Redesigning the PHP logo – who wants ?

The current PHP logo is a really lovely one, it is highly accepted and has its own charme, transports a history and a feeling. The logo clearly communicates what’s going on, it does the job. But: It has a common problem most once-small-now-big brands have: The brand becomes huge and professional, the visual identity stays amateur. Have a look on the current state of the logo at Google Images.

The logo has not been built by experts, sure, because the people behind PHP are not logo designers. The visual identity of a brand is much more important than you think, and creating a logo is much more difficult and more complex than most people can imagine. It’s a profession.

The logo breaks several design guidelines, is unsuited for print processes, hard to scale and in general not the most beautiful thing. In the process of making PHP more modern, more accepted and more professional, it might be useful to create an modernized version of the current logo.

Therefore I’ve created the php-logo repository on GitHub a few weeks ago. The goal of this project is NOT to create a new logo, it’s more about making the current logo professional. I would like to find experts in logo creation / (re)branding who are connected with PHP or web development in general, and therefore are cool with the idea – and the lack of any payment.

Goals of the php-logo project

1. Helping (!) the official PHP crew with professional brand identity guidance
2. Finding PHP-related design/brand experts who supervise the visual identity of PHP
3. Creating a professional, modernized version of the current PHP logo
4. OPTIONAL: Centralize and professionalize the Look & Feel of PHP

Rules of the project

1. Respect the current logo! The goal is NOT to create a totally new logo or branding, the goal is to guide the current one into 2014, respecting the history of PHP, respecting the brand, the community and the overall identity.
2. This is an unoffical project, but if the results are good, they will hopefully be accepted by Rasmus Lerdorf, PHP.net and the community in general.
3. Please commit only if you are a design professional and you know the details of professional logo creation.
4. This is a non-commercial project. Nobody gets money for it.
5. All results (final or in-development) are open-source.
6. The logo repo should fit current print/web/broadcast standards and should contain vector-, pixel- and css-based versions (css-only and icon-fonts).

How does the current logo look like ?

How could the improved version look like ?

Personally i like the reduced-to-the-max attempt. The logo is reduced to the minimal elements needed, while still looking very professional and keeping the original brand font, identity and colour(s). The logo is taken from a sticker/button offered at unixstickers.com, have a look on the site for more PHP stuff. NO affiliate link or similar included. This PHP button is probably the most professional looking PHP logo ever seen anywhere.

Feel free to contribute whatever you like to the project and send the repository link to potential designer candidates.

Thanks :)