A new logo for Lichess

People allow their desire to show appreciation to stifle constructive criticism. That's not healthy for anyone. It's as easy as saying man, I appreciate your free and excellent website but this new idea is bad and here's why.

[Cross-posting this from the Lichess Feedback forum for visibility. Thanks.]

Oof. This is a painful observation to make: I think the logo committee didn't select the right design, probably because the "Eureka!" moment came too late in the process.

I went through the whole logo thread on Github referenced by @Thibault, and here's what I found.

1. The discussion was protracted and is a textbook example of the problem of doing graphic design by committee. What almost always happens is there are so many different ideas, so many preferences, and so many pet peeves, that the signal-to-noise ratio makes it difficult to distinguish good design from bad. One user has a strong opinion that the logo must be a rook (because rooks show strength and stability); another user insists it must be a knight; yet another thinks both pieces should be used as a happy compromise; et cetera, et cetera. (I'm not trying to accurately summarize the discussion with these examples; just trying to convey the atmosphere of design-by-committee.)

2. The designer, @sadsnake1, was doing everything he could to accommodate as many users as possible. Two days ago, sadsnake1 posted a final, last design option. It appears the committee, at that point, had already decided to move on an earlier option. The final design is a knight with wings, which immediately suggest free or freedom -- which is the whole idea of Lichess -- and which also echo the wings the website uses to denote patrons.

It is the clear "Eureka!" moment of the design process but it doesn't look like it's being implemented. Ow. As I say, this is painful to witness.

Here is the final design of sadsnake1. If at all possible, I urge the committee to reconsider. I think they got a bit lost in the forest of options that preceded this last, best, brilliant choice.

Here's the logo I'm talking about:



I can live with the fortune cookie horse, which I grade a solid B. But this last design knocks it out of the park and is an unmistakable A. It's simple, clear, and captures the essence of what Lichess is all about. Thoughts?

@GSP0113

I'm not a fan of the new logo, but it really doesn't matter enough to me to care one way or the other. Not crazy about the logo you posted either. That one looks like a deformed swan to me.

@Crapablanca64 LOL re: the "deformed swan" comment. Well, just goes to show that you can't please everyone, I guess. Thanks for the response.

@GSP0113 That one is soooooooo much better. If people worry about it looking like a swan perhaps it could be tweaked a little but the basic idea is there.
Giving it wings would really put Lichess' own unique stamp on it, while keeping the knight that we are all so familiar with. Pity, they seem to have already closed the door on this.

@GSP0113 What thread on github was referenced by Thibault?

@President_DonaldDuck Thanks for the feedback. We agree. The knight with wings is such a perfect design choice that it has an air of inevitability to it. As I stated, I really think it was the "Eureka!" moment of the whole process.

Here's the thread on Github:
github.com/ornicar/lila/issues/5680

Thanks for the link. That thread seems to join the conversation in the middle since the very first comment from sadsnake is "i would go with the lilac color and with 2 knights". Do you know where the conversation began? Perhaps it was on their IRC and that was the first forum posting?

I know what you mean about "air of inevitability", because the politics or psychology that led to the current logo being chosen are ephemeral and will become less important with time but the fact that it is infinitely better will remain. We can only hope.

@President_DonaldDuck Unfortunately, I don't know where the conversation started.

We must be on the same wavelength. I was thinking that if the committee doesn't reconsider, it's more or less inevitable that a horse with wings will become the Lichess logo a few years from now when the website's look and design are updated. I'd much rather see the design embraced now. But getting a team to reconsider a decision that's already been made is a tall order.

Edit: Oh, one quick observation. @Thibault was calling the new logo "the Freedom Horse." Clearly, he thinks freedom should be central to the design. If you compare the current logo, what I'm calling the "fortune cookie horse," with the horse with wings, there is simply no question of which horse is, or ought to be, a "Freedom Horse."

Some, no doubt, would note that a horse with wings was already done by the ancient Greeks in the form of Pegasus. I did a quick bit of research on Pegasus, and it only helps the case. Pegasus, who was considered emblematic of both freedom and power, was tamed with the help of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, and was used by Bellerophon in combat. How perfect is that?

Yep, harder than getting a super tanker to reverse course. It can be done but it's prolly gonna take a long time.