New Logo for Japanese Language & Usage

Question

In the spirit of addressing the beta's Top 7 issues, I thought I'd launch this thread where we can discuss what we want for JLU's logo and hopefully prompt the more artistic-minded among us to post their graphic contributions.

Maybe first, it would be useful to define some general guidelines on what we want and don't want (or is that too "design by committee"?)...

For example:

Overall mood/雰囲気(hunn-iki) ^{New! (See comments to this question)}

• What kind of look will best capture the purpose and spirit of the site? It can be in words or images.
• What do we want it not to look like?

Design elements

• Do we want to any text in it (e.g. "JLU")?
• Do we use kanji (e.g. "日本語"...)?
• Illustrations (e.g. cheesy but typical Hokusai background) or figurative only?
• What about a hinomaru? Too loaded? (Japanese people themselves tend to not be overly fond of its use in public forums)

etc. etc.

Please post any thought you have on this and/or mock-ups if you feel like giving it a try. Although I am no graphic designer, I'll be happy to take a stab at it, to open the way, but would love to hear some opinions first...

Answer 1

Unmistakably Japanese

A pet peeve of mine is chimeras of oriental symbols and elements being presented as oh so Japanese. Even with personal feelings aside, the logo should be easily recognizable as something about genuinely Japanese.

To this end, I suggest using hiragana as much as kanji. Japanese is the only language that uses hiragana, and it will help distinguish JLU from the upcoming Chinese Language & Usage if they ever use kanji in its logo.

Real world usage: えそら.cc (esora.cc), a Q&A site providing human translation for Japanese and English, also uses hiragana in its logo.

To further develop what Japanese-ness about, I say the logo/banner should be modest, with care for the small and beautiful details.

I always liked how the English Language & Usage site carries the feeling of good old literature in an undertone and its sparse yet effective use of curlicues. (Surprisingly?) this is in line with how I think about what a Japanese touch is.

Additionally, Ōkami the game is a great work of visual art that recreates the ancient times of Japan. I think it'll be overkill if you blindly pull in all the elements, but it's a good source of inspiration.

Traditional Japanese colors

How about choosing the color palette from the traditional colors of Japan. They give a good selection of subdued, modest looking colors and also vivid and elegant ones.

Amanda's example images show how these colors are used.

Answer 2

Vote up if you are against the use of faux-Oriental style English script as part of the website styling.

Answer 3

What about incorporating patterns from chiyogami or yuuzen? That way we avoid clichéd symbols while still giving the site a very Japanese feel.

Examples:

The site background could be a more subtle white/off-white paper pattern, like this:

Answer 4

Icon suggestion

Use a single Hiragana as the site icon.

Example: medium icon:

..as seen on StackExchange - All Network Sites.

Example: small icon:

..as seen on StackExchange - Top Network Sites (see the right-hand column).

Letter candidates:

• あ
  • pros: hopefully easily recognizable, as being the first letter of hiragana.
  • cons:
• ゑ
  • pros: looks cool
  • cons: archaic
• ふ
  • pros: resembles a J (for "Japanese" in some fonts)
  • cons:

Answer 5

The other answers to this question are okay, I guess. However, all of them (except one) have a common problem: There aren't any bunnies in them.

Unless I'm very much mistaken, the full name of this Stack Exchange site is "Japanese Language and Usagi" (i.e. bunny rabbits), yet only four results are found when I search for ウサギ on the main JLU site (and one of those is simply an answer to another result).

This anti-rabbit bias is also evident here on Meta; Questioner attempted to redress the balance with a very nice, rabbit-inclusive logo suggestion, only to be met with excuses like "I'm not entirely sure it would work as a general logo" and "a small version would be unrecognisable". Excuses, excuses - admit it, you just don't like fluffy bunny rabbits.

Well, I'm not standing for it. As far as I'm concerned, any potential logo suggestions should include both Japanese Language and Usagi, in order to be fully representative of what this site is all about. I'm no artist, but I've attempted to create something that I think covers both aspects equally:

Given that the favicon image needs to be 16x16 pixels in size, I've also had a go at creating a pixel-art version:

Answer 6

What about the ※ symbol? It's clean, simple, Japanese, and is used to mark helpful information.

Edit: A couple of mockups (imagine whatever color scheme you like):

Answer 7

How about something with a moon bunny?

I don't know why... I just like moon bunnies. And I'm just trying to brainstorm about something outside of the usual hinomaru, Mount Fuji, and sakura schtick, but still with a Japanese reference.

(I know the whole moon bunny thing is also in Chinese and Korean cultures, but I don't think in such a way that evoke reference to those cultures moreso than Japan.)

Answer 8

Another idea: if people like the look of the current site, what about something that looks like genkou youshi for the background? The Japanese name of the site could even be written down the right-hand side.

Answer 9

I was playing around in Inkscape over lunch today and came up with this:

Kind of going for the simple, abstract style you see on prefectural and municipal flags. Too abstract, maybe?

EDIT: Another quick sketch, this time going for an inkan style with 日語用法 for "Japanese Language & Usage" (replacement kanji welcomed).

Slightly bolder font:

Answer 10

Two small variations on the theme opened by @Derek above:

They are not particularly better (Derek's calligraphy font, in particular, is much nicer), but ideas for small variations on the main theme (rather than working only in text descriptions)...

Also, same at a much smaller icon-like size:

Answer 11

As a thought, what kind of cliche motifs are used in China, Korea, and possibly other parts of Asia to indicate Japan apart from its neighbours. I noticed a couple of things occurred in Chinese restaurants in Korea and Japan and wondered what the reverse might be.

I see that several responses have already clearly addressed the issue of similarity from the western perspective between Japanese/Korean/Chinese motifs but this answer might be a good place to gather ideas based on that.

Answer 12

Maybe something along the lines of 桜 (cherry blossoms), its iconized pictures, or 門松 (decorated pine).

Answer 13

What about に, short for 日本.

I made this with a calm desireable colour scheme. If you don't like the colour scheme or simplistic style, then ignore that. The idea was に as the logo.

Answer 14

I tend to like the current thing, as it give a studious feeling, and would rather appreciate if the cultural clichés could be avoided (such as Hokusai and Hinomaru).

For the logo, I believe you're talking about what currently is "Japanese Language & Usage^{beta}" at the top under the SE banner. I like it this way too, but "日本語及び日本語使用方法" or something like that too could be interesting. However, I would then have the whole site in Japanese too (can this be set up on a per-user basis?) in order to avoid the "yeah we have the knowledge of kanjis, we're so l33t".

Edit: image based on Amanda S' idea.