Wikipedia:Logos and slogans

Slogans

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

Arabic ^* الموسوعة الحرّة
Belarusian ^* Вольная энцыкляпэдыя
Bulgarian ^* Свободната енциклопедия
Chinese ^* ：自由的百科全书
Czech ^* Otevřená encyklopedie
Danish ^* Den frie encyklopædi
Dutch ^* De vrije encyclopedie
English ^* The Free Encyclopedia
Esperanto ^* La Libera Enciklopedio
French ^* L'encyclopédie libre
German ^* die freie Enzyklopädie
Greek ^* Η ελεύθερη εγκυκλοπαίδεια
Hebrew ^* האנציקלופדיה החופשית
Hungarian ^* A szabad enciklopédia
Irish ^* An Chiclipéid Shaor
Italian ^* L'enciclopedia libera
Icelandic ^* Frjálsa alfræðiorðabókin
Japanese ^* フリー百科事典
Kurdish ^* Ensîklopediya azad
Polish ^* Wolna encyklopedia
Portuguese ^* A Enciclopédia Livre
Romanian ^* Enciclopedia Liberă
Serbian ^* Слободна енциклопедија
Slovenian ^* Prosta enciklopedija
Spanish ^* La Enciclopedia Libre (note that Enciclopedia Libre is also the name of a forked-off project)
Swedish ^* Den fria encyklopedin
Thai ^* สารานุกรมเสรี มากมีความรู้แบ่งปัน หลุดพ้นความสามัญสู่ปัญญาเลิศ
Turkish ^* Özgür ansiklopedi
Vietnamese ^* Bách khoa toàn thư mở (formerly Bách khoa tự do)

Others suggested slogans are:

Knowledge Shared
Out of mediocrity, excellence!
You can edit this page right now!
Quality happens.

Logos

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 OldWikiPediaLogo for the old logo discussion.

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.

The pre-current logo

In November 2001, Wikipedians began Logo suggestions. A Logo suggestions/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.

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.

The international effort

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

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. Final logo variants on the final logo were then discussed with Nohat putting forward several options. One of Final logo variants/Nohat was chosen as the final product.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Wikipedia:Logos and slogans