We’re almost a year old, and when we reach that age we want everything about us to look as cool as possible (You know, cos it doesn’t help when they judge us only by what we say 
) For this reason we’re updating our look.
But before we get to giving our website the makeover it deserves (it’s more than just a meetup announcement site now, thank you very much), we began with the soul of our look: the logo.
click image to view full size
It’s in the final stages of polishing, but before we make it official, we wanted to hear what you thought about it:
- Can you read it?
- Does it look good?
- Does it capture the essence of being a Filipino Freethinker?
Your comments and insights are appreciated. (Bonus question: Can you figure out all the symbolism we crammed into that thing? Hint: There’s more meaning in there than the Bible!)
could we change the color (or just a different shade) of the "THINK" in freeTHINKers?? so that it could really catch the eyes of the viewer?
I like it. Cheers to you for this new logo! Need no more words to understand it.
I like it. Congratulations for this new logo! It speaks for itself.
This is a really good logo, kudos to the guys who made it. As I see it, the logo is neat, fun, and fresh-looking. That perfectly resembles how I see freethinking to be not merely reactionary (anti-theist, anti-church, anti-everything) but proactive (pursuing knowledge and truths, loving life despite, and perhaps in spite of, the absence of an afterlife). Now this may be too biased (sorry, moderate speaking here), but Red solves that bias by making the Is in "filipino" flameless and dotless, attacking the absence of reason in the masses.
I really think this represents us a lot. Great job, woot!
@wes: yup, told you
@taroogs: from my earlier comment:
…
You will also notice that the Is in “filipino” have no dots, and the I of “freethinker” not only has a dot but is a flame. At first we did this to “clean up the clutter,” as AnnThrop also commented. The fi of “filipino” just looks dirty with the dot, and so do the other dots. Some, Frank and Gerald prefer the dots be put back, while others, like AnnThrop and Tin, prefer it out.
I see reasons for and against dots, but what tipped me over to the dotless side was the symbolism: Filipinos are not only flameless (no courage to reason) but dotless (no reason to begin with), and they need Freethinkers to regain their lost flames/dots. (Just thought of this now: Those three dotless Is represent reason, science, and doubting/courage to question. If we spread freethought not only can we help others get their wicks back but help light them as well.)
i like it.
just one question, though. why are the "i"s in "filipino" not dotted — unlike the one in "freethinkers"?
ur right about the candles, tried photoshopping a variant on that, it came out looking like a dang birthday cake, hehe
@ksw: if we do print another tshirt for our next event, we'll be sure to reserve one for you
@wes: We do have several versions of the logo on different backgrounds (black, gradient, one where the colors are inversed, etc.) This is the most basic form though, so it's what I showed you first.
Making every i a candle doesn't work (we tried). And it takes away emphasis from that one lit candle in the word.
About smoothening the top of ff: I like keeping them individual fs because making them big would just make one fat f. and again, that much modification is cheating in my book
@rhey seuss: thanks!
@joma: in times of peace, when a flag is vertical, blue is on the left.
@wes: the sun would overpower and repeat the theme of the candle, plus with the flag colors adding a sun would be too cliche
@francis: first of all, consider a username change, it's too hard to type/say/remember
And yeah, go free! But, really, I have nothing against HELLvetica, it's just that in this case, Arial wins.
how about putting a rising half-sun behind the "ff"?
red should be on the left?
I liked how the space framed by the two f's formed the lilkeness of a lit candle, the symbolism of which is easily apparent.
My initial issues concerned the logo's thick black outline and the dotless i's also. However, I was convinced by your very sound explanations.
Kudos! Can't think of how the logo could still be improved right now. (Its just that flashes of Captain America when I look at it . . . )
By the way, to those Helvetica fans, know this:
Helvetica and Arial are just a fart away. That is, every letter is practically identical, except f, a, r, t, G, Q, R, and 1.
In our case only f, r, and t concern us. And in all three instances, the difference is in favor of Arial. The fs form a better candle flame, the t has more style (perfect for when we use "think" in a campaign), and the r connects better with e and s (on Helvetica it's like they don't want to be next to each other).
Don't get me wrong. I like Helvetica, too. But their difference for me is way exaggerated. Plus, think about this: If you're on Windows, Helvetica is an expensive font. Arial is free
looks neat!!!! i like it!
@mikong: yup, too much.
@pecier: we have tried it without the black border, and it's just so much better with it. Without it the ff logo looks like its floating, unrelated to the word next to it.
@ako si gundam: the blue on black did indeed present a problem, which is why we made the blue lighter. I'm not worried about rules on heraldry though. For instance our ffff logo was really attractive on our black tshirt because of it. Even in design we do not bend to any authority
@frank: thanks for updating the gallery
seeing it that small convinces me more to leave the dots out. In the word filipino, there is now a white hole above the first i, enclosed by F and L, which nicely emphasizes the absence of a dot.
Plus it's clear now that the flame has more emphasis when it has no other dots to contend with (in addition to being so much cleaner, overall). And that no one ever complained that they misread filipino because of its dotlessness, or was even bothered by the absence, should be a good sign.
@all: thanks for sharing your insights, keep 'em coming
Me likey! Someone already said in the email group that it reminded him of Sagan's "Candle in the Dark" reference in his book "A Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark"… I agree with that…
Ah, welcome back AnnThrop!
I've updated the gallery to show the current FF images, plus the new proposal above. And to show a comparison, I also included a version with the I's in "filipino" dotted.
I like the FF and the candle as a logo.
more suggestions:
what if we inversed? black background and the "filipino freethinker" in white like the original logo? it would help strengthen the concept of light in the darkness. we also wouldn't need to outline the FF in black borders anymore, still looks kinda weird at first glance. and the candle colors would be consistent for the FF and the spelled-out freethinker so people would get the iconology faster.
or make every "i" a candle? one candle for each category – atheist, agnostic, deist, humanist? (skeptic seems kinda cynical a label)
and we could smoothen the FF's tops so the entire outline could form a bigger "F" to symbolize unity in diversity, different shades of belief-unbelief all under the banner of freethinker.
The new logo look good on my "a new t-shirt"?!?!?! I want it now!
@Igme: the cleverness of the candle comes from its being formed by regular, unmodified letters. If we used shapes that would be cheating. Plus the Fs of the logo reflect the ones used in the word, tying the two together.
how about exploring 'F" like shapes instead of an actual Font
Rule of heraldry, Red. No color on color, no metal on metal. The rule's been around for millenia aad it still works. Hope it helps.
Yeah, go free Arial!
Especially for us guys who use Linux…. 
I guess now it's ok to give out the symbols we consciously put in there. If you find any others, let me know:
Julius (infolibertarian) got the gold on his first try, and on the first comment. You should have added a spoiler alert! "candle and flame to me… symbolizes our aim to spread the light of Reason to Filipinos."
Let me add that the black border is necessary, as a light is more useful in darkness (Sagan's Candle in the Dark), and we need to show that we ARE still in the dark. And aesthetically, it integrates the logo with the word. And this logo works best with Arial. (We have tried Helvetica, promise.)
By the way, to those who haven't seen it yet, there are two candles: one between the two Fs in the logo (that's not an i, that's a candle), the other in i of the word "freethinkers."
You will also notice that the Is in "filipino" have no dots, and the I of "freethinker" not only has a dot but is a flame. At first we did this to "clean up the clutter," as AnnThrop also commented. The fi of "filipino" just looks dirty with the dot, and so do the other dots. Some, Frank and Gerald prefer the dots be put back, while others, like AnnThrop and Tin, prefer it out.
I see reasons for and against dots, but what tipped me over to the dotless side was the symbolism: Filipinos are not only flameless (no courage to reason) but dotless (no reason to begin with), and they need Freethinkers to regain their lost flames/dots. (Just thought of this now: Those three dotless Is represent reason, science, and doubting/courage to question. If we spread freethought not only can we help others get their wicks back but help light them as well.)
The flag colors are a no brainer (Sorry Benj, no choice on the yellow). Lastly, and this was already put in the original logo, the Fs indeed are crosses — only bent.
It's also interesting that half of those I asked didn't see the candle on their first look. But once they see it, they can't not see it. Kind of like Reason
I like the fact that the f's look like crosses with tops bowing down.
I agree with Carlo, though on more aesthetic and less symbolic grounds, that the black border around the two f's should be diminished if not entirely removed.
I like the ff part. The blue part's on the left, does that mean we're at peace right now? hehe
The full text part on the right hmm. Frank says he prefers dots? It didn't really bother me, until it was mentioned. Not sure what I prefer. How about making the i on freethinkers also be a white candle (with black border of course otherwise it would disappear on white background) or is it too much?
1. Yes, I can read it.
2. It's nice already but I would prefer it to be in Helvetica too:) Also, I would prefer the logo NOT to have a black outline. Having the thick black outline seem to suggest 'bordered' or 'closed'. We want to highlight – 'free'. The 'f' in the logo seems to be an resemble a cross? Well maybe, that's just me…
3. Colors are good already
I agree with Cat, I also prefer the freethinkers to be more highlighted…
forgot to place link.
1. Yup.
2. Arial on logo works. I'm too biased to want to spell it out in Helvetica.
3. I don't really care much about racial distinctions, but the primary colors is enough to hint at the group's geographical location.
Prefer the freethinkers part be the primary word of focus.
That's just what I think.
I would dot the i's on Filipino. Symbolism-wise, I think the flame on Freethinkers suffices. The missing dots on Filipino, while intended to mean something, takes attention away from the flame, which is framed nicely by "think".
The yellow and the white part looks like a candle and flame to me. To me it symbolizes our aim to spread the light of Reason to Filipinos.
I like the cleverness of the graphical logo but my quick first impression of the logo is that it looks somewhat like the christian cross because of the arms of the f's. Something about the double humps formed by the arches of the f's also bother me, I'd experiment with flattening the top maybe?
Will the old logo still be around in some capacity? It's not quite as eye catching as the new logo but there's something warm about the old logo that I like. Maybe update it a bit since it also looks a little boring at full size, it looks more interesting smaller possibly because its so symmetrical.
sakit sa mata nung yellow – but i guess that's just me. haha
Reminds me of Science network's 'candle in the dark' slogan, taken from Carl Sagan.
1. Can you read it? – Yes I can.
2. Does it look good? – Damn straight.
3. Does it capture the essence of being a Filipino Freethinker? – That's a lot to capture I must say, but I think it does its job quite well.
Some thoughts:
- With the final logo, you might want to add a touch of gradient to the background, then turn the 'i' in 'freethinkers' to a white candle, just like the 'i' stuck between the 2 fs. It adds to a more web2.0-ish look.
- The 'f' reminds me of facebook.
I'll add more when something else hits me.