Pastelland Forum

If they had to publish a multiple page essay to just explain a logo, then that tells you something.

I agree.
Back when I was in High School, taking what was to be the last Art Class available to me, the Teacher taught us about company Logos. For example, some company that helps people get their lives back together, with the phrase "We'll help you straighten it out" had from left to right a series of lines. On the left side they were out of order, disregard, and chaotic. But as you move towards the right they started to line out.

That Logo Made sense.

This Deviant Art does not.
A logo is suppose to be in some manner of array to make sense in its simplistic form.

For example, the drawing I did for my Logo back in that High School Art class was "Know" in combination of books and penciles. With the word "Ledge" written with a cliff edge underneath it.

Or for example my weird 'K' you guys see in my Quiet Rooms location in SNEE.



The 'K' is for the first letter in Knowledge. The swerve bit being for twists. And the jagged upper angle portion to be 'twists'. Thus the phrase form in coronation to this logo being
"Knowlegde, it has its twist and turns."

RoentgenDevice wrote:I grow to dislike DeviantArt... they're doing a step-by-step change from "round and friendly" to "business-like and angular" (which doesn't fit a website that consists of my little pony fanart to 40%). And this is done in such a pretentious way. For example, last year, they published a multiple page essay that explained how great the new logo is...

Old Logo:


New Logo:


The essay explains how they hired a graphic designer and that it was so much work and has so much hidden meaning to it. They don't explain why a green turd becomes a logo for a website and why they didn't ask the thousand designers on DeviantArt to create (a better) one for free.

It's their site, after all, but I think it's sad they don't even ask the 32 million users for their ideas or opinion when changing the whole thing. (Technically, they do, but they ignore it. Even when 80% of the comments on those changes are rants, they call it positive resonance afterwards) Just because Facebook doesn't do this either, they don't have to act the same way

When everything changes, nothing changes.

As a resident graphic designer here with strong tastes and ideas of how logos should and could works, here's my thoughts:

On one hand, I agree with the backlash against the logo change because it even though I liked the logo... it is quite hard to get a feeling of why and how the logo fits with the DeviantArt brand. The DA was right about crafting a new logo... it is difficult and really time-consuming to find the right shape and flow that works with the foundational philosophy of their brand. We're talking about millions upon millions of artwork on that site, so DA had to tackle the idea of how every single colors, styles, and themes be symbolized by a single icon.

But I will say this: I LIKE THE LOGO. The DA had a right idea going on here with the transition of the combined letters D and A from the old logo into the new one. I never really enjoyed the old logo because it is old, clunky-looking, and has too many elements. The new one is definitely fresh and modern and instantly more iconic and has the better cut-off combination of D and A into a form that's both recognizable and abstract, which I believed is what the DA was trying to achieve. But what the new logo failed to transfer is the playfulness of the old logo that's seemly tangible and more beloved in the old logo. It is too serious and not very friendly, appearance-wise when it should be catered toward BOTH casual and professional artists.

The DA has the right ideas with the application of the new logo into different elements of their website, but failed in the execution of transiting the overall core philosophy from the old logo.

- ak - wrote: When everything changes, nothing changes.

Yep! If they changed the whole website from "art website for literally everyone" to "art and design marketplace for professionals", the mood change itself would be fine (most of the members, me included, would leave, though). But the contrary is the case, as their newest announcement suggests they want to turn it into a mixture of the old DA concept and Facebook.

RoentgenDevice wrote:

- ak - wrote: When everything changes, nothing changes.

Yep! If they changed the whole website from "art website for literally everyone" to "art and design marketplace for professionals", the mood change itself would be fine (most of the members, me included, would leave, though). But the contrary is the case, as their newest announcement suggests they want to turn it into a mixture of the old DA concept and Facebook.

Also that, which happens to be not quite a good idea in the first place. Anytime you try to copy what made Facebook so damn successful, you will never ever be successful.

DA better off being something unique by itself, much like how Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and other popular social media platforms found successes by not following in footsteps of Facebook. And such successes rely on being platform for all kind of arts and artists, in which DA have not quite achieved yet.

And thus ends my designer rants :3

That's just like what Google did to YouTube. YouTube was a hit, because we the people made it a hit. We the ones who uploaded videos made it grow. So what do they do? They just strip the site down, merge it with their stupid G+ platform, and just continue to take shit after shit on the user base. A while back they removed the messaging feature, where I could send messages to other users, I had tons of messages in my Scorpion123Kid account from years ago and now they are gone. Did Google ever provide the option for me to download those messages? No, they just said one day "Sorry but we removed the messaging feature, deleted your messages, haha fuck you"

Just like what happened with MySpace. Never bothered to seek the opinion of its user base to update the site, went ahead and removed every single profile of every single user, just to update their site, then forced people to sign up again. I had a MySpace account. I had messages in that account from a friend of mine who died a few years ago. Sure I could have copied them by hand, but did Myspace even bother with a notice saying they were going to rewrite the site? No. Did Myspace even bother giving me an option to download those messages? No. They just deleted them without warning and said Fuck You.

At least Mateusz gives a shit by telling us he's removing the forum, and gives us options to carry content over. Like he did with this, he gave Soullock the database. And here we are.

Regarding the deviantart logo, it looks like some two year old went into MSPaint and created it. Its bland, dumb, and just ugly. The older one was clean, sleek, and stood out better.

Gemini wrote:That's just like what Google did to YouTube. YouTube was a hit, because we the people made it a hit. We the ones who uploaded videos made it grow. So what do they do? They just strip the site down, merge it with their stupid G+ platform, and just continue to take shit after shit on the user base. A while back they removed the messaging feature, where I could send messages to other users, I had tons of messages in my Scorpion123Kid account from years ago and now they are gone. Did Google ever provide the option for me to download those messages? No, they just said one day "Sorry but we removed the messaging feature, deleted your messages, haha fuck you"

Just like what happened with MySpace. Never bothered to seek the opinion of its user base to update the site, went ahead and removed every single profile of every single user, just to update their site, then forced people to sign up again. I had a MySpace account. I had messages in that account from a friend of mine who died a few years ago. Sure I could have copied them by hand, but did Myspace even bother with a notice saying they were going to rewrite the site? No. Did Myspace even bother giving me an option to download those messages? No. They just deleted them without warning and said Fuck You.

At least Mateusz gives a shit by telling us he's removing the forum, and gives us options to carry content over. Like he did with this, he gave Soullock the database. And here we are.

Regarding the deviantart logo, it looks like some two year old went into MSPaint and created it. Its bland, dumb, and just ugly. The older one was clean, sleek, and stood out better.

THIS. Anytime a company forces a fundamental change like this, riots and abandonments will follow in trove. Always.

About the DA logo... I think it is a fine effort that executes mostly what DA set out to do, just that it didn't reaches its fullest potential. The combination of the letter D and A is quite brilliant when its got cut off at the sides. My beef with it is that how does the shapes failed to reflect the ideas of DeviantArt itself in meaningful ways. The old logo, while clunky and bland and dated IMO, felt more playful and personal and that's what the new logo is sorely missing in its perhaps-too-sleek design.

100 years back, when everything was made physicaly, the relationship between Capitalism and Democracy was stable and flourishing.

The posibilty of virtual interaction, which expanded the limits population could reach, have finally shown the flaws of the relationship of these systems.

I love how this whole argument over a logo change, a logo itself being able to express a whole sentence under a single symbol of some sort.

We already got one and a half pages of conversation about it.

ENIHCAMBUS wrote:100 years back, when everything was made physicaly, the relationship between Capitalism and Democracy was stable and flourishing.

The posibilty of virtual interaction, which expanded the limits population could reach, have finally shown the flaws of the relationship of these systems.

Sorry, but what do you mean?