Wonderblog

It's hard to believe that we don't have a Wonderland logo. Well, not one we're particular proud of. Way back in July 2007 (has it really been that long?), Nicole created this 3D "W" logo in SketchUp:

This was only intended to be a placeholder until we could hire a designer to create a real logo. Well, I'm happy to say that we've finally hired a graphic designer, Gary Ritchie, to work on 2D and 3D art assets for our forthcoming 0.5 release. If you've seen the HUD for the new whiteboard, that's his work.

So, we put Gary to work on designing a real logo for Wonderland. We wanted a logo design that conveyed the collaborative focus of Wonderland and established a strong identity. We also wanted something that couldn't be confused with a hotel chain, a certain ex-president or other virtual worlds. Since Wonderland is an open source project, not a product, we're also free to not be constrained by Sun's product branding (and who knows what might happen to that!)

The logo will be used in our web content, as a desktop logo, and on the Wonderland login dialog. Gary is also creating a 3D version of the logo that we can bring in world as a sculpture, which will be cool. 

We're really excited by the designs that Gary has produced for us and we wanted to share them with you, so you can help us decide which of several alternatives we should choose. I'm including the top contenders below. Let us know which you prefer. If you don't like any of them, explain why but also give us some constructive feedback. Also, if the logo reminds you of someone else's logo, please tell us. We obviously don't want to confuse people.

First, here are three different color schemes:

A. Blue/Green

B. Purple/Blue

C. Yellow/Blue

Next, there are three variations on the logo orientation. I've chosen the Purple/Blue color scheme to show the different options:

1. Left orientation

2. Right orientation

3. Vertical orientation

Tell us which you prefer by picking a color scheme from A, B or C and a logo orientation from 1, 2, or 3. So, if you liked the left orientation of the yellow/blue color scheme, that would be C1.

Hmmm...maybe we should get some t-shirts printed with the logo on them for our 0.5 release celebration!

Update March 25, 2009: 10:15am PT:

Wow! We're amazed by the voter turnout and excited that so many of you are reading the Wonderblog. We really appreciate the design critiques too. The voting isn't over, we'll leave it open for a few more days, but here are the votes so far in graphical form:

A1 is currently leading with 24 votes, followed by C1 with 18. Layout "1" is the clear favorite. It's interesting to read the comments about "eco burnout". We hope that Wonderland will have an eco-impact by reducing the need for people to travel, but Wonderland is more about collaboration and bringing people closer together, it's not just an eco project.

I produced this graph in OpenOffice, but it would have been much more fun to visualize it in Wonderland with Glasshouse by greenphosphor, our earliest early-adopters!

Great suggestion about the t-shirt/hoodie store, by the way!