For the uninitiated, last month I produced an unofficial design exploration in an effort to rebrand the Drupal Association’s membership badges. I want to thank those of you who offered feedback and voted in my poll.
It turns out while I was working on my exploration another effort was underway to address Drupal’s subbrands. As of this post, their pairing of the official wordmark with Helvetica Neue Light can be seen gracing the pages of the Drupal Association’s site, among others.
That said, it was obvious that I should recook my exploration to leverage the wordmark as well as Helvetica Neue in an effort to keep in step with the brand.
Almost immediately I begin doing some retrofitting with this in mind. While I focused on the two top vote getters, you will also see I resurrected design 5 from last round and decided to throw in a new treatment.
With no further delay, here are the revisions. For each option I am showing the full family in light and dark treatments for versatility. On that note I have even provided horizontal orientations where the design lent itself to that sort of thing. Again, I’d love to hear your comments. Voting closed but you can review the poll results below:
Design 2b:
As with last round this solution reinterprets the Drupal Icon in a line screen-like graphic made up of smaller drops rather than dots. The concept remains one of a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
Since this concept gradates Drupal blue with each segment’s color I have opted to stay away from the warm tones used on the existing badges. Instead we are using cool and neutral hues, which can work even in process printing.
Typographically it is the first look at a stacked version of an association lockup. While this is not strictly in compliance with the approved headers from a clear-space standpoint, it is optimal compositionally speaking. I would also argue it reads less like “Drupal” “Association” and more like “Drupal Association”.
Design 4b:
Our winner from last round also speaks to community involvement with a wreath of Drupal drops forming a circular badge. Much of the design remains unchanged, as it seemed reasonably well received.
Although I experimented with a wholesale switch to the Helvetica Neue family here I opted to maintain the original typeface for everything except the Association lockup. Unlike the other designs (where the change was made) the cyclical nature of the badge simply works better with the round character of this font.
We are using the existing badge’s color segmentation.
Design 5b:
Yes, this solution was not a huge vote getter last time, but I simply like the visual conceptually and aesthetically. I find that it works nicely with the official wordmark and illustrates one of the Association’s primary mandates… to spread Drupal.
Again, it is a traditional crest, but simplified from its previous incarnation, and again using the new font family and wordmark.
From a color standpoint we are changing things up somewhat from the existing badges both in terms of hue and saturation. Knowing that badges will exist in foreign brand environments I think there is case to be made fro keeping them as minimal as possible. As such or colors are made to feel cooler and more neutral while remaining distinct.
Design 6a:
Our final option is a new entry that speaks to Association's cyclical role of collecting donations and memberships in support of community initiatives. The white arrows visualize this cycle and literally define Drupal's iconic drop.
Here again we are using a variation on the existing badges’ color scheme, and of course the new typography.
Feedback
So there it is folks. Now that we are using the wordmark I hope we can get enough interest and support to propel the process forward. Voting is now closed but you can provide feedback in the comments below... It is the only way to save Fantasia from The Nothing.
Final results can be seen below.
