Winners of the Poniverse Logo Design Contest!

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,529]

After judging and sorting hundreds of entries, it's my honour to announce the winners of the Poniverse Logo Design Contest!

 

 

First Place

 

 

By Jamie Quade (Jamiequadbike)

• Twitter
• Redbubble

The two logo concepts Jamie submitted were pretty clear favourites, and for good reason: both designs revolved around the idea of a stylized, iconic "P" for "Poniverse". Both are excellent designs, but what tipped the balance in favour of this one - his second submission - is that it scales better to the size of a 16x16 favicon while remaining completely recognizable. Moreover, it's neat how you can see it as a galaxy or a P depending on the way you look at it.

 

There were a few sentiments that this design looked a little more "corporate" than the others, and that a pony silhouette in particular may do a better job of expressing that Poniverse is about ponies. But this design is better executed and more memorable, separating itself well from every other design in the fandom that has a pony on it. I feel it would stand out more in a crowd, and it still looks playful enough.

 

 

 

Second Place

 

 

By Joshua Wickett (Rainbow Dashey)

• deviantART
• Personal Site

Slick, professional, and with beautiful typography, Joshua's is certainly a design that would look great nearly anywhere from banners to slideshows. The cutout P is the centrepiece of a stylized galaxy, and it's cool how part of its back is "filled in". Though it doesn't work for all designs, the 3D-ish tilt, particularly combined with the shadow, fits right in with the design, giving it an open, airy feel - good for a project as diverse as Poniverse!

 

For our purposes, however, this design falls short somewhat in the scalability department, not looking nearly as good as first-place when shrunk to favicon-size. Along with that, first-place ultimately managed to execute a similar idea - a galactic P - using simpler shapes, which aids it in this regard.

 

 

Third Place

 

 

By John Berge (MatrixChicken)

• Twitter
• deviantART
• SoundCloud
• YouTube

Third place was a pretty close call, but what ultimately pushed John's design ahead is the way that the entire design is built as an integral part of the typography. Most of the other submissions treated typography as something of an afterthought or addendum to the "drawn" part of the logo, but the planet with the pony constellation looks excellent as the "O" in "Poniverse". Beautiful choice of font, too.

 

The neon green is not the greatest of colour choices, though, and like most of the submissions, the design is geometrically too complex to scale down well. In addition to that, it relies much more on colour and texture to differentiate parts of the design than first- and second-place, which does not translate well to mixed media or monochromatic prints. The constellation is lost long before approaching favicon size, and while the planet still looks relatively good even without the constellation, it looks a lot more like just a generic planet then. Contrast this with the first-place entry, which retains the entirety of its design even at tiny sizes.

 

---

 

Congratulations to our three winners, and thanks to everyone who took part! Unfortunately, we can only have three winning designs, but we had a lot of fun looking through all the submissions that came in. If you made a design for the contest, feel free to share it now. Look out for @MatrixChicken's logo sharing thread!

[Princess Periwinkle 3,778]

Wow, that banner is really good! Congratulations to you, Jamie! That simple minimalistic style is great, and the galaxy "P" I can see becoming an icon known to all bronydom.

 

Awesome!

[Nohbdy 4,108]

Congratulations, Jamie Quade, Joshua Wickett, and John Berge! I love the simple, yet creative designs! I mean, it's a galaxy that looks like a P for Poniverse. Wow, huh. Honestly, I would never have thought of that. 

 

I'm sure the rest were also great, and I can see why it took so long to pick the top three. 

 

Once again, good job, guys! Poniverse is lookin' good so far 

 

 

And weren't these already on Twitter a few days ago?

 

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,529]

And weren't these already on Twitter a few days ago?

 

They were; I posted them on @Poniverse as soon as the final three winners were decided, but it took a little longer to hear back from each winner about which links/profiles/sites they'd like to have promoted with our announcement. Consider it an early bonus for our Twitter followers.

[---------------------- 1,645]

That's a really nice logo that Jamie put together,and the other 2 are also quite nice.

 

It's nice to have an official logo that we can use!

[Zoop 8,384]

Not a fan at all, to be honest. As stated, and with respect to the artist, it looks extremely corporate, and in my eyes does nothing to capture or convey the fact that Ponverse is, at it's core, a community focused around a cartoon about candy colored ponies, with a healthy helping of fun served on the side.

 

That logo gives me entirely too much of a serious business vibe for me to easily digest.

 

Still, despite my misgivings about the context in which it will be used, the winning entry is a pretty decent bit of art, though one I believe might have been utilized more appropriately elsewhere in my eyes, since I don't see anyone looking at the icon version and associating it with anything pony related unless theyre already familiar with it.

 

Apologies for being a killjoy over the whole thing.

[Radiance64 7,059]

Oh, I forgot to vote on those lol...

Regardless, I certainly agree with the winners here, congrats to them!

The first place winner's is really really excellent though...

[Zygen 6,066]

Looks pretty cool, honestly I didn't follow this logo contest as consistently as maybe I should've, but regardless it looks like it went well, and the design looks great I think, something about it kinda reminds me of the portal logo, I have no idea why... .

 

Anyways congratulations to everyone who did participate, you already did better then me who never even tried xD. And especially to our top 3 and of course the winner of it all!

 

So where is the planned first place this logo is going Feld0?

[Erza 581]

Well, it seems that I've lost! :\
But, i'm happy for poniverse because it had awesome banners and logos!
And congratulations to "Jamie, Joshua and John"

[3005 332]

OH MY GOD YES FINALLY.

 

I love this, it looks so professional and perfect. It looks corporate... sleek and clean, my hat off to Jamie!

 

Will we get to see the other entries?

[NavelColt 22,883]

Will we get to see the other entries?

 

As Feld0's last paragraph says,

 

Congratulations to our three winners, and thanks to everyone who took part! Unfortunately, we can only have three winning designs, but we had a lot of fun looking through all the submissions that came in. If you made a design for the contest, feel free to share it now. Look out for MatrixChicken's logo sharing thread!

 

It can be found here :3

[ProjectRKA 2,848]

Congratulations to all the winners. You all did some nice work. Especially Jamie. I really like how the "oniverse" works with the icon. Maybe a different font, but that's just my opinion.

[Jamie 302]

Thank you everyone for you're great comments of my logo. It's really great to finally show it to the world and have everyone enjoy it just like me and Feld0 (and other poniverse staff)

I've been working on a much, MUCH better version of this logo that makes the curves much smoother and improves the colour, plus some other alterations. And after working with that for a week, my original looks like rubbish! That will all be revealed in the coming weeks, I haven't even sent it to feld0 yet.

Thank you once again to everyone for you're positive comments!

 

/)

[Killian Jones 2,656]

I agree with Zoop, I don't like it, it doesn't look joyous, fun or anything that embodies the spirit of My Little Pony. I've seen big corporations with way more fun looking logo's than this one.

 

It just shows how much of a secret, impenetrable mastodon of thing Poniverse has become. It's pretentious as shit.

 

It proves Poniverse is in no way related to the community I joined all that time ago.

[Friendship_Cannon 1,677]

I wouldn´t judge it too hard... but I, just as Zoop and Tich mentioned, miss the appealing aspect of it... just a bit.

I would have a big problem identifying with it (in any way), though it might bribe with simpleness...

 

Still, my congratulations to the winning artists, MatrixChickens logo would have been my favourite of them, but I respect the choice.

Hooray and such.

 

Edited June 18, 2013 by Friendship_Cannon

[____ 156]

My apologies to the artists and to Feld0 in advance-but I disagree almost entirely with your decision.

 

Jamiequadbike's work reminds me only of two things: the popular social network Skype's logo, and the Yin & Yang symbol.

In fact, the logo could represent anything. I feel it is so generic, it could represent...say...

 

It could represent a supermarket fish product.

Example:

 

 

Yeah, that's a little mean, but hey: I'm just being honest!

Sorry again. I looked a some others, and i agree with FC. I would have picked Matrixchicken's.

 

Congratulations anyway, Jamie.

[TheRedSlime 2]

Woah, neat art! Congrats to the artists that won! 

I personally like the second logo, but I can't really think of a way to describe it....

[Princess Periwinkle 3,778]

My apologies to the artists and to Feld0 in advance-but I disagree almost entirely with your decision.

 

Jamiequadbike's work reminds me only of two things: the popular social network Skype's logo, and the Yin & Yang symbol.

In fact, the logo could represent anything. I feel it is so generic, it could represent...say...

 

It could represent a supermarket fish product.

Example:

image.jpg

 

 

Yeah, that's a little mean, but hey: I'm just being honest!

Sorry again. I looked a some others, and i agree with FC. I would have picked Matrixchicken's.

 

Congratulations anyway, Jamie.

 

Brohoof for Luna's Tuna lol

 

I semi agree. I wish there would be some reference to ponies in the logo, because it would more clearly show what Poniverse is all about. On the other hand, it looks so slick that I can't help but like it. :3

[Jokuc 8,175]

 

 

After judging and sorting hundreds of entries, it's my honour to announce the winners of the Poniverse Logo Design Contest!

 

Feld0, you know your link there sends us to the MLP Forums Meetup Map right?

 

---

 

Anyways, I really like the look of the winner. It looks very clean and the whole P thing was quite clever. Though I have to agree with @Zoop a little bit, the logo does not look like it has anything to do with ponies if you do not already know what it is. It looks more like a logo for a space game, Portal or something haha. Plus it looks quite familiar... But again it is very good looking!

 

The second logo looks very professional but it looks waaay too much "private business"..ish. It looks like it's a logo for something totally different.

 

The third one was okay I guess but not one I liked way too much.

[SparkBrony 379]

They're all great, it'd be too hard for me to pick just one!

 

Congrats again to the winners! Brohoof on a job well done.

 

~SparkBrony

[Jamie 302]

My apologies to the artists and to Feld0 in advance-but I disagree almost entirely with your decision.

 

Jamiequadbike's work reminds me only of two things: the popular social network Skype's logo, and the Yin & Yang symbol.

In fact, the logo could represent anything. I feel it is so generic, it could represent...say...

 

It could represent a supermarket fish product.

Example:

image.jpg

 

 

Yeah, that's a little mean, but hey: I'm just being honest!

Sorry again. I looked a some others, and i agree with FC. I would have picked Matrixchicken's.

 

Congratulations anyway, Jamie.

 Someones got a great imagination Luna's tuna? If you say so!

 

Seriously, I understand where you're coming form with this, it follows a similar colour scheme to the skype logo and resembles the yin and yang thing. It might be hard to believe but i actually only realised its resemblance to yin and yang last friday and really, thats not at all a bad thing. The thing i had in mind when designing was the unity of the two major poniverse sites, MLP Forums and Pony FM. And the circle representing poniverse itself, the centre of it all.

 

In a way, it is a bit generic. But if i were to implement a pony into it (My other design), it would have to be a basic, bald pony silhouette that just wouldn't look exactly right. Think about some other famous logos, Apple for example. Nothing about an apple represents technology. But its easily identifiable and rememberable, and thats its advantage. Remember, the current logo is only an early version and although the idea behind it wont change it will still evolve into something better.

[Nas 2,874]

Good we finally ended up with the image that will stand for Poniverse and what it is. It's simple, and iconic, two very important design elements for recognizable and historic logos. Congratulations to the winner and runners-up, it was very fun going through the final designs and picking one that works. I loved them all, but in the end, the best logo won. I hope that everyone who uses the services of Poniverse will always remember the image for it as this logo, it will be there for months, or maybe years to come.

 

As for the people who disagree with it, do take to perspective that one of the most important things we needed for the logo is for it to be recognizable at 16x16, the size of the site's favicon (the tiny little image next to the browser tab you're using, depending on your browser). As for 2nd and 3rd place, it wouldn't be very visible or easy to make out. Jamie Quade's logo was the logo that looks great and can be made out up close, and far away. It's basically what heeded us to pick it as our final choice. Anyways, we hope you all agree that we think it is the best choice for the image of Poniverse, and once again, congrats to the winners! It was fun staying up late pondering on the winner with you, Feld0.

[Batbrony 16,088]

  Congratulations to Jaime, Joshua, and John on their wins, and kudos to Feld0 and the mod-team on some awesome judging!  The winning design is a wonderful choice for the Poniverse's logo, and I have no doubt that it'll soon become familiar to tens of thousands of bronies worldwide!!!  Let's give a big shout of joy and celebration everypony, because the Poniverse finally has a face and, in this brony's humble opinion, it couldn't look better!!! 

Edited June 18, 2013 by Batbrony

[MatrixChicken 879]

Thanks, everyone! :3 I'm pretty surprised I made it up into the top three, but I'm glad I did!

 

As for first place, I can see where some people are coming with it being a little "corporate", but it just looks so good... xD

 

Second place looks great as well, but it is a bit more businessy...

 

Overall, I'm very happy with the outcome of the contest! Can't wait to see the new and improved version, Jamie! :3

[Batbrony 16,088]

One more thing, I understand that some people are a little upset that the winning design looks "corporate" but think of it this way guys: as has been mentioned, it needs to be distinguishable at very small sizes, but even more importantly this is going to be the logo for the ENTIRE Poniverse!  Not just the forums or some other site, but multiple, interconnected sites.  So, if you think about it, there really is already an almost corporate aspect to the entire nature of the Poniverse to begin with, so really, this design logically makes sense.  It's a simple, slick, easily recognizable design that will be able to appear across multiple sites, signifying to all that each and every one of these sites belongs to the Poniverse.  So once again, I could not be happier with the decision, and also completely understand the reasoning behind Feld0's and the mod's decision.  Great job guys!

 

Besides, now I get to imagine Feld0 as some almighty Poniverse executive somewhere doing this every day!

 

 

HA! 

Edited June 18, 2013 by Batbrony