Wikipedia:Logos and slogans

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Contents 1 Slogans 1.1 Suggested slogans: 2 Logos 2.1 Prehistoric (non)logo 2.2 The original official logo 2.3 The pre-current logo 2.4 The late-comer 2.5 The international effort 2.6 The international contest 3 See also

[edit] Slogans

Wikipedia's semi-official slogan is "the free encyclopedia," which has been translated thus in the following languages:

• Arabic [1] الموسوعة الحرّة
• Belarusian [2] Вольная энцыкляпэдыя
• Bulgarian [3] Свободната енциклопедия
• Chinese [4] ：自由的百科全书
• Czech [5] Otevřená encyklopedie
• Danish [6] Den frie encyklopædi
• Dutch [7] De vrije encyclopedie
• English [8] The Free Encyclopedia
• Esperanto [9] La Libera Enciklopedio
• Finnish [10] Vapaa tietosanakirja
• French [11] L'encyclopédie libre
• German [12] die freie Enzyklopädie
• Greek [13] Η ελεύθερη εγκυκλοπαίδεια
• Hebrew [14] האנציקלופדיה החופשית
• Hungarian [15] A szabad enciklopédia
• Irish [16] An Chiclipéid Shaor
• Italian [17] L'enciclopedia libera
• Icelandic [18] Frjálsa alfræðiorðabókin
• Japanese [19] フリー百科事典
• Kurdish [20] Ensîklopediya azad
• Polish [21] Wolna encyklopedia
• Portuguese [22] A Enciclopédia Livre
• Romanian [23] Enciclopedia Liberă
• Russian [24] Бесплатная энциклопедия OR Свободная энциклопедия
• Serbian [25] Слободна енциклопедија
• Slovenian [26] Prosta enciklopedija
• Spanish [27] La Enciclopedia Libre (note that Enciclopedia Libre is also the name of a forked-off project)
• Swedish [28] Den fria encyklopedin
• Thai [29] สารานุกรมเสรี มากมีความรู้แบ่งปัน หลุดพ้นความสามัญสู่ปัญญาเลิศ
• Turkish [30] Özgür ansiklopedi
• Vietnamese [31] Bách khoa toàn thư mở (formerly Bách khoa tự do)

[edit] Suggested slogans:

• Knowledge Shared
• Out of mediocrity, excellence!
• You can edit this page right now!
• Quality happens.
• Join us in good faith, and watch Wikipedia's future unfold.
• Knowledge through democracy Geneffects 21:50, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
• share your knowledge.

See also m:Wikipedia Motto

[edit] Logos

[edit] Prehistoric (non)logo

On January 15, 2001, Wikipedia's first day of independent existence, Jimbo Wales used the American flag as a temporary Wikipedia logo. It wasn't intended to be permanent. See meta:OldWikiPediaLogo for the old logo discussion.

[edit] The original official logo

Wikipedia's first true logo was an image that was originally submitted as a Nupedia logo. Jimbo thought it would be a much better logo than the flag, and it remained for the next eight months.

[edit] The pre-current logo

In November 2001, Wikipedians began suggesting new logos. A short list of leading candidates was chosen. The winner was the logo contributed by The Cunctator.

The quotation:

Man is distinguished, not only by his reason, but by this singular passion from other animals, which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceeds the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.

Taken from Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, Part I, Chapter VI:

Desire to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man: so that man is distinguished, not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion from other animals; in whom the appetite of food, and other pleasures of sense, by predominance, take away the care of knowing causes; which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.

[edit] The late-comer

After the winning logo was chosen, Mark Ryan designed one in a similar style, but in colour. It was for some time used as the Meta logo.

[edit] The international effort

Because of its English text, this logo was not ideal for the Wikipedias in other languages. Some wikis chose a similar design with text in their own languages (e.g. the Spanish Wikipedia). Others used the English logo but added the color of a national flag (most of the Nordic language projects, Danish, for example) or a translation of "The Free Encyclopedia" (e.g. German). Still other designed a completely different logo (e.g. the French Wikipedia).

[edit] The international contest

An International logo contest was conducted to find a new logo that was suitable for all languages. Paullusmagnus developed the winning Puzzle sphere design. Variants on the final logo were then discussed with Nohat putting forward several options. One of Nohat's variants was chosen as the final product.

[edit] See also

• Wikipedia:Banners and buttons for other Wikipedia graphics