Logo/History

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MediaWiki[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2003-2021 The third place logos (International logo contest/Results) were appointed as the logo for MediaWiki by logo contest organizer Erik Möller on October 15, 2003. Designed by User:Anthere (tournesol flower) and User:Eloquence (combination, concept), reworked by User:Aka, vectorized by User:Chrkl; brackets fixed by User:guillom.
2021-Present A vote on MediaWiki determined the winning logo, by User:Serhio Magpie, on April 1, 2021.

Meta-Wiki / Wikimedia community[edit]

Image Years in use Description

2006-Present The Wikimedia Community Logo was created in 2006 by user:WarX as a public-domain logo intended to be free of trademark and visual identity guidelines, that community members and groups could use and remix as they wished. In 2008 it was chosen as the new logo for Meta-Wiki, replacing the Wikimedia movement logo, with "Wikimedia Meta-Wiki" underneath.

Wikibooks[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2003-2004 Developed by Rei-artur.
2004-2009 Modified by Rei-artur.
2009-Present Developed by User:Bastique, User:Ramac et al. in a community discussion that began in 2008 (following an inconclusive discussion in 2006–2007) and concluded in January 2009.

Wikidata[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2012-Present A vote determined the winning logo, by Arun Ganesh (User:Planemad), on July 12, 2012.

Wikimania[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2006-Present Derived from Wikimania 2006 banner by User:Kaganer, vectorized by User:Tlogmer and text added by Guillaume Paumier (User:Guillom).

Wikimedia Commons[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2004-Present A vote on Wikimedia Commons determined the winning logo, by User:Reidab, on November 12, 2004.

Wikimedia Foundation[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2003-2006 The second place logo (International logo contest/Results) by Neolux was appointed as the logo for Wikimedia by logo contest organizer Erik Möller on October 15. A version was adopted by Neolux for the Wikimedia Foundation on October 15, 2003.
2006-2012 Introduced in January 2006 based on modifications made by Wikimedia Foundation.
2012-2016 Introduced in March 2012 based on modifications made by Wikimedia Foundation.
2016-Present Introduced in July 2016 based on modifications made by Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikimedia Incubator[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2006-Present A vote on Meta-Wiki determined the winning logo, by User:NielsF, which was announced on July 31, 2006.

Wikimedia Cloud Services[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2011-2017 Developed by User:Brandon Harris and vectorized by User:Isarra.
WikiTech: 2013-2016
2017-Present Updated name from "Labs" to "Cloud Services", per rebranding.

Wikimedia movement[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2003-Present The second place logos (International logo contest/Results) by Neolux was appointed as the logo for Wikimedia by logo contest organizer Erik Möller on October 15, 2003.

Wikinews[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2004-2005 Temporary logo used while Wikinews was in Beta.
2005-Present A vote on Meta-Wiki was held in January and February 2005 and determined the winning logo by User:Jasonp55 and User:David Vasquez.

Wikipedia[edit]

Progression of logos[edit]

Image Title Years in use Description
Test logo 2001 In the early days of Wikipedia, founder Jimbo Wales uploaded an American flag as an example logo. Needless to say, it was never intended to be the permanent logo. See the following discussion at OldWikiPediaLogo.
Nupedia logo 2001 The Nupedia logo was originally sent to a Nupedia logo competition by Bjørn Smestad, and was used by Wikipedia until the end of 2001. It continued to be used after this time on special pages such as search results.
Cunctator logo 2001-2003 This logo was designed by The Cunctator and won the first Wikipedia logo contest, which took place from November to December 2001. The leading submissions of that early contest (which is separate from the much larger international logo contest held in 2003) can be viewed at Logo suggestions/Leading candidates. See #2001 logo contest for more details.
Paullusmagnus logo 2003 This logo was created by Paullusmagnus during the International logo contest. After the two-stage International logo contest/Vote instructions, this logo won with considerable support– see International logo contest/Results. The English Wikipedia switched to it on Sept 26 2003.

Nohat logos 2003-2010 This "silver ball" was created after the International logo contest/Ratification as an improvement of the Paullusmangus logo. The English Wikipedia switched to this on Oct 12, 2003 after it achieved a general consensus of 21 preferring it, with only 3 preferring the previous logo (vote page on Oct 12).

A new, internationalized variant was later uploaded without much discussion, as the previous logo was not available in internationalized form and the differences were considered minor. See #2003 international logo contest for more details.

Wikipedia logo v2 2010-Present In May 2010, the revamp of Wikipedia puzzle globe started in 2008 was completed, and new logo has been implemented along with the new Vector interface.

2001 logo contest[edit]

Winning proposal by Paullusmagnus.

This logo was created by Paullusmagnus during the International logo contest. After the two-stage International logo contest/Vote instructions, this logo won with considerable support– see International logo contest/Results. The English Wikipedia switched to it on Sept 26, 2003.

Due to strong feelings by some Wikipedians who considered this logo inferior to the old one, the designer, User:Paullusmagnus, put this picture on his user page in a bit of self-deprecating humor:

Relevant pages[edit]

2002-2003 occurrences[edit]

2003 international logo contest[edit]

Winning proposal by Nohat.
Improved version.

The "silver ball" was created after the International logo contest/Ratification as an improvement of the Paullusmangus logo. The English Wikipedia switched to this on Oct 12, 2003 after it achieved a general consensus of 21 preferring it, with only 3 preferring the previous logo (vote page on Oct 12).

By Oct 17, after it was implemented, the vote had changed to 23 supporting and 12 opposing (vote page on Oct 17). Arguably, the result is still somewhat biased– the people who were strongly opposed to the winning logo were highly involved in the final optimization process, while the people who were strongly opposed to the new variant quickly headed to Meta to vote it down as soon as it went public. In any case, there appears to have been wide support for the new variant.

There was some controversy (See Logo feedback and Talk:Logo feedback) over switching the English Wikipedia to this logo due to several reasons.

  • The first was lack of publicity for the poll over this, despite being linked to from many Main Pages, the mailing list, and w:Wikipedia:Announcements (the announcements page asked for comments on Oct 1 and votes were requested on Oct 13).
  • The comment page quickly formalized in a "Better than original logo / About the same / Worse" poll, which was conducted fairly informally.
  • The decision to modify the logo was made during the logo ratification process.
  • Some people were strongly opposed to the winning Pallusmangus logo and decided that the logo should be modified.
  • The number of people participating in the logo variant process was probably around 20 or so (at least until the logo was switched at which point it increased to around 40) compared to the 188 valid ballots in the orginal logo contest.

After a few days on the Main Page, User:Nohat uploaded a new, internationalized variant. The logo in use was quickly replaced with that variant without much discussion, as the previous logo was not available in internationalized form and the differences were considered minor. This is the logo that is now in use (in different translations) on most Wikipedias.

The New York Times had an article about errors in the logo on 2007. A suggested fixed version is at Image:Wikipedia-logo thue.png, but has not been officially blessed as the new official logo. See also Errors in the Wikipedia logo.

Relevant pages[edit]

2010 revamp[edit]

Wikipedia logo v2, English

In May 2010, the revamp of Wikipedia puzzle globe started in 2008 was completed, and new logo has been implemented along with the new Vector interface. See wmf:Wikimedia official marks/About the official Marks.

Variations marking special occasions[edit]

[edit]

Wikiquote[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2003-2004 Developed by User:Jimregan.
2004-Present Developed by Neolux; vector version by Minh Nguyen based on work by Rei-artur and -xfi-.

Wikisource[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2003-2006 Developed by User:Uwe Kils and User:Wiska Bodo.
2006-Present A vote on Wikisource determined the winning logo, by User:Zanimum, and implementation began in May 2006.

Wikispecies[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2004-2005
2005-Present A discussion on Wikispecies in late 2005 determined the logo, developed by User:Zephram Stark based on a concept by en:User:Jeremykemp and vectorized by User:Isarra.

WikiTech[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2009?-2013 Based on MediaWiki logo by User:AkaUser:Anthere, modified by User:IsarraUser:Brion VIBBERUser:Eloquence.
2016-2021
2021 (April) Based on MediaWiki logo by User:Serhio Magpie.
2021-Present A vote on WikiTech determined the winning logo. A blue variant of the MediaWiki logo by User:Serhio Magpie.

Wikiversity[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2006 Temporary logo used while Wikiversity was in Beta.
2006-2017 A vote on Meta-Wiki determined the winning logo, by User:Snorky, and was finalized in November 2006.
2017-Present A vote on Beta Wikiversity determined the logo, a modified version of the previous logo updated by User:Julian Herzog.

Wikivoyage[edit]

Image Years in use Description
2006-2012 Developed by User:Hansm and User:Roland Unger and used prior to Wikivoyage's migration to Wikimedia.
2012-2013 A vote on Meta-Wiki determined the winning logo, by User:F l a n k e r and User:Yiyi, and was finalized in December 2012.
2013-Present A vote on Meta-Wiki determined the winning logo, by User:AleXXw, and was finalized in August 2013.

Wiktionary[edit]

See Wiktionary/logo.

See also[edit]