Rebranding WordCamp Central

[hugobaeta]

With work being done on a ​Android WordCamp app, the developer requested an app icon. In ​#events on slack, there was a discussion about it, that eventually resulted in a conversation about redesigning the WordCamp Central identity. This is not an urgent matter, by any means, but something that is worth documenting here.

The current website was designed by @chexee a few years ago and it has served the community well. Structurally there's nothing wrong with it, but with the evolution of the WordPress brand (and the recent documentation of foundational aspects of the WordPress brand in the new ​Design Handbook) the design could use a refresh in an effort to bring it closer to the rest of the WordPress universe (namely colors and typography).

@cameronbarrett took on the task to make the App icon, but in conversation we realized this could be a much broader project. So we started talking about direction for this rebranding and the most popular concept was the idea of a camp fire: Fire representing the sparking of ideas, and the association of a camp fire with conversations and discussion. We believe this is a great metaphor for WordCamps.

In a quick research we found two incredibly inspiring and well design illustrations that represent this idea well, the identity for ​WordCamp Atlanta 2013 and ​WordCamp Denver 2015 - These could serve as a great starting point for a WordCamp Central mark.

​Typography and ​Colors should be covered by the Design Handbook foundations.

Discussion around this can continue on this ticket!

[jenmylo]

I have long wished for a logo/mark separate from the W. That said, there are a number of things to consider here:

• Trademark. Both our existing one for WordCamp and the trademarks of others that use that kind of iconography/illustration like ​https://campfirenow.com/ should be considered. If we change the branding, we could be reducing our right to enforce the trademark since the W logo with the WordCamp logo type is described in the trademark paperwork, and we would want to make sure that whatever we do we retain the ability to protect the trademark.
• We've been having conversations for a while now around focusing more on Community as a label for wordcamps/meetups/all events in between vs having multiple "Central"s, etc. and are about to start combining the processes around administration. So it would be good for any new direction to take that into consideration and be usable for meetups as well, since the lines between a long meetup and a short wordcamp have been getting thinner and thinner.
• Any talk about rebranding should involve Matt Mullenweg.

[hugobaeta]

Replying to jenmylo:

Excellent points @jenmylo. Let me try to understand a couple of things better:

• Trademark. If we change the branding, we could be reducing our right to enforce the trademark since the W logo with the WordCamp logo type is described in the trademark paperwork, and we would want to make sure that whatever we do we retain the ability to protect the trademark.

So, what does this mean in practical terms? Do we need to maintain the use of the WordPress "W" mark along with "WordCamp" wordmark to protect the trademark? Does this exclude the possible route of a separate branding from the W? (fine either way, just important to understand the constraints here)

• We've been having conversations for a while now around focusing more on Community as a label for wordcamps/meetups/all events in between vs having multiple "Central"s, etc. and are about to start combining the processes around administration.

So, a new "W Community" brand? This is interesting, and would definitely put rebranding WordCamp Central in the back burner... Would be happy to be part of that discussion - specially if branding is involved - if you can point me to it!

• Any talk about rebranding should involve Matt Mullenweg.

Once there's something more concrete, I'd be happy to ping him if he doesn't pick this up in the mean time.

[hugobaeta]

In the meantime, since we need an ​app icon for the Android WordCamp App, I'd like to go with using ​the existing tickets dashicon as the icon for it, unless anyone opposes to it :)

[chexee]

I love how the brand is developing. I know I worked on this design, but I am more than happy to see it get updated!

[cameronbarrett]

I think the key issue to answer is whether the WordCamp branding and logo should be a derivative or the W mark, incorporate it, or be its own stand-alone mark.

The benefit of it being a stand-alone mark is that it can then be incorporated into the hundreds of WordCamp logos designed for the various WordCamps.

Hugo and I were having these conversations in Slack and we're opening it up for more discussion and more community input.

I think for simplicity's sake, we need to define the official WordCamp logo/mark as a stand-alone mark that is stylized enough that it can be incorporated into other WordCamp logos. Both Hugo and I were very drawn to the following logos:

---

I'm not necessarily advocating the following direction (displayed below) but wanted to show the work I've been doing and get some feedback from the community, as well as some ideas of how to simplify this work, redirect it, and build consensus on how to proceed with refinement.

As an App icon:

More iterations:

Template for incorporating a location:

---

So, the feedback on the above so far is:

• Too busy
• Complicated
• Doesn't work too well for adding to WordCamp logos
• Needs to be simplified
• Probably shouldn't have the W mark (that's usually incorporated into WordCamp logos in a variety of unique ways)
• Love the Denver, Asheville and Atlanta logo. Simple: campfire, tent, etc.

[iandunn]

Those images aren't showing up for me; were they uploaded in a private conversation? If so, I think Slack will only reveal the files to the users in that conversation.

[cameronbarrett]

Sorry about that. I put these images in my DropBox and updated the links.

[jenmylo]

The meta trac is where we deal with issues that affect the wordpress.org and wordcamp.org sites; it is not really the best place to discuss trademark issues or changing a legally registered trademark. Talking about the icon for an app is appropriate (and i agreed with @hugobaeta about using the camptix icon since that is standard to the sites), but redefining the trademark is outside the scope of meta trac and would sit with the Wordpress Foundation board.

Either way, we are going to be changing how the foundation and WordCamps are related before the start of 2016, and how community is represented on wordpress.org/wordcamp.org, so this thread should probably be put on hold until the new entities are announced and Matt has decided how they'll be named, and the community team has worked out (in conjunction with meta, once we have figured out the needed scope from a community perspective) where things will live. As we move toward a plan for a central hub for all local communities (WCs and meetups and all the other local events that fall under different categories), keeping WordCamp Central as a name at all may change. We should hear some news on the creation of the new entity before the end of the year, and it will be posted on make.wordpress.org/community, where we'll start discussing ramifications and any work that needs to be done to realign things as needed.

As an aside, trac is considered a development tool, while discussions about WordCamp policies and general direction for the wordcamp.org setup overall happen on the make.wordpress.org/community blog (the team that runs all WordCamp stuff). Most of that community team doesn't watch for tickets on the bug tracker, since it's not something we've used for policy discussion.

[karmatosed]

The design team is working through meta issues and this one would be great to know more about. For example, is this something still wanting to be worked on?

[dryanpress]

@karmatosed I'd be more than happy to contribute some dev hours to this following design feedback/plan!

[iandunn]

In the last bug scrub we decided to close this for now, since there isn't anything actionable for the Meta team.

Discussion can still happen on the p2 post, within the Design team, etc; and we can reopen (or start a GitHub project, or whatever) when it's ready for development.