Decentralizing SaidIt

submitted by JasonCarswell from infogalactic.com

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[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (31 children)

Okay sounds good. Whenever you're ready to share them, let me know

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (30 children)

Never got the old no-longer supported software working but I hacked it.

So I'm not even close to happy with it but it's a start. The camera flash was too much and without it not enough. I pushed and pulled the image. It's just a sketch but you get the idea.

https://infogalactic.com/info/File:SaidIt.net_Free_Speech_Bubble_Rounded_Rectangle_-_50%25Rez_-_1500x700_-_DSC02776.png

1) I love the frame. I drew the left side like the squared right side but the clip, shadow, and Photoshopping makes it look ovoid on the left. I like both a lot, but really prefer the squared right side with rounded corners. I like the 1-unit wide thickness of the outline. It's mathematically consistent with most of the lettering, but more so it is a bold feature and integral part of the logo and branding. That said, it would be folly not to experiment with options, ie. half as thick, or just a different background colour.

2) I squared the letters more to be less futurist-mod-flattened. Except the "S" which can easily be made to match.

3) The "S" came to me while sketching it. I feel like there's some similar "S" logo out there but I don't know where.

4) Finding the best "A" angle will take refining. 45 degrees (like on the pixel version) is too broad. This one is more like an equilateral triangle which seems too narrow - or maybe that's just because I'm used to it wider and because I compressed the kerning (space between letters) around it.

5) I like the slightly thicker "I"s thought in the "bolder" font it's not really as necessary.

6) The "D" I'm meh about. It loks better large but when small adds confusion. I'm almost tempted to do something like the sideways "D" in the Disinfo logo. I think simply adding part of the vertical "back" like the original logo - but with an angle like on the top of the "I" would likely be best.

7) The "T" is terrific.

8) The "Dot Net" could be in this same custom font, or just super simple (like the pixel version except for the pixellated "N" diagonal). While it may seem like a trivial matter, I think this demands a lot of attention to get the proportions just right. When large enough I want folks to easily read "Dot Net" and when too small I want folks to see an exclamation mark, and most importantly in between the large and small I want there to be as little room for blurred confusion as possible - preferably none.

If you like I could easily invert it to show how it would look with light text on a dark background.

Also, I can do a version without the bubble, or change the bubble style (there are countless variations possible, more than you think that might be suitable or even preferable).

One more thing I'd like you to imagine if you will, and I can easily mock up for you if you react favourably to this - is a truncated version. Imagine everything in the bubble gone, except the "S" and an "I" and an exclamation mark - and the bubble would be fitted around them. This "SI!" truncated "logo/icon" of sorts could be a mini-logo used on square buttons, faveicons, ballcaps, whatever. The con to this idea is that you might start getting users that don't speak English. But at least it's a positive word in other languages.

I have another one in mind that I don't yet know if I can pull off in a way to beat this one. Essentially you'd have the "SAIDIT" text, either the original or my new design, or whatever you like. Then with a speech bubble to the right side, pointing back at that logo, within the bubble would say "Dot Net". Conceptually it's meh. "Saidit" should be in the bubble if you like bubbles. This is where a mascot might come in handy.

The next image is a concept I had almost from day one here. The concept is great, but it's not what we're looking for, and my execution of it is weak, at best. But it's still fun and worth showing you. I could list all the things wrong with my first and only sketch in this direction but I don't want to waste anyone's time.

And lastly, my cat, Miss Ivana Barfsalot, wouldn't move. The camera flash works better from an angle but skews the page. Next time I'll just unskew it. I cropped and blurred the background with my work desk and all the crap on it. Miss Ivana Barfsalot 1 and Miss Ivana Barfsalot 2 .

I numbered my critical points in case you prefer referring to them in short form.

Feel free to give me feedback, ideas, directions, likes, dislikes, try something new, clean it up into a vector, or to forget the whole thing.

Edit: Also, I can just take the existing SaidIt log and put it in a bubble.

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (29 children)

https://infogalactic.com/info/File:SaidIt.net_Free_Speech_Bubble_Rounded_Rectangle_-_50%25Rez_-_1500x700_-_DSC02776.png

This one is not bad! No drastic changes to the font, and adding the speech bubble around it, not a bad idea at all. /u/d3rr what do you think of this logo? I think we'd have to see a digital version before I can really make any critiques though. I would probably change the "D" to be more like the current "D" though. The way it is now it looks a bit like "sadit" from a distance. We don't want to be sad lol

The other one is fun, but it doesn't match the feel of the site imo. This site deals in serious content so it should have a somewhat serious look.

Nice cat :)

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (28 children)

I like it. The logo goes with the meaning of the site name so that's pretty cool. Not sure if it will detract from the vaporwave thing we have going on, but maybe that's more about the colors.

And as a minor point I like getting away from the pyramid A since multiple people have told me it looks occultist or illuminati like :)

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

What is vaporwave? I can design you something custom if you like.

The thing about the current "A" is that it's wider than all other letters by a significant margin making it much more noticeable. I don't have the font, nor know why they did this. Perhaps they match the golden proportions of the actual pyramids in Egypt.

Without any complications you'll have a couple vector versions by morning.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

I have no idea what vaporwave is. Not sure if it's music or an art style or both but I guess that's the style we were after. Some kind of tron and cyberpunk and 80s mashup.

Oh this guy is gonna splain it to us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdpP0mXOlWM

Well thank you for all of your help around here.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I was a huge fan of the New Wave as a teen in the 80s. Max Headroom was my favourite. Check it out. It's SOOOO underrated and ahead of its time.

Like a portmanteau of vaporware and new wave.

We used to play Cyberpunk in college, like Dungeons & Dragons oldskool role playing games.

Reminds me of /s/Movies/comments/afk/kung_fury_official_movie/

Also, I just posted a bunch of music here that vaporheads might like. /s/music/comments/ans/morgan_willis_the_grid_of_death_some_breathy/

Are you fucking kidding me? I think I worked on that shampoo spot. Or one so close my memory fails me. Too many to count or remember circa 96-98. YouTube took down several of my ancient videos, but there are still a few left. My old embarrassing Wicked Sunshine Montage 2002 has a Loreal hair demo in it. https://www.youtube.com/user/JasonCarswell/videos

I love/d My Bloody Valentine https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=My+Bloody+Valentine

Magnora7 said he didn't like my pixel version (I don't blame him but think it'd be fun to do dorky gif animations with) and didn't want to go back so much as forwards (my words).

I had three designs pretty much finished, and was tweaking the last one when Illustrator crashed. :( I'm doing 4 more now, but taking a break.

Beyond that I don't know about help. Just trying to contribute.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Oh that's cool that you played Cyberpunk. I know you don't video game, but a well respected company is using that game as inspiration and a foundation for a new video game Cyberpunk 2077. Maybe you'd enjoy the trailer and seeing it brought to life.

You contribute great just by being here and sharing all of your links.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I didn't play much Cyberpunk. I was growing out of it. I did play D&D much more over more year but really I was just into studying it and all its potential. Part of the disappointing part of it was playing with unimaginative friends.

"Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P99qJGrPNLs

Hot. A+ Her clothes would have been ripped by the bullet. Also, even bullet proof materials get marked. No narrative. So, meh, not A+++

"Cyberpunk 2077 – official E3 2018 trailer" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X2kIfS6fb8

Looks good.

"Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay Reveal — 48-minute walkthrough" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjF9GgrY9c0

Violent. TLDR.

If you like that stuff, Blade Runner, 2001, A.I., etc and truther geopolitics, you'll love my "main" project that I've been working on, off and on, since 2001 (initially had absolutely no connections to 9/11 or geopolitics). What's different, and in part what's taken so long, is that I'm insisting on keeping it grounded in HARD-science for my hard-science-fiction. Also, over its development I had a lot of trouble trying to pin down the timeline because a lot of new things come out that I'd just imagined, which meant I wasn't imaginative enough to guess what could be too far forward. All that's worked out so it's set around 2045 to 2050 and I keep wasting time so it's creeping up fast. I need help distilling it all down into a palatable form. I will illustrate it like a movie storyboard crossed with a graphic novel, once I get that palatable story form. I may release it chapter by chapter or all at once. I intend to open source it with some restrictions in hopes to open develop it without neutering it.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Well you sir have a lot of irons in the fire. I look forward to reading it someday. My favorite sci-fi book is Snow Crash but I like the William Gibson stuff too. And Dune! Man reading was cool I should try it again.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (20 children)

/u/magnora7 /u/d3rr

https://infogalactic.com/info/File:Saidit.net_2019_Logo_Revision_Variants.svg

https://infogalactic.com/info/File:Saidit.net_2019_Logo_Revision_Variants_Part_One.svg

So here's a bunch of variations. From the top down...

First row left has an extended "D". First row right is inversed and I forgot to extend the "D".

Second row is without the bubble outline. I prefer this "tail" shape to the one above, but it does not conform to the angles of the text nor the curve of the "S".

The first two rows have my experimental "S". I like that it's different and is echoed in the shape of the tail of the bubble - but I am not thrilled with it. I suspect that it could be improved if my font were bolder like in my sketch. The two existing fonts IMHO are too thin and too bold, leaving me lots of room between those extremes to play with. Another note about the "S" is that it might go nicely in a bubble, alone without the "I" and exclamation mark, like in the examples lower to the right.

The first and second row "tails" are in the center, coming from the left but could potentially come from any direction, including from above. All the bubble have the same rounded corners but can be increased decreased, or a different bubble shape all together could be made. For example, I like pill shapes. It could be a subtle/subliminal red pill reference should we choose to pursue that course.

The first and second rows are very similar but you can see what a difference an outline can make. I'm not expecting you to really choose between having an outline or not, so much as bringing to your attention that we may land upon branding options including several versions, all valid, but within usage guidelines for different purposes.

I'm not thrilled about the "dot net", but it works better when small. Needs work.

Third row left, features and extended "D". The bubble has a straight "tail" and the angle of the tail "cuts" through the "I" and the "D". The bubble overlaps the fourth row. There is potential for interesting tiling.

Fourth row left, inverses the overlapping example above, but with the truncated "D". Personally, I like that "D" best because it echoes the "tail" as well as with the "I" and the "A" creates a downward negative space triangle, though granted I already addressed the dominant "A" of the current logo to minimize any pyramid-like imagery (especially with the bottom 45 degree angles on the "A"). Further, SaidIt doesn't downvote so the negative space downward arrow is not as topically relevant. Also, it is not a wide 45 degree "A" so the downward triangle is lop sided. Still I like the truncated "D" for one final reason - it slices the word equally in half - like a fair dialectic, yet not still remains a whole word unit. I aligned the point of the tail above to hit a mark lined up to the "I" and "D" not letting the bubbles overlap. Now I see it would have made more sense to tile it better so the "slice" were continuous.

The straight "tail" is almost too mathematically sterile, without humanity. Maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm a robot.

Fourth row right, all forward slash angles were changed to back slash angles. There are pros and cons that speak for themselves. It's a little jarring compared to what we're familiar with. It's also unusual in type as most calligraphy hold the ink nib at a forward-slash-like angle. The "S" has a different character as does the "D" and the slice. I don't know what to think about it.

Third row right, are two variations on an icon. I don't like either - yet. I don't like the "I" in either and the exclamation point is stupid for several reasons. SaidIt not YelledIt. The dot net had a purpose of clarifying the address. And it just clutters it up. I also made the icon bubble smaller so it feels more crowded. Whether you go for the upper or lower "S" I think it may actually work well alone.

Aside from tiling the SaidIt bubble much much more (like for a bold banner or subtle background) I don't recommend doing the overlapping bubble thing too much. There are ways it could be fun, though. For example, if "SaidIt" text only had an empty bubble, perhaps in different proportions, coming from it. This image is black and white so colours may be used to avoid the masonic checkerboard tiling - unless you wish to embrace that - assuming you even like the tiling idea. Tiling is just a bonus whimsical design idea.

Also, I just noticed they are all lopsided. All have less space beside the "S" than the "dot net". Duh.

So that's my own initial self criticism.

I thought I'd pitch it by you to see what you thought before I do a dozen more variations on these variations. Don't be afraid to tell me what you don't like, even if it's all of them. If you can't tell me why you don't like them, that too is okay, but the more you share with me the better I can deliver something we all like.

I'd rather you don't use any of these designs as they are not final and have issues. Feel free to post it for a survey and/or copy paste any of my words you like. Or don't and keep it between us for now. It's up to you.

P.S. I have some new ideas I didn't mention.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (19 children)

Nice, looks good. I like the bottom-right one the most. It has the best bubble shape and the best letter shapes.

D3rr was saying some people were questioning him about the A looking like a pyramid... so I guess we'd like to move away from that. Your A is a good shape, but maybe you could add a partial horizontal bar in the middle of the A to make it resemble more closely a traditional A and look even less like a pyramid.

I like the "D" of the top-left one the most, could you incorporate that in to the bottom-right one?

Then the .net is a little fuzzy, needs higher res or more sharpness when it's in the logo.

Other than that, looks pretty good. If you want to come back with a revision of that bottom-right one, we'll experiment with mockups of it integrated in to the site and see how it looks. /u/d3rr do you agree?

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (18 children)

Yep!

[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (17 children)

Cool! My only concern as far as integrating it in to the page is that the logo might be too tall to fit, but we can mess with that later

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (15 children)

/u/magnora7 /u/d3rr

File page: https://infogalactic.com/info/File:Saidit.net_2019_Logo_Revision_Variants_Part_Two.svg

SVG file may display large in browser and may be scalable depending on your browser's capabilities: https://infogalactic.com/w/images/0/0a/Saidit.net_2019_Logo_Revision_Variants_Part_Two.svg

All these images will always be in a gallery on this page or linked from here (eventually on a new dedicated gallery page) : https://infogalactic.com/info/SaidIt

So all of the stuff on the left is old stuff with some tweaks to better illustrate some ideas that may or may not be relevant to the font design.

Down the middle are three columns. Variants on different "S" icons, taken to an extreme clipping at the bottom. The mid-mid column is the "dot net" from heaviest to lightest at the bottom (I just realized I hadn't considered lowercase). The mid-right is just inversed colours and reflected bubbles. None of these bubbles are different.

On the right are several more subtly different "S" as well as all the letters. Also the the "tail" moves around, in part defined by alignments with parts of the text, diagonally and vertically, and in part for variety if you have a preference. At the bottom is an ovoid, my favourite shape. I've done lots of work with that shape, and even based most of my 2001-2010 website on it. It might also make for nice red pill or black pill design.

I need a break because I've been looking and tweaking angles so much I can't tell what's good and what's not anymore - or if it even matters.

[–]magnora7 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (14 children)

Thanks for so so many demos Carswell!

I've circled the one I think is best: https://i.imgur.com/lpjzhFd.png

I also modified it slightly to add a partial-crossbar on the A like we talked about. With my modification, I really like the way this one looks. /u/d3rr do you agree?

However I like the lighter ".net" of the very lowest and rightmost bubble on the page. The thicker fonts are just too fuzzy to easily read. So let's swap that out for the lighter one. I've also circled this in red.

I'd say we just pick this one, with those two modifications (half-bar across A, lighter .net font) and make an inverted colors version of that, and then stop trying alternatives.

Then we can try it out on the dev server to see how it look and fits in to the html and CSS. (d3rr, I just restarted the dev server last night and now it's working again after some sort of hardware failure).

Then we can modify more if necessary to get everything to come together. Then we can put it on the main server if it looks good.

[–]JasonCarswell[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Bottom right. I didn't see that coming. Then again I didn't know what you might prefer. I understand it though. The "S" is less aggressive, yet retains its points.

"A" crossbar is easy. I suppose I could have done more variations with more letters. I figured narrowing the dominant width of the "pyramid A" and removing the base for just a chevron "A" was enough not to be a pyramid, but I think you're correct to remove all doubt, not matter how remote - especially when it's so easy to.

I had some other fun ideas about the "A" that I was debating springing on you. Instead I'll tell you and you can tell me if you want to see a version. 1) Imagine the "A" on its side, like it's been knocked over, one side on the ground one foot in the air. 1a) Without the crossbar. 1b) With a crossbar. 2) Same as 1 but with the top section "beheaded" with a small top triangle removed from the rest of the "A" triangle. 2a) The "head" is flipped overlapping the feet of "I" and "D". 2b) The "head" is a pile of rubble at the feet of "I" and "D". 2c) The "head" is a pile of rubble resting on the bottom outline of the speech bubble. All of this is fun, perhaps good for banners about toppling power or for T-shirts - but I don't recommend it for a standard logo.

The top-left "D" is extended but the angles are different. I'll present several versions.

There is no res for a SVG but I take your meaning on the .net . And on reflection the exclamation point is not the point, though a clever device, the important part is that it says .net . It definitely needs tuning.

Being a SVG scalable vector graphic you can make it any size without compromising quality.