The New Poniverse Logo

[Jamie 302]

Oh boy. It is a good day today! So for those of you who don't know (keep up there) just a tad under a year ago I was given the amazing opportunity to design the official logo for the then recently announced poniverse.net after winning a design competition on this forum. It was in fact exactly a year ago today when Feld0 announced the competition along with more information on Poniverse. So I ended up winning this competition meaning my design would be used for the logo. The logo looked like this for those who don't already know...

 

 

 

And yes. The logo was ‘fine’. The reception for it was mostly positive and it seemed people loved the bright, modern design of the Bronycon Poniverse banner which featured the logo heavily. But the thing is, at the time I only had about a month or two’s experience with any design software or design in general. Which looking back a year later is extremely visible in the logo. The main concepts of the logo were flawed severely. And although someone might consider it ‘good’ for a 14 year old with less than 2 months graphic design experience, it's still not what I believe suitable for Poniverse. So that is why at the very end of last year after some talks with Feld0, I assembled Poniverse’s very own Design Team consisting of Me, @Nas, Ashley, @Jokuc and @Mareinthemoon who would together create a new and updated Poniverse Logo along with other Poniverse stuff. And after a ridiculously long time due to other projects, school and… well… life, we have finally completed the new Poniverse Logo. Instead of just revealing the logo to you instantly with no explanation, I feel like bringing you through a step by step story of how the logo was created with explanations for our choices. Starting with concepts and going all the way down to text, colour and geometry. There is a lot I can talk about with this logo, but most of you probably wouldn't want to read a ridiculously long story explaining everything down to how many sugars I put in my tea (2, and they aren't sugars, they're sweaters) so i’ll keep to the important stuff. If you’re put off by the idea of all this technical designy stuff or your just feeling in a tl;dr mood, you can skip to the bottom and see the final logo in an instant. But for those who find this all interesting, I salute you. 

 

 

First of all, the idea behind the original logo was that it was the merging of the 2 main sites of Poniverse - MLP forums and Pony.fm - combined with the shape of a galaxy and a lowercase p. Problem: Poniverse is more than 2 sites. Currently it is 6 projects, which instantly proves that concept to have fault. And there's not much I need to say, it doesn't look like a p or a galaxy. We can all agree on that. Don't know what I was thinking last year. 

 

The idea behind this new logo actually originates before the original was finished. I remember playing around with the 'swirls' of the old logo and found a shape where they kind of looked like hooves. But after having a quick chat with Feld0 we concluded it would require too much effort and time to make it work and to just keep the logo as it is currently. That idea was discarded for 6 months until the project was resurrected in December, where since day one of the redesign, I knew this could work. And guess what? It did! 

 

 

So this is the basis of the logo. It is formed around 2 hooves in a state to be decided by the viewer. It was originally intended to be a brohoof, but I didn't want to base the logo off what is essentially a fandom-wide gimmick. So the shape was developed to not be a clearly defined action. It could be a brohoof if you want, it could be 2 ponies holding each others hoofs or it could be a hoof-shake. Or something else entirely, whatever you want. These hoofs obviously represent ponies, but beyond that they represent the connection from user to user, site to site and site to user in harmonious sync. Theres no doubt friendships have been made with a lot us here on the forums. But we want to show that its not just restricted to the forums where you can make friends. Its all throughout Poniverse. So what better way to get the message across than put it in the logo? 

 

So we have Poni, but we’re missing a verse. Thats where the wonders of the cosmos come in. The original logo was (supposedly) a galaxy. But this time, we've actually managed to make it look even vaguely like one. And what better inspiration then from a barred spiral galaxy? (I always thought I did well with astronomy). I didn't want to get too carried away with the galaxy design. The hoofs are still the primary focus here, but I think we got them both across to a sufficient level without one outshining the other too much. Essentially the hoof shapes transition into a short twirl, ultimately forming 2 arms in a galaxy. It is something I personally spent quite a while developing into what it is now, but me and the team are all happy with the final outcome. 

 

Are there any geometry geeks in here? Well I may not be the best in my class, but I believe I really pushed the complexity barrier with this logo. The previous logo was a freehand vector. This new logo consists entirely of 18 circles positioned relative to each other with extreme accuracy. And not will this make the shapes of the logo smooth and naturally flowing, but every single circle in there follows a little thing they call in the design and maths world the Golden Ratio. That is 1.6180339… Its not the most easiest thing to explain, but essentially it is the idea of ‘perfect’ proportions. One circle is 1.618 times larger than a different circle and another is is 1.618 times larger than that etc. This is followed very commonly in nature, art and design. And since i have developed a weird obsession with it lately, I thought I would give it a shot with Poniverse. And to top it off… the ratio between the width and the height of the completed logo is of course 1.618. To see what I'm going on about, heres the logo with all the guides turned on. Other amazing examples of the golden ratio in logo designs are in the Twitter and Pepsi logos. Go check them out to get a bigger grip as to what I'm saying here. Or just click on the spoiler button and see it in this logo. Either way. 

 

 

 

Text. We need text. Or typography if you what to be all fancy. Bringing the old logo up again, Poniverse’s primary font was Josefin Sans. A simple, thin web safe font designed by a lovely chap known as Santiago Orozco. It is a good font. But I don't think it was a good choice for Poniverse. It felt too serious, or a very disliked word from everyone in the Design Team, especially Feld0, ‘corporate’. I wanted to go with a more approachable font. One with soft edges. One that’s warm and welcoming. Then I hit a mental home run… Comic Sans! Anyway… lets not waste more time or come across like a genocidal graphic designer Jamie. I actually chose the font Proxima Nova Soft to be Poniverse’s primary font this time around with standard Proxima Nova and Nunito to be used as secondary fonts for the web and advertising and such. Proxima Nova Soft caught my eye quite early on in the project for its beautifully formed lowercase p and all letters in general. It is a simple font with smooth, consistent curves that overall work exceptionally well when set all to lowercase. Thats another thing. Like the original, the new logo uses all lowercase letters. Including in additional bits and bobs such as slogans. It seemed people like the idea to have the entire title lowercase, so that was brought forward. And to keep a certain buffalo happy, yes, I have corrected the kerning. 

 

 

 

The first thing you see is colour. Therefor it is extremely important in a logo. We carried over the light sky blue colour from the last logo but modified it to be slightly more saturated. All Poniverse projects have their own colour, spread out across the entire colour wheel. And at the centre of this all is Poniverse. I originally planned for the logo to follow a Pantone colour book (consult the internet to know what that means) but we decided against due both to the fact a lot of colours were not what we wanted for Poniverse and because it seems that the use of Pantone is just a way of making your design seem more fancy in the same way sticking a logo on a shirt makes it's value shoot up. Chances are any printers we use to create advertisements and business cards and such won't actually use Pantone, so it is not in any way necessary to use it. 

 

 

 

 

So that pretty much sums up the new logo. We haven't spoken much about poniverse's visual identity really, but that will all come in due time with new site launches and pony conventions. But this isn't everything still. Within Poniverse there are projects. 6 currently in fact. MLP Forums, Pony.fm, Equestria.tv, PoniArcade, PonyRoleplay and the fan made feature length film The Last Stand of Harmony. And some of these lack logos. So that is why at the same time as designing this logo we have also been working on 4 other logos for Pony.fm, Equestria.tv, PoniGaming and PoniRoleplay. They were originally planned to be released alongside the Poniverse logo today, but sadly the time got too tight and they weren't completed in time. But don't threat, we will be coming at you with them within the next couple of weeks. They will also be launched along with the new poniverse.net site which will reveal more of the brands identity that we haven't spoken about today.  So look forward to that! And going beyond that, we have something else much bigger planned for later this year. So we have a lot of work to do. Now if you don't mind, I need to get back to work. 

 

View more of the project here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/16399259/Poniverse-Logo-Design?share=1

 

Feel completely free to tell us how you feel about the new logo. I'll also answer some questions about the logo if people feel they've got something to say.

 

What an amazing year this has been.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Update Time! 

 

Check out the logos for Equestria.tv, Pony.fm, PoniArcade and PonyRoleplay here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/17301433/Poniverse-Project-Logos
These were actually completed last week but it was waiting for Lavoaster to complete coding poniverse.net. He's been a lil' bit slow lately so I went ahead and released them beforehand. But yes, thats them. Sorry theres no 8,000 word essay on all of them. Theres only so much time I can dedicate to writing about logos. 

Edited May 30, 2014 by Jamiequadbike

[RrVPfX9cPtw59FpC 1,304]

Math???
o_0

But...

I want ponies...

Not math...

Nah, in all seriousness, it looks awesome! I like it! I'm not quite sure, though, are you saying that this is the final project, or it's very close?

[Jamie 302]

Math???

o_0

But...

I want ponies...

Not math...

Nah, in all seriousness, it looks awesome! I like it! I'm not quite sure, though, are you saying that this is the final project, or it's very close?

 

Yes. This is the final logo for the foreseeable future. What still needs to be completed is identity stuff, so basically twitter backgrounds, pony convention advertisements etc. that will use the logo but won't actually change it.

[Surface 115]

I don't know if I like it better...

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

I like it a lot, actually.

 

It's a lot less complex, making it easier on the eyes. It's got that fresh feel, kind of reminds of something corporate, which, although it seemed that you said something up there in your massive wall of text about not wanting that feel, I think it pulls it off excellently; a refined corporate feel, one that I find somewhat endearing, rather than the "corporate" you think of when you hear about oil spills on the gulf coast or ozone layers rapidly wasting away.

 

Basically, it's professional yet simplistic, and I dig that  Good work.

Edited April 30, 2014 by ghostfacekiller39

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

I like it better than the old one. As the old logo did look rather similar to the bionicle logo.

The new logo looks more removed from this, and I like the more simplified look of it.

[Scootalove 10,689]

Very well done and a lot less complex on the new logo, it's fabulous if I do say so myself.

 

[Yellow Diamond 7,569]

I like it a lot, actually.

 

It's a lot less complex, making it easier on the eyes. It's got that fresh feel, kind of reminds of something corporate, which, although it seemed that you said something up there in your massive wall of text about not wanting that feel, I think it pulls it off excellently; a refined corporate feel, one that I find somewhat endearing, rather than the "corporate" you think of when you hear about oil spills on the gulf coast or ozone layers rapidly wasting away.

 

Basically, it's professional yet simplistic, and I dig that  Good work.

 

Ask @Sugar Cube and @Wingnut: we definitely want the corporate feel and look.

 

[Jamie 302]

I like it better than the old one. As the old logo did look rather similar to the bionicle logo.

image.jpg

The new logo looks more removed from this, and I like the more simplified look of it.

I actually haven't seen that bionicle logo before, but I certainly see what your saying with the similarities. It was a fairly generic shape to begin with. My friends would sometimes point logos out to me and say it looks similar to the Poniverse one (though sometimes they just do it to one that is completely different in every way to troll me ). It was in a good need for improvement.

[Frostgage 7,975]

I like it a lot better than the old one. It's much simpler/cleaner, and just feels more... natural, I guess.

[3005 332]

I much prefer the older one. I'm not sure I understand what this is supposed to be. The former logo had a "P" in it and also resembled a galaxy (going with the "universe" theme of Poniverse). 

 

This, not to be rude, looks incredibly amateur. 

[Guest90210 3,568]

To be completely honest I liked the old one a lot better. The new one is too simple. There should be more going on...But hey, that's just what I personally like

[NavelColt 22,881]

We went from Bionicle logo to coyfish/inverse ying-yang symbol x) Alrighty, then. Don't care too much for it myself, I too thought the previous one fit better and was more original, but that's just my two cents.

[Pineapple Bloom 511]

I really love it because of the fact it looks like hooves! It sure can represent all sorts of things and is more connected to the MLP universe

[Kay Dreamer 884]

Change in design is always, always met with resistance to begin with. Don't take it personally. In a years time, everyone will look back on the old one and wonder why they ever preferred it. =)

 

I like the new one. The font will... grow on me, I expect. But the hooves are a lovely touch. They really do look like a galaxy. Adding a few tiny dots around them as stars may hammer it home a little more, but I don't see that as strictly necessary. A good logo isn't supposed to smack you in the face, after all.

 

It's a nice improvement and a natural evolution of the old logo. Brava. =D

[Chigens and Kay 3,832]

 

 

Looks like the Yevon Prayer sign from Final Fantasy X. Right?

 

 

I really do like this new logo though. It's great!

[Tabe 216]

GLLARRGH!!! SO MUCH TEXT! MY EYES!

[Jamie 302]

GLLARRGH!!! SO MUCH TEXT! MY EYES!

Well theres a surprisingly large amount to talk about with logos. If you just want to see the logo you can click on the last spoiler on the original post.

[Tabe 216]

Well theres a surprisingly large amount to talk about with logos. If you just want to see the logo you can click on the last spoiler on the original post.

I did read it all, I was just messing around

[SparkleShy 38]

Poneverse has a very nice minimalistic logo

[Allen 1,387]

Wow, that's perfect for Poniverse! Maybe it's just we have here!

[Shift 4,272]

How would two ponies be able to position their hooves like that without one being a pegasi...

 

It looks awesome! :3

[Batbrony 16,055]

*sees first post*

 

Alright Batbrony... you got this.  :okiedokielokie:

 

\

 

*10 minutes later*

 

 

FLAWLESS VICTORY   

 

On a more serious note, that was a fascinating process to read about, Jamie.  It sounds like you and the rest of the staff working with you have put in quite a bit of work into this, and I applaud you for the creative effort.  The new logo looks great, and the care, thought, and attention you've given to the creative process behind designing this was admirable and praiseworthy, indeed.  Can't wait to see the other logos you've designed, and God's blessings in your present and future work! 

[Surface 115]

I don't understand the part with the circles though lol, is there any reason for that? I just get the vector tool and click randomly until something looks good. xD

[Jamie 302]

I don't understand the part with the circles though lol, is there any reason for that? I just get the vector tool and click randomly until something looks good. xD

It's just a technique to get the shape curving extremely concistently and naturaly. You can use the pen tool, but it will take a lot more work to get the same effect.