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Nsio — How Nsio would fix the new deviantART logo

#deviant #deviantart #fixing #logo #update #art
Published: 2014-12-05 18:42:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 67973; Favourites: 1108; Downloads: 444
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Description I know nothing can stay unchanged to the eternity, but it doesn't mean that we should just accept everything that's brought in front of us. DeviantART is quite a spectacular example of this, but rather than bashing their actions, I wanted to explain myself why I don't like the new dA logo. I'm already in terms with it, but I'm still uneasy with it. Here is my analyze why the logo doesn't work and also an example how it could be fixed. Feel free to call me just typical whiner, but before doing so I kindly ask you to read my arguments

Similar alterations:



Analysis of the situation etc.
To close, what happens now?Art By yuumei
The logo has been brought up to the staff & also the fact that it's similar to Platzkart will most likely be addressed.  It obviously wasn't stolen,  but still. If they wanted to try & sue us, lets be real. Lol, it wouldn't be good. We brought it to their attention. & they know about it. Whatever happens from here on? Well it's up to the staff to figure it out. 
The balance between staff & the members of this site, has been restored. (or at least more close to being equal)
Overall? I think it all went well. 
I'll be honest. 
Some of the staff like Ikue, (not a bad dude) even saw this as "rebelling". But I disagree. We're not supposed to just sit here & just agree with every single decision that's made. Like Drones. But, you SHOULD speak up.  
Most of the people in this community here were afraid to speak on what they feel & know to be truth.

(If I had premium, I could have linked thumbnails, but these will do for now)

"New DeviantART logo - Why it doesn't work and how to fix it" by Nsio

I’m sure people have already noticed the new dA logo. At first I had no idea what I was seeing. Then I figured “of course, it’s an A letter”. Shortly after I also realized there was an upside down A as well. “This one must form some sort of pattern” I thought. I wasn’t very happy about the design though so I went and read the “Our Story” section.

The logo was indeed designed for tesselation. Okay fine, so we have an “A” letter, standing for Art. It’s also upside down. “Challenges perceptions and perspectives”, “by  literally turning the art world upside down”. Okay, I can deal with that. But still, I’m not convinced. Something is missing with the new logo. “We love it because, like DA, people might not get it right away”. I find it weird that dA actually wants to make us confused. If you ask me, art should offer the sensation of realization, not confusion. Or if there is initially confusion, it should still offer some way to turn the confusion “upside down” into sensation of realization. Even though I got the message, I’m still confused. I don’t like the new logo but why?

I understood the reason right the moment I saw the youtube video about the story behind the logo. At one point, there was a logo where it says “dA”. The moment the logo is separated, the problem occurs. DeviantART becomes just ART. It’s not the DeviantART we know anymore. It’s just ART with cool tesselation effect.

I thought I would let it go, since I now know that the logo can be thought as if it reads “dA”. But it was still bugging me. Although I can force myself to think it like “dA”, I still see only “A”. I pondered this for a while and then I realized the issue: amodal completion.

Although we are intelligent beings, our brains are rather simple when it comes to visual perception. Our brains have an ability called “amodal completion”, which allows us to “see” the form of partially hidden objects. That’s why we can tell a person peeking behind the corner is a human, even though we see only half of the face. Our brains can construct human figure fairly well even if it’s partially covered, but with everything else,  brains just lack the imagination.

If important details of an object is hidden, our brains can’t construct such complex or abstract things. Instead, the brains just rely on the visual cues to parse the image. A lot of data is lost and the image is greatly simplified. I drew few examples about the phenomenon on the left. For example, if there are arcing details, but no visual cues are offered about it, arcs are discarded in favor of continuity of the lines.

This happens even if you knew there were such details. Instead of seeing one complex object, you see only two lines. On second row I show the arcs. However, our brains are more likely to treat the partially hidden object as two separate objects. This behaviour is exaggerated because of the symmetry, since humans are naturally attracted to symmetry.

So basically this is what happens with the dA logo. Even if we know the logo can be thought to be partially covered “dA” logo, our brains fails to comprehend this because the “d” is discarded in favor of “A”. There are not enough visual cues to support this way of thought process, which leaves us just confused and unsure about the logo. It’s cool, but it doesn’t have any bonding with DeviantART.

However, I find that the new logo could still work, if there just were such visual cues present. In fact, the actual logo could be kept intact by just adding shadow images of the d and A. I made a quick test if this could work and I found that it looks pretty cool now. By using dark green for the shadow image, the visual cues are strong enough to make the dA logo visible while still allowing the real logo to stand out clearly. All the benefits of the new logo are retained,  no confusion taking place and the bonding with DeviantART has been formed.

If this change was made, I would gladly accept the new logo. Right now the logo doesn’t feel justified. I’m not saying that my proposal is perfect, but it’s one way to fix the issue. Even if there is huge difference in artistic capabilities between dA members, our physiology is the same. We are humans and we function in a way that’s typical to humans, no matter how much we try control ourselves. I believe that even if people don’t agree with the proposed fixing, they at least acknowledge the need of fixing in one way or another.  

Nsio
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Comments: 404

m2pt5 [2022-04-10 08:31:21 +0000 UTC]

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liamdude5 [2021-07-22 00:10:14 +0000 UTC]

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MissLuckychan29 [2019-07-07 12:56:56 +0000 UTC]

Lol when I saw the new one way back when I thought it was a baby of a Z and a 7

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DarkoND In reply to MissLuckychan29 [2020-03-16 04:47:43 +0000 UTC]

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MissLuckychan29 In reply to DarkoND [2020-03-16 12:00:35 +0000 UTC]

isn't that borderline illegal?

Anyways I've been keeping dA/Z7 in old mode because I cannot operate the new one

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Meeshell-Art In reply to MissLuckychan29 [2020-03-18 13:06:59 +0000 UTC]

It is borderline copyright infringment but if nothing has been trademarked it can be ok, these logos are also in different industries.

On top of this, DeviantART demonstrated how they created the logo and it makes sense.

Now its 2020...and I still dislike this logo. It's so bad.

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MissLuckychan29 In reply to Meeshell-Art [2020-03-18 18:24:20 +0000 UTC]

like you can't tell what it's supposed to be lol

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Meeshell-Art In reply to MissLuckychan29 [2020-03-19 07:56:41 +0000 UTC]

They cut out a section of the D and A combined, like their old logo, and made that the logo

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MissLuckychan29 In reply to Meeshell-Art [2020-03-19 11:42:06 +0000 UTC]

I mean like someone who wouldn't know that would be confused

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Meeshell-Art In reply to MissLuckychan29 [2020-03-19 12:29:21 +0000 UTC]

100%

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DarkoND In reply to Meeshell-Art [2020-03-18 15:57:43 +0000 UTC]

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MetellaStella [2018-06-11 19:33:27 +0000 UTC]

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Faysilverwood [2017-06-14 18:25:26 +0000 UTC]

I didn't evenknow the logos backstory since I'm new, I always thought it was some weird-shaped scar to be honest ... or some kind of mystical symbol ? ._:

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Meeshell-Art [2017-02-01 03:34:16 +0000 UTC]

Years later I still dislike this logo.... a lot. For being the largest website for art and design created around the world...the logo does not represent it. The logo looks pretentious.

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runewuff [2016-05-07 22:07:20 +0000 UTC]

online communities and the websites go through these evolutionary stages as they get larger. Nations whose fledging mottos and symbols were inspiring eventually get abstract flags and emblems. Eventually they decay and die under the weight of their beauracracy, commercialism, and hubris.

I'm keenly aware of this because I've been watching Furry Fandom very slowly grow from a handful of people, and its passed through what I can only describe as "phase changes" akin to solid, liquid, gas, where its social dynamic is radically different. I'm sure there's a sociology book in there, if only I could describe these things in objective scientific terms.

rest assured, this logo IS appropriate, as it reflects what strange new entity DA has become, and the DA of old is history.

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DarkoND In reply to runewuff [2020-03-16 04:45:52 +0000 UTC]

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DeviantTestbed In reply to runewuff [2017-03-23 09:32:45 +0000 UTC]

Well said

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GraphicDesign00 [2016-02-03 20:59:32 +0000 UTC]

Nice Logo Set... Thanks...
-
Also Find Free Exclusive PSD and Vector Logo Templates at: PSDLike.com

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star3catcher [2016-01-25 18:35:49 +0000 UTC]

It's an A? Looks like a Z to me.

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mistercrab8539 [2015-12-22 10:39:11 +0000 UTC]

it's still been over a year since they have changed the logo and it has not grown on me, still looks like a "Z" to me

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eisceire [2015-11-21 02:52:05 +0000 UTC]

Well this is fresh - intellectual challen to da logo.

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coldheart7 [2015-09-27 00:49:13 +0000 UTC]

I know I'm late to the party, but your use of "row" instead of "column" confused me. I was trying to link what you wrote with the display and I was stuck until I realized what you really meant.

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Nsio In reply to coldheart7 [2015-09-27 07:01:00 +0000 UTC]

Oh, I get that confusion. I guess I'm just thinking in reversed way, because I find it easier to follow one example and its variants in column, rather than placing all examples in column and follow their respective variants in rows. I assume the three examples on white background were the confusing ones were they?

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coldheart7 In reply to Nsio [2015-09-29 00:27:10 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, those were the ones that confused me. Not a huge deal, obviously, since no one else seemed to have the problem.  I just thought I'd mention it. Pretty good explanation, btw. 

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Eraezr [2015-06-07 18:21:42 +0000 UTC]

The funniest thing is that there is a company that had this logo before deviantart.

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Crysenley [2015-04-01 20:04:00 +0000 UTC]

Yes, thank you for this explanation! I got used to the new logo, but it still bothers me too much. My problem with it is that no one actually understood what it was until they read the entire article and video explaining it. That's bad business practice!
I like your proposal, but now it seems awkward to me. It's like the logo is admitting it's hard to get, so it has the rest still there to explain it. I... really think the entire logo as it is now needs to drop the edgy cutting off of parts.
Hmm.. I do like the new logo. But at the same time I still kinda don't? Hm. O3O

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Nsio In reply to Crysenley [2015-04-01 21:09:54 +0000 UTC]

I think that as a logo, is really great actually. But it doesn't feel like dA logo at all and that's the problem why I'm not really liking it. Yeah, it's cool and all... but it doesn't "tell the story of dA", not as an logo nor how it was made. And what about the tessellation? Fancy but utterly useless cool-looking feature :/

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Crysenley In reply to Nsio [2015-04-01 22:34:23 +0000 UTC]

Yes, I agree! The logo is too ambiguous, it can be used to describe any site with DA initials, or ZA, or even Z-Cross... (I've even seen posts about it looking extremely similar to that of another site.) I don't know. I understand the need to rebrand, but I don't feel this logo does the site justice. Especially since its palette doesn't at all match up with anything else in the site. I keep waiting for them to change the rest of the site, but so far it seems to only apply to their app. :/ I understand changing the scheme of an entire site is a massive undertaking, but it's been about four months now...
The tessellation is cool, but it feels like dA is using it as the logo's main selling point of "artisticness." Nine times out of ten you won't see it tessellated, so why make that the only way you could clearly see the letters and understand it?

I like the logo, but it's just no there yet, to me. They should at least leave the rest of the letters there as you proposed. A lot of people seem to agree in the "More Like This" section. It's mainly the missing curve of the d that's throwing everyone off.
Perhaps the site's main logo should be like you proposed above. And then on smaller icons (like besides usernames) they could have just the green part. This way, they could also do the tessellated thing since it does make cool banners and such. XD

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Karckade [2015-02-25 06:00:57 +0000 UTC]

I. Love. This.
I knew it was suppose to be a "d" and an "A", I read the whole original article and watch the video. But I still think, in Graphic Design terms, if you have to make an article and a VIDEO explaining the logo... You're just doing it wrong. And that's what makes me feel uneasy about this... weird badge.
I would really love if they just change it to your proposal... But I think we'll have to get used to it.

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i-i-s [2015-02-02 16:30:05 +0000 UTC]

"of course it's an A letter"
Nah, totally katakana symbol for "ki".

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iamcoolman332 [2015-01-28 20:13:46 +0000 UTC]

i agree

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gabbycat17 [2015-01-23 23:04:51 +0000 UTC]

Absolutely brilliant! I agree!

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AgileRhino [2015-01-04 17:49:09 +0000 UTC]

You're right. They cut off too much. 

It's like cutting your fingernails too short. (Let's hope dA lets them grow back... ) 

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Alexaphyr [2015-01-02 23:38:44 +0000 UTC]

I agree, this would be much more successful, and less confusing.

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Raysketchit94 [2014-12-31 16:36:19 +0000 UTC]

yes that looks so much better, the logo has been bugging me too I just didn't really look into it. I figured I would get used to it. Nope now I want it to look like this instead lol.

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meteoric-iron [2014-12-30 20:20:41 +0000 UTC]

At first I thought the new logo was a percent sign and waited for sales ; D

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RandomFeline [2014-12-26 13:28:13 +0000 UTC]

I agree.

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Randommode [2014-12-20 15:09:37 +0000 UTC]

This makes sense your minor change would be great 

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whispgrove [2014-12-15 01:02:03 +0000 UTC]

nailed it.
very factual

the large gap between logo and text/name of the logo in the navigation-line look to big though.

I may just be a lurker, but I am surprised how I like and instantly understand all the logo-proposals you listed here, including your own, in contrast to the official new logo which is… effectively a green thin in my forest of browser-tabs.
Even when dA had the little deviant-devil's smiley-face as a fav-icon for those browser-tabs, it was instantly recognizable as dA-releated.
After all, it was a mascot, so that works.

This green thing, whatever anyone may see it as without explanation, just rings nothing.
The 4chan-logo makes more sense.

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SaintOfTheDragons [2014-12-14 05:37:05 +0000 UTC]

Incredibly well thought-out and articulate explanation. I notice I felt mildly the same way, but not in the same concrete clarity you present here. Pretty eye-opening, and now I've learned about amodal completion. Thanks!

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xuniap [2014-12-11 11:39:20 +0000 UTC]

I think this would work especially well if they'd flip the "tilt" of the lettering as well, so it would be parallel to the right edge of the logo

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Danifox [2014-12-11 01:39:51 +0000 UTC]

Indeed!

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NuclearDrake [2014-12-10 21:19:51 +0000 UTC]

Feature This!!!!

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TomasProchazka [2014-12-10 18:41:06 +0000 UTC]

thats what I thought too

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sokiane [2014-12-10 01:52:16 +0000 UTC]

Well, this just explained this "rabbithole" a lot... I can actual see it abit more as dA now but could use a fix so new users could see it aswell!
Even thought there were to much text xD I just looked images, tells alot! (lazy / late)

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cabepfir [2014-12-09 20:46:20 +0000 UTC]

I agree so much.

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Ewxep [2014-12-09 17:48:05 +0000 UTC]

another proposal: nega sine plus center line

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NOENDER [2014-12-09 17:34:34 +0000 UTC]

Well put sir.

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LokiPufff [2014-12-09 17:20:23 +0000 UTC]

it is ripped off from need for speed most wanted

btw here is how to post the new logo :rabbithole : without the space it looks like

www.movingbrands.com/wp-conten…

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Minyassa [2014-12-09 15:54:33 +0000 UTC]

Amen. I cannot make myself see anything even remotely resembling a "DA" even when it is explained to me how to go about it. All i see is a weird Z. Your fix at least allows me to see and make sense of it as the proper letters.

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