Worldcon Logo

[mishalak]

I'm going to post this later on worldcons once I have the kinks in my wording and my ideas throughly worked out.

thirdworld has a post where he talks about a common Worldcon Image. Many people there comment that a common logo or image would be a good idea. Though a fair number, including kevin_standlee, think that many of the regular attendees of the Business Meeting and the seated/perspective Worldcon committees would not stand for it. He points out that the only time Worldcons do things the same way twice is when someone from a previous con returns to the same position elsewhere and that Worldcon committees jealously guard their prerogatives to show off local talent or otherwise do things their way.

Yet the Hugos have an official image, more or less. The base can change as much as a local committee wants, but the rocket ship is the same from year to year. True, there is not a official Hugo logo for publishers to put on reprints of Hugo winners. But the actual award has a degree of continuity from year to year.

An example of a real world convention that has a symbol that changes from year to year with the same central element is Perry Rodent, the mascot of Bubonicon. He's a rat missing one boot. That's what the artist has to go on each year and so there have been a wide variety of designs.

If I were to pick a symbol for Worldcon I'd make it something simple that could be artistically interpreted a number of ways. It might not even be used on the marque of any particular Worldcon, but it could be the short hand for the convention. For example a stylized Black Hole Accretion Disk.

Keeping in mind that I'm not a great artist and also that this is just something like a trial balloon. Any number of things could represent Worldcon in some fashion. Raccoons and hedgehogs are both extremely fannish sorts of creatures and would make a fine mascot for many science fiction conventions. Hedgehogs are a symbol of wisdom and raccoons... well can you think of a more fannish animal than an inquisitive omnivore?

The biggest advantage of something as abstract as the collapsed star is that it can be interpreted in so many ways. My example is reducing it to a minimal number of elements and putting it at a twenty-two point five degree angle. In this form it could easily be put on memorabilia or an official letter head where a professional look was preferred over a silly one. But it could also be made more complex and artistic, colors changed, etc, etc, etc so that a local convention could put their own spin on it. I can imagine kells versions, impressionist paintings, and glowing neon outlines just to name a few, and most abstract symbols can be treated this way.

Big downside to an abstract symbol is there is a limit to how much can be done with it. Though in a way that also allows more latitude for the convention committee to come up with something of their very own as artwork to put on bags or whatever. Though they could also play it safe and have stuff to pass along to future conventions along with pass along funds.

The big downside to an animal mascot would be that it would probably not become as iconic. I remember a number of Perry Rodent drawings, but I could not find a scan of a single one of them online. Each year is so very different from each other. And even the simplest outline of an animal that is still recognizable, like a raven, is still a fairly complex shape.

Conclusions: I have not got any yet. This is an idea that should percolate a while on the various fan groups and lists. Find out how many people would be against having an icon in abstract and then how many people object when actual ideas are floated. Maybe suggest to the Denvention committee that this should be considered as an additional item to be voted on in 2008. Just to select something that might be voted on.

Further note: This might not need to be written into the constitution. It just needs to be a standing suggestion much like the validation of Worldcon site selection ballots as they come in rather than all at once right before the counting.

Comments

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

My ideas are all more old-school: various combinations of sun, rocket, Bohr atom, and double helix churn through my (admittedly non-visual) brain.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I went with something other than a rocket for my trial balloon because it was A) easier for a non artist like me and B) because a LOT of conventions use some variety of rocket for their symbol. Heck, the Denver Area SF Association uses a dragon holding a rocket as its symbol. The Hugo wouldn't be terribly distinguishable from any other rocket if it didn't use the exact same shape every single year.

Nothing wrong with using a common symbol, but it makes it harder to make it say without words, "Hey this is Worldcon, not your local SF convention". Especially if it changes from year to year.

We also have to think about confusion with other common symbols. The Bohr atom is also used by American Atheists (with an A in the center), for nuclear power plants on maps, and to represent science in general in many cases. The atom would have to be put on or paired with some other symbol to really set it apart as something about science fiction.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with using a common symbol, but it makes it harder to make it say without words, "Hey this is Worldcon, not your local SF convention".

Maybe a globe of good ol' home Terra, centered on the Olduvai Gorge rather than the usual mid-Atlantic perspective?

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of a globe being a primary element in any logo, particularly with Worldcon finally getting to its fourth continent this year.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

A globe is not a bad element. It can, after all, be simplified down or made photo realistic. I don't have anything yet, but I'm not a graphic designer.

Slightly tangent, but I came across an ancient symbol that could be a world or a sun on a bunch of lines on symbols.com (http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/42/425.html). I've not seen anything like it in the corporate world, but I want other eyes besides mine on it. I might create a version for round two of this post.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

A very interesting thought. Though a globe is more mascot than ideogram. Nothing against it, but it is hard to simplify down a globe and have it still be a globe. Though nice things are done with lat/long lines on an open circle.

Tangentially if you have time check out this symbol (http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/42/425.html). I'm curious to see if anyone has seen anything like it. If it isn't in use by some major corporation perhaps we could steal it for the skiffy genre.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

I tend to dislike ideograms, finding them cryptic and annoying. (Heck of a confession for a Mac user, ain'a?)

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I like ideograms. Well not all ideograms, but I prefer them over more complex graphics. They scale down so nice. And it is easier, in my opinion, to add more detail to a good base than it is to find a visually pleasing small form of a very complex symbol.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I think that's sunset. Not necessarily something we want.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I saw it as a sunrise.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

The rocket also doesn't speak to the fantasy side of the genre, something that's been strongly embraced by Worldcon for a lot of years.

(brain spins off in lots of design directions and lands, unfortunately, on the gauntleted fist holding a planet from the L. Ron Hoover Hubbard bloated pile of crap decalogy Mission Earth)

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I take it nobody but me likes the WSFS logo I helped create as part of Interaction's storyline?

If we ever create a Hugo Awards logo -- and that's the primary focus of the HASH committee set up this past year -- I anticipate that it will include a rocket as a design element. Should the consensus be that a different logo is appropriate for Worldcon (and I can see that as reasonable), then there's no need to include a rocket in it.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that while I thought bits of the storyline were a tad on the silly side, I did like the logo.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Oh, the storyline was meant to be a bit silly.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I do like it. I'd like to see it as the official logo of a WSFS Inc. that manages the Hugos and maintains forums about them. But I'm behind a different set of barricades than most fans from what I hear.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I like that logo, but I think it serves a different need than a Worldcon logo...

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

I think the competition idea could work. Firstly it will come from fandom and involve fans, but it does need to have proffesional involvement. Something can be stunning are and yet a terrible logo. Maybe have too many colors, be too complex or not reduce well, or print well, etc.