page on Oct 12).
A new, internationalized variant was later uploaded without much discussion, as the previous logo was not available in internationalized form and the differences were considered minor. See #2003 international logo contest for more details. |
Wikipedia logo v2 | 2010-Present | On May 2010 the revamp of Wikipedia puzzle globe started in 2008 was completed, and new logo has been implemented along with the new Vector interface. |
2001 logo contestEdit
This logo was created by Paullusmagnus during the International logo contest. After the two-stage International logo contest/Vote instructions, this logo won with considerable support– see International logo contest/Results. The English Wikipedia switched to it on Sept 26, 2003.
Due to strong feelings by some Wikipedians who considered this logo inferior to the old one, the designer, User:Paullusmagnus, put this picture on his user page in a bit of self-deprecating humor:
Relevant pagesEdit
2002-2003 occurrencesEdit
- French localised logo implemented on June 2002 under French community fork threats, with some controversy. (The moment when some French community members took interest in international matters.) The French Wikipedia began to use the same logo as other languages in October 2003.
- Logo putsch on French Wikipedia (Christmas 2003).
2003 international logo contestEdit
The "silver ball" was created after the International logo contest/Ratification as an improvement of the Paullusmangus logo. The English Wikipedia switched to this on Oct 12, 2003 after it achieved a general consensus of 21 preferring it, with only 3 preferring the previous logo (vote page on Oct 12).
By Oct 17, after it was implemented, the vote had changed to 23 supporting and 12 opposing (vote page on Oct 17). Arguably, the result is still somewhat biased– the people who were strongly opposed to the winning logo were highly involved in the final optimization process, while the people who were strongly opposed to the new variant quickly headed to Meta to vote it down as soon as it went public. In any case, there appears to have been wide support for the new variant.
There was some controversy (See Logo feedback and Talk:Logo feedback) over switching the English Wikipedia to this logo due to several reasons.
- The first was lack of publicity for the poll over this, despite being linked to from many Main Pages, the mailing list, and w:Wikipedia:Announcements (the announcements page asked for comments on Oct 1 and votes were requested on Oct 13).
- The comment page quickly formalized in a "Better than original logo / About the same / Worse" poll, which was conducted fairly informally.
- The decision to modify the logo was made during the logo ratification process.
- Some people were strongly opposed to the winning Pallusmangus logo and decided that the logo should be modified.
- The number of people participating in the logo variant process was probably around 20 or so (at least until the logo was switched at which point it increased to around 40) compared to the 188 valid ballots in the orginal logo contest.
After a few days on the Main Page, User:Nohat uploaded a new, internationalized variant. The logo in use was quickly replaced with that variant without much discussion, as the previous logo was not available in internationalized form and the differences were considered minor. This is the logo that is now in use (in different translations) on most Wikipedias.
The New York Times had an article about errors in the logo on 2007. A suggested fixed version is at Image:Wikipedia-logo thue.png, but has not been officially blessed as the new official logo. See also Errors in the Wikipedia logo.
Relevant pagesEdit
- Information
- International logo contest— Describes the contest goals, rules, background, et cetera.
- International logo contest/Vote instructions— Describes the voting procedure and rules.
- Preparation and discussion
- The first vote
- International logos (overview)
- International logo contest/Logos 1-25
- International logo contest/Logos 101-125
- International logo contest/Logos 126-150
- International logo contest/Logos 26-50
- International logo contest/Logos 51-75
- International logo contest/Logos 76-100
- International logo contest/Finalists— The proposals that survived the first vote.
- Second votes
- International logo contest/Ballot— The second vote to select a single logo.
- International logo contest/Results— The results of the second vote.
- Final vote
- International logo contest/Ratification— The final ratification vote.
- International logo vote/Invalid ballots— Rejected votes.
2010 revampEdit
On May 2010 the revamp of Wikipedia puzzle globe started in 2008 was completed, and new logo has been implemented along with the new Vector interface. See wmf:Wikimedia official marks/About the official Marks.
Variations marking special occasionsEdit
2010 french Christmas logoEdit
WikiquoteEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2003-2004 | Developed by User:Jimregan. | |
2004-Present | Developed by Neolux; vector version by Minh Nguyen based on work by Rei-artur and -xfi-. |
WikisourceEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2003-2006 | Developed by User:Uwe Kils and User:Wiska Bodo. | |
2006-Present | A vote on Wikisource determined the winning logo, by User:Zanimum, and implementation began in May 2006. |
WikispeciesEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2004-2005 | ||
2005-Present | A discussion on Wikispecies in late 2005 determined the logo, developed by User:Zephram Stark based on a concept by en:User:Jeremykemp and vectorized by User:Isarra. |
WikiTechEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2009?-2013 | Based on MediaWiki logo by User:Aka, User:Anthere, modified by User:Isarra, User:Brion VIBBER, User:Eloquence. | |
2016-2021 | ||
2021 (April) | Based on MediaWiki logo by User:Serhio Magpie. | |
2021-Present | A vote on WikiTech determined the winning logo. A blue variant of the MediaWiki logo by User:Serhio Magpie. |
WikiversityEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2006 | Temporary logo used while Wikiversity was in Beta. | |
2006-2017 | A vote on Meta-Wiki determined the winning logo, by User:Snorky, and was finalized in November 2006. | |
2017-Present | A vote on Beta Wikiversity determined the logo, a modified version of the previous logo updated by User:Julian Herzog. |
WikivoyageEdit
Image | Years in use | Description |
---|---|---|
2006-2012 | Developed by User:Hansm and User:Roland Unger and used prior to Wikivoyage's migration to Wikimedia. | |
2012-2013 | A vote on Meta-Wiki determined the winning logo, by User:F l a n k e r and User:Yiyi, and was finalized in December 2012. | |
2013-Present | A vote on Meta-Wiki determined the winning logo, by User:AleXXw, and was finalized in August 2013. |
WiktionaryEdit
See Wiktionary/logo.
See alsoEdit
- Logotipos de Wikipedia/historia en Español -- history in Spanish with explanation of the current Wikipedia logo symbols