HOME | DD
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: 67975; Favourites: 1108; Downloads: 444
Redirect to original
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
Related content
Comments: 404
" it appears to me like a scar on every page."Great, now I am going to see it as a scar too.
A scar, a weird looking dollar sign, a z with a slash in the middle, a slanted f with the top to the left, a not-equal sign, an x, a bamboo, a slanted Christian cross, green bacon...this logo could mean anything. That's an issue. That's my problem with this thing and why I hate how art and design is expected to be associated with confusing and "you just don't get it", when it doesn't need to be that way.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Well said, and I agree 100%.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Now i know exactly why even though i was told over and over it stands for 'DA' i still had so much trouble seeing it! thankyou!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I SMELL A GREEN LANTERN LOGO!!!!!!!!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Looks waay better
i can actually read DA
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You are right on the money! In the design world, it is called GESTALT (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_… . It is hard to "see" the remaining elements when it's cropped too much. Design is about the elements but it's also about the "whitespace" around it. The whitespace helps us to make sense of it all. But when I look at the new logo, the dA is hard to see and understand; I thought, like many of us, it's a letter z with a slash sign. I would be perfect if you want to rebrand Dragon Ball Z, but dA? Logos should be works of art and means to communicate. This one failed to do so.
Plus, when they did the patterned wallpaper, it makes much more confusing. I wouldn't bet on the indented look, though. Seems like Flat Design is all the rage nowadays and it seems that it will be around for a while.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ah yes, that was the exact term. Thanks!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
i'm all for innovation and all but this is just epic fail.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
yeah, first time my cache emptied and I saw the logo on the browser tab, I thought I hit an error screen or something...then saw it on the page. I thought they must've messed something up, like picking a logo that was too wide and the sides were cropped off. But then I saw it everywhere and I silently sighed and accepted the fact they're trying to be fancy or deliver some kind of message (but failing miserably at it).
It looks like some F2P MMO currency symbol.
I would've probably accepted the tiny robot mascot's head as a new logo, but this one...is just too "out there".
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I seriously dislike the new DA logo. The new one looks like a hastag cut in half and reversed the line to the left and to the right... IT doesnt even say DA.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
And it'll be better to have a lowercase d in the word 'DEVIANT'. I hate when it becomes all uppercase...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thing is, if they gave visual cues that'd take the stupid point out of this atrocious logo. They might has well just make it a readable DA again (which would be way better anyway)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I like what you write and couldn't not agree with that. Although I think modern art IS mostly all about confusion.
At first I wasn't thinking about what that logo means but I just found those shape disturbing. That happens when you put order and disorder together. I think that skewed line doest fit short horizontal lines but thats just my taste that I find it disturbing (I at first always avoid clicking that kogo when I want to move to the main page
And THEN. I start to wonder what is it? ah a logo. Okay. And why 'x'?
When I saw just with the other edge of my eye, your example of the fixed logo, I loved it. That would be so readable and the light green part looks like neon turned on like DA is opened. (a little broken but still opened)
Now some people wrote something about DA staff won't listen to it anyway. If I were DA staff I think I would do the same. And the reason is because: Somebody MAYBE paid for that logo, somebody worked for that change for a couple of months (logo, interface) and now people say they don't like it. Nowadays people usually say what they don't like but obviously have no further ideas and usually are demanding changes not thinking how much work it would cause. If DA staff would like to know our opinion they would ask BEFORE changing the web. There are milions of facebook users, but they don't run facebook. I wasn;t happy with the new interface (I actually thought thats the end of DA) where on the main page you have one guy uploading 'your daily dose of intelligence"
"your daily dose of intelligence"
.__.
But what are they supposed to do now? Change everything because some people didn't like it? Even if it's a milion - they will get used to it because they have nothing else to go with their works and nobody will spend another month for free to change it the way some people like. Thats the cruel reality even though I would really, really love to have the old DA back. Now beginner artists are having really small chance to gain popularity with the new site interface but I guess we can't do anything about that. Or else you will organize an army who would pay for that changes. Or force staff to be changed from artists to IT specialists and maybe then. may-be we could upload deviations without html broken code, everything would be simple, in order without artistic mess.
Devoted Dreamer
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I don't think it just about your taste, although it have a part in your opinion. The reasons lie in the very concepts of how we humans perceive things. I can accept this as a new logo, but my brains can't compute what it is seeing. The logo just don't have enough visual cues for the brains to automatically construct the deeply thought logo, and sees just Z symbol, which doesn't fit the context of dA. It's confusing. It's confusing even after the explanation. Humans in general don't like confusing things so they naturally resist them. For that reason I wanted to make an example where the logo remains intact but has the necessary visual cues to show people that even this ugly logo could work. It tells this is about DeviantART, not just about deviated A letter that has cool tesselation effect.
And of course the won't change it, it's the sad part 
That's what all the jokes about the new logo are doing. They make people realize how silly the change is xD
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yes I agree that's what we find disturbing and what we call mess lays in our brains. I just wanted to be delicte <: )
Once again I couldn't put it better then you did. Athough they won't change it anyway. Just communities like this one doesn't work with people or according to what people want. Maybe a grand poll would do? If one person told me that I draw to small head I'd ignore them, but if a hundred out of hundred and one would tell me that, I might concider changing the head size. Or else one could say that, One strong enough to be called authority. I think it doesn't work in that case but maybe the reason stands behind agreements that we don;t know about.. I don't know. I never know or understand why people change something that is good or fix something what wasn't broken. Maybe somebody made them to.
Nevertheless: When do we open deviantart2 ?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yes, I also have similar tendency. If one person can change my mind, then he/she has to be quite an "authority" as you call it. Otherwise there has to be many individuals who share the same viewpoint. The words of non-authority feel just baseless and thus are easy to neglect. In similar way, I may have authority on people who know me, but not on those who don't. And convincing a whole organization is whole different thing, especially when the actions are already done.
I find it great that even though many people hate the new logo, the renditions of it get mainly good response from them. The logo could be made to work if dA wanted to. Not sure how much of overhauls that would require on the dA though.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The word authority devaluated and change it's meaning nowadays when everybody are self proclaimed artists and creators. I know 14 years old internet pals who claim to be: writers, artists and composers at the same time 
I think it's easy to change that logo. It's more difficult to accept the whole drama around it. But I think people were more pissed off because of the new interface because logo is after all just a logo.
(and I never liked that robo-guy being DA's mascot <---- ) (thats a joke to fulfill the complain day 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Your explanation makes way too much sense but the current logo still doesn't look specifically like 'dA' IMO. There's the 'A' but no 'd'. Personally think the dA in the third row would have been better and if someone changed the goddamn cutoff font they lumped the name with! Makes my brain throw a fit every time I see the cutoff D and T.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This ugly green looks much better with dA at the back however it's still ugly - intensive green which doesn't fit here in my opinion. As jhhwild wrote here before : "There is no reason to change a logo that people have grown familiar with". McDonalds or Coca-Cola evolved BIT but that's all. There is a reason why Camel cigarettes always have camel at logo... and there was a reason why dA had 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
*sigh* I'll just head to tumblr after this...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
There is no reason to change a logo that people have grown familiar with. I mean Coca Cola's logo hasn't changed in a long time. Once people get used to something it forever gets linked with the product, changes that are made should be small and still recognizable as to what it is advertising. I like the old logo, it wasn't a bad design, and there is no reason for such a drastic change to something that isn't immediately readable. I think there should be a petition or something to bring back the old logo or change it to the design you propose. Perhaps a competition for improving the design because I've seen other alternatives that are pretty good as well.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Just my opinion, I hate him ... He's really hugly ...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This is very true, the new logo is intended to identify as a cut off dA logo or just a chain of A's, but even with that in mind when looking at it it's just confusing. My brain starts to think : wait whats this crossed off Z or is it a crossed off "="? oh it's just a cut off A with an added line to connect with other stuff. Confusing, really really confusing doesn't identify really with anything, not the site, not art, not anything, our brain just doesn't see it that way at first glance. You just kinda have to figure it out everytime you see it.
Your solution with the rest of the logo being shaded and having the symbol stand out is one solution, another is to change the logo a bit to resemble the two letters.
Although on the other side this logo is easier to remember and might identify more over time with deviantART.
I'm eager to see if they change it or not
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
the problem occurs. DeviantART becomes just ART <<<< those words, bull's eye, right what i thought. I like the idea of how you would fix that new logo
but again, all of this is pointless because no one in respected dA staff will try and change anything "just because" millions of users don't like it ( yes, it's sarcastical ) well okay maybe we don't like stuff and it's normal, but it's not only that people don't like it, most of what i have read of people, they don't feel comfortable with it. i mean i think developers and owners of this site should at least try to listen to users (because developers own site and WE own the COMMUNITY , we are the community) this site without us is like pc without software, just a box with a lot of electronics. i'm not against changes, the new design looks kinda clean tho it has flaws(i would pretty much like new logo with your suggested change, cuz it feels kinda modern), but i think developers should try to make changes in the way that Deviantart still feels our beloved and so cherished Deviantart, that it still feels familiar, because to some here is like second home.
one thing that i liked from notice is that ,if i understood it correctly, they are finally offering an official app of deviantart
although i've been here for only 7months with this accouunt, i've been using deviantart for some 3+ years before
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Indeed it's pointless. And for that reason those who would have valid points and great ideas for fixes, don't bother to do anything about it. Since the majority of the haters simply don't like it, it's not a valid reason alone to do the changes. So DA can just shrug shoulders "Oh, too bad you didn't like it. Well, you will eventually come to like it." And well, the fact is that even those with valid points won't make any difference. As time goes on, no one ever talks about the logo anymore. It's futile anyways. From DeviantARTs point of view, it appears that people have accepted the change, because they "will eventually come to like it". It's natural for people to resist changes, but often times there are good reasons for that. The new dA logo just doesn't tell the story of DeviantART.
The new logo has caused quite an uproar in the users of deviantART and shows quite a vigorous community activity. Even I, who normally don't take active part in dA community, am standing on the line to defend the legacy of DeviantART. I can only hope this activity in dA members can actually have at least some impact on the DA.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I appreciate the effort you've made here and the thinking behind it, and I agree it helps identify the logo (which is something no one should have to read a blog or watch a video for). To me though it's still pointless, as it's basically the old logo with the new logo in the middle, I don't see any reason for the new logo to be there, design-wise. There isn't anything the new logo "says" that the old one doesn't already ("dA") so it feels totally redundant to me. I also think the greens look bad together because that bright pure green looks straight out of a Paint doodle and doesn't go with anything else on the site design.
(Hey if you put little red or multicolored balls on the new Zorro/$/cactus part it could make a neat little Xmas tree logo)
Maybe instead of a shadow old logo, the old logo could be there but in "empty" font... how do I explain this without knowing the terms... instead of solid block like the new logo, just outlined font, connecting to the Z. But all in the same color as the whole logo so it'd be one color only and connected (which I'd still prefer not to be that green). It'd still be redundant but a little more "whole" instead of looking like the new logo on top of the old logo.
I admit I like how so many jokes can arise from the new logo though. Schadenfreude and all, but at least I can have a laugh instead of just disliking it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Yes Thank you! I knew something was bothering me about this logo.
Like you said "it can be thought as if it reads dA." But looking at this logo design was kinda confusing a bit, since I just see the "A" letter format instead of the "d."
Your design would actually make more sense.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you, thank you. I tried to explain this effect on myself, seeing only an 'A' after some effort, but came nowhere near as succinct and helpful as you did.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I actually like it better with the curve on the top of the d like the one on the third row on the left. The straight edges instead of corners cut off and no bevel!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You know, I think the logo would be actually effective enough if they kept the logo like in the third line, even without the gray parts. Not that I really care (although i admit that it makes some activity on this website, haha)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Indeed, that logo would work just splendidly, as shown here fav.me/d88qg2n . The only thing is that the tesselation effect is lost, which I tried to keep. On the other hand, what do we gain from that tesselation? Absolutely nothing xD. I feel that artist just wanted to be clever and got obsessed to it, but lost and ignored the true meaning of the logo.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Another choice would have been to make the logo with only the two identical triangles forming the D and the A. But, keeping the idea of your link's logo, I would say in commercial bullshitery language something as "the asymmetry is the symbol of a creative community" , something like that
In any case, we're experiencing a clear case of "overthinking" and "overdoing the concept"
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
YES. The logo is the last thing DA needs to change to appeal to users, but if they feel the need to rebrand themselves, your idea is much better.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hmm, interesting fix, but then there's that weird space between the logo and the title...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
To me the space between the logo and the title looks dynamic. It would be the place of very bright "V" letter, though sadly it wouldn't stand for anything... xD
The original design and the space makes sense as well, so in that sense the change isn't necessary.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I never would've seen anything there at all if you hadn't pointed it out. Just looked like weird lines to me...
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Ow. So the logo is gonna stay that way... I thought it was just an event of some kind. It is no good, looks like a pharmaceutical thing. I agree on your take and also, the army green was a big part of the dA look, again, this new one looks like... pharamceutical.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
To me it looks like a distorted bolt of lightning, so more like a cult than a pharmaceutical company. Add the green and you get an alien-worshipping cult.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Please, staff, listen to the community. If the page really isn't "yours" but "ours" and we are a "community" then you'll have to address this one way or another.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I believe this is something like the Facebook timeline period. Everyone was hating it saying it was stupid. But people just weren't used to it. Now everyone is used to it and I see no one complaining anymore. I personally don't mind the change, and I kinda like the new logo. It's definitely a change in the right direction.
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
But it's been gone for a long time now? My facebook and my friends' have only one column for posts, with no "time line", just like it was before. The left column is only for showing off static panels with friends, photos, etc. What I hated was the double column posts that made posts hop around and was literally a non-linear timeline (there was a line in the middle, and if you clicked you could make a post in the past!).
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Nah, because he's not complaining about how the page works or even how the logo looks but if the logo makes sense or not, and I agree, it doesn't and without the revealing post I'd think that the logo resembled "AA", I'd never guess it was "dA" and even now that I do I still see "AA" and it's super annoying.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You know what, this explains why I'm getting so uncomfortable by looking at the logo. I spent a lot of time trying to understand it, knowing that it probably had an A and a D somewhere in there, but I could NOT see it. Until I read the journal's explanation. I saw it then, but as soon as I lifted my eyes to look at the plain logo again at the top of the page, I struggled once again to see it. I look at it, and still can't see it, as if my brain is being stubborn and refuses to accept that there is a freaking D in there. Ughh I hate it, and maybe I'm just way slower than everybody, but it just bothers me a lot that I will have to struggle with my brain to convince it that the logo has hidden letters everytime I have the bad luck of setting eyes on until I get used to it.
So thank you for explaining this, and, oooohhh my god would your proposal work well. The shadow does help
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Great article. I love it. I too, was confused with the new logo and how it had anything to do with dA. Just did not register.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Adding the clearly defined D and A into the logo would fix it, as it is however, it's confusing and makes no sense and poorly executed.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
All I saw was a 'Z' and part of an 'A' I like this idea to sorta fix it
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
<= Prev | | Next =>