Logo / identity design
on April 21st, 2010, by Ton
Hi everyone,
Here’s another call for community involvement… we need a good quality text+logo for the film. We checked on some initial ideas, like the Sintel text in the header here, combining it with the main symbol in the film, the dragon tree emblem. But it didn’t work out well. I also think a 3D extruded logo is too easy and cheap. We can do better!
Here’s the simple briefing:
- Design a 2D stylized logo, which fits well on film posters (on top of graphics), on a DVD cover, but also on tee shirts. The logo should have at least the text “Sintel”, optionally with other visual elements. Font type and capitalization is free.
- Deliver the logo in SVG vector format (use Inkscape!).
- Use the open project forum for posting designs and for reviews! Do not mail me!
- You will keep all rights on the designs you publish, but you agree to transfer copyright to Blender Foundation if we choose your design.
- On april 28th we might make and announce a choice, maybe later.
Check the Big Buck Bunny logo for example. It’s a strong visual that works in many situations very well. The ‘flat’ 2D nature of the logo makes it stand out well on top of 3D graphics as well.
What’s not going to be used:
– 3D extruded logos or text
– Designs that have the Blender logo in it, or versions of the Blender logo, or something resembling any other logo!
Reviews will be done by everyone of the Durian team, here. Colin’s and David’s opinions weight a lot, and I will make the final decision. The designer we select will get a prominent credit, and a free Blender Conference ticket + dinner and three nights in a good hotel in Amsterdam!
Thanks,
-Ton-
(BTW: there’s a teaser/trailer being worked on now, that’s why the short deadline…)
April 21st, 2010 at 5:37 pm
phuu … so I missed the news that “Sintel inside” definately is the movie-name of project durian. Bad bad bad choice imho, but dont want to slow you guys down with discussions about that, more important stuff to do for all of us. Name’s fixed, so go for it! Run run run!
April 21st, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Hey nice, i didn’t know the BBB page is still being updated.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Wait, a teaser/trailer? That will end my thirst!
Oh, and have fun making them logos!
April 21st, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Can we get a higher rez version the the dragon tree emblem?
April 21st, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Felix: Sintel is the name writer Martin Lodewijk gave to the film. For me his contribution is quite more relevant than the (for some apparently unfortunate?) CPU manufacturer link.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Is there a repository of concept art for the film? I’d like a reference of the dragon.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:56 pm
When I first heard the name of the movie, I must admit I thought it sounded like some sort of heavily pro-AMD documentary in the style of that 9/11 conspiracy film.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:56 pm
The emblem link got fixed now.
The big dragon is still being textured/sculpted. You can find a reasonable accurate image in the gallery here.
April 21st, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Perfect, thanks on both counts!
April 21st, 2010 at 6:20 pm
Maybe at the end of the Credits ”Sintel, rendered on Intel”
Sounds funny AND it’s true!
Designers: MAKE SOMETHING NICE!
April 21st, 2010 at 6:35 pm
use inkscape… so no illustrator?
April 21st, 2010 at 6:37 pm
That doesn’t matter, I think, but they want you to export your final result in Inkscape, right?
April 21st, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Man, if anything comes to mind, I might want to try making a logo.
Unfortunately, I’d have to turn down most of the prizes if I got it.
In my opinion, thought, I think the Sintel logo on this entry is pretty fine already.
April 21st, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Martin chose the name as Sintel means ‘cinder’ or maybe ‘ember’ in dutch =)
April 21st, 2010 at 6:50 pm
“Sintel” is piece of glowing coal or metal. It glows brightly, burns, and then becomes ashes…
April 21st, 2010 at 6:59 pm
Sintel = intel + S
April 21st, 2010 at 7:03 pm
“It glows brightly, burns, and then becomes ashes…”
Kind of like my career then?
April 21st, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Ooooooo. Now that makes the the name of the film that much cooler. Is that also supposed to reflect the story line of the film? I guess I will have to wait to find out! Good luck to those who are going to work on the design.
April 21st, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Hi guys,
Great job you’ve done thusfar. Fun at work is definetly important and from previous blogposts I can see you have no lack of that.
I have got a question about this challenge.
How many colors can the logo exist of? Since you’re going to print tees, should it have a black version as well?
thanks in advance,
Claus.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:00 pm
sINTEL inside
April 21st, 2010 at 8:15 pm
I think Sintel is just fine, although the English variant
or Ember would be fine with me too.
April 21st, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Sin+Intellegence=smart bad girl
April 21st, 2010 at 9:09 pm
It’s nice, but if David is there to valid, he could make it himself!
As he has defined the style of the movie, it seems logical.
Hold on about the trailer, i think it’s too early, morever the dragon isn’t even completed according to Ton.
Take your time!
April 21st, 2010 at 9:19 pm
“You will keep all rights on the designs you publish, but you agree to transfer copyright to Blender Foundation if we choose your design.”
This sounds contradictory – copyright transfer (as opposed to a licence) does mean you do not keep the rights…
April 21st, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Huh: U keep moral rights that are inalienable.
April 21st, 2010 at 9:56 pm
@endi:
Ton should inmediately make a sticker for the Renderfarm!
April 21st, 2010 at 10:01 pm
I was wait for this opportunity….
I was think of a scene right for starting… and its also gives a reason to “Sintel” to look back ( as shown in 1st min ) .
it is just 3-4 sec scene (as i think..)
ok i will try….
-Aman b
April 21st, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Huh: To me it sounds perfectly logical, though it could probably have been written a bit differently to make it easier to understand. As far as I understand it the text says that you keep all rights on the designs you publish, i.e. post in the forum topic linked above, but if/when they choose to use your proposed design the copyright is transferred to the Blender Foundation.
April 21st, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Interesting… I’ll see if I can come up with something visually nice.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:59 am
Hey guys! is it alright if I post every once in a while your updates on my website? I just wanna inform the others about the production of the movie..
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:49 am
Huh: Feneur is right. Everyone will keep all rights for the designs they post here, but each also should agree on transfering rights to BF when it gets choosen.
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:40 am
@blendNmix: quoting :”It’s nice, but if David is there to valid, he could make it himself!”
… I’m busy right now with 4K matte-painting remotely aside of my freelances jobs , I’m not in the B.I. since December, for your information. I just visit one week from time to time, and work remotely on doing paint-overs, matte-painting. I already worked with the few time I had on some titles, but they can be better for sure :
You can find all my work on title on this zip file;
http://download.blender.org/durian/Sintel-title.zip
@JD yep it’s alright
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:11 am
And if on conference the person does not go?
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:36 am
I see you want a SVG file, but what about using Illustrator and exporting to SVG? Or do you want Inkscape to be used because all Sintel content shall be open source? For 2D work I prefer the whole Adobe Creative Suite so I’d like to contribute but with Illustrator of course.
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:51 am
@ScottKelly,
I believe one of the goals of project Durian is to use only open-source tools, so I that means “no illustrator”, unless Adobe wants to graciously release the source.
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:58 am
is it also allowed to make the logo in blender by making a flat mesh and rendering it ortographic? I have an idea for the logo but I have no idea how to do this in inkscape
by doing it in blender it will also be possible to render in different image sizes.
well if not i guess i’l just have to spend a day or so to learn the software
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Anyone thourght of making the dragon emblem into a collectable item, maybe 3ed printed? I hope I can finish mine soon. Is there any due date that they need to be in by, like, before April 28th? or does it have to be done by say the 26th or something like that? And do we have to use Inkscape, because like @Andreas Galster, I would prefer to use the Adobe Creative Suite fo rthis type of design work.
@Deevad: thanks for all the stuff! I really like the emblem, made me what to get it 3d printed!
Can’t wait till the trailer comes out! and the DVD! 4-box set sounds nice.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Ah, I get it: you only give the rights if the Durian team chooses your version.
Thanks, it all makes sense now
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Inkscape as Gimp, Blender and many other open source softwares is really powerfull. I can hardly imagine that a function is missing to create a Sintel professional looking logo with Inkscape.
Moreover if we have a look at the most famous existing logos, we’ll quickly realise that all of them could have been created with the very first release of any vector software, or?
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:33 pm
get this :
http://www.blender3d.org/e-shop/product_info_n.php?products_id=122
Have a marathon watching all the great tutorials/advice and then design the logo.
( Got mine this week, hope to get some time for it saterday :_) )
You could also use blender and render an HD version and then use the “trace bitmap” function in Inkscape
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Hi,
I really wanted to get to work, but then I saw the proposals by dave76… absolute amazing!
http://nick-bueltge.de/sintel/
Go Durian!
Alex
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:01 pm
That’s great !
I will participate to his contest ! I couldn’t participate to 3D ones, but this one….
I love Blender, thank you very much Ton (and the Blender Intitute people), for all the work done and for involving the comunity.
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Andreas: You like Adobe CS, we don’t care. Inkscape is enough advanced to produce a professional logo or other vector illustrations!
If you can’t, should ask yourself why.
Damn, i’m afraid about some people when i read their comments! How old are you?
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:28 pm
So uh… We know it’s supposed to be a super short deadline… but we don’t have a date?
Please Mr Rosendaal, I can haz deadline?
Thankyou!
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Yay! Can’t wait to see the teaser! :d
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:20 pm
@Blendiac:
“On april 28th we might make and announce a choice, maybe later.”
So try to finish it before april 28th.
April 22nd, 2010 at 10:04 pm
@blendNmix:
how old are you?
April 23rd, 2010 at 1:06 am
@skop, fantastic entry there. It’d be awesome if your spear blade could make it into the actual film.
April 23rd, 2010 at 1:59 am
@tomas, colin did state during the model sprint that it was ok to use photoshop but preferred to use gimp. So I was wondering if it was the same situation here.
April 23rd, 2010 at 3:53 am
As an Adobe user from way back (need to in the biz), I was a bit skeptical about Inkscape but aside from a few weak points (doesn’t handle tablet input all that well, some missing Bezier tools), it’s nonetheless a fairly capable vector app. Anyone with AI skillz should pick it up quick.
That being said I think it’d be a shame to reject a good design because it didn’t flow out of an Open Source app — it’s the artist that counts here, folks, not the software.
There’s also the notion that the dentistry of donated equines shouldn’t be too closely inspected…
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:26 am
hi, may i know whats the font use in the current text logo of sintel thanks
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:27 am
or is it something that’s been made manually?
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:36 am
At all: you are free to use any software you prefer for the design of the logo, but you should deliver it in .svg format. At least here in the studio we exclusively use free/open software for the film, and externals who submit 3D should have used Blender for it exclusively too.
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:55 am
My instincts tell me that we have a winner.
http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=78574
Valentijn’s first Sintel logo hits the mark; it is simply exquisite! I’m not even going to bother with mine.
April 23rd, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Personally i would find it easier to use the adobe software, but cmon, its good to stay fresh and try different softwares for different things, people should want to embrace the open source nature of the film, the blender foundation is giving so much, give a little back in return!
April 23rd, 2010 at 4:40 pm
This is a great way to contribute to the Durian project. I’ll see if I can get something done before the deadline!
April 24th, 2010 at 5:36 am
Is it possible to get the Durian fruit logo in vector file?
I was thinking in use it somehow.
April 24th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Whoa just checked out the project page there are some great entries, picking one is going to be tough! Great job!
April 25th, 2010 at 3:28 am
Hi ! good works people!!! this is going to be a hard competition! :S
here’s my proposal: http://web12.twitpic.com/img/91065856-7e8ce761a4c1af913ed01dfe0f5c4b22.4bd39a21-full.png
April 25th, 2010 at 4:04 am
oops, broken link…
here’s again, hope the server can handle the clicks :S
http://www.pablolizardo.com.ar/tmp/preview-logo-sintel.png
April 25th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
@D: I think you are right. His first one is very simple, yet detailed and I think it would be perfect for the logo.
@Ton: would the winner who wins the tickets and all that, does it incluse plane tickets? I would guess not. Is my guess right?
April 26th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Everyone with something in his head knowns the nature of Blender Foudation, the development of a free open source software. Ton and all the guys in the foundation , are working for us for free! And some people come here to speak about ” proprietary software embargo”, or ” the subliminar Intel propaganda”.If Ton paid for us to use Blender, someone would say: ” can you pay more? “.In my country we say that if you give a hand, they will want the arm.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Nice logo Pablo, keep that coming!
April 26th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
My version.
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=2942
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=2943
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=2944
April 26th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Hi
Good idea.
But I do not know if you know that your logo looks too much the logo of the tree of Gondor.
http://www.istarimedia.com/ringsgeek/images/White%20Tree%20of%20Gondor.jpg
April 27th, 2010 at 9:46 am
My version.
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=2942
April 27th, 2010 at 9:47 am
and more.
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=2944 ,
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=2943
April 27th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
Finally added mine to the lot: http://jeff.ecchi.ca/portefolio/Logos/Sintel/
April 27th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
I can’t design a logo for something that says ‘Sintel’. My artistic instinct screams, “This name sucks balls!” The name ‘Sintel’ itself is anti-art. I mean… you know that don’t you? Have you ever heard of a movie called ‘Mintel’, ‘Pintel’ or ‘Bintel’? The answer is ‘no’, because such a name would suck balls. I hope your not planning to put this on a T-shirt, because ‘Motorola’ would look better. My comments might come across as offensive, but the FACT remains that ‘Sintel’ sucks as a movie title. I’m sure I’m not the only one that groaned when I saw this name. I’m sure the people who work on the movie are gifted artists, but a stupid name detracts so much from their efforts. I don’t know how the team can live with a name like this. If I met someone that worked on this project I wouldn’t feel awestruck- I would feel pity. Hell, take a page from Disney and call it something stupid like ‘Night of the Dragon’ or something super awesome like ‘Talons of Malatar’. But’Sintel’? Really? Is that the best name that you can come up with?
April 27th, 2010 at 11:24 pm
@Johan: I’m pretty sure you’re the first person that I’ve come across that doesn’t like the name. I don’t think its half bad at all. Can you come up with better?
April 28th, 2010 at 10:45 am
Johan is not so wrong….. Sintel was only a working title after all, as you can see here:
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1682/titleq.jpg
post blog
http://durian.blender.org/news/revealed-title-character-design-and-1st-minute/
but somehow it turned out to become the definitive title… I agree, not the best choice. It’s good for a character, not so good for a movie.
April 28th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
I think the @ johan’s “artistic instinct” could make him refuse to work in a design to a animation called ” UP “. Where in the hell could such stupid named animation make any success ?
April 29th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
@Johan.
You say it sucks from the biased angle of your own culture and beliefs on what you perceive as fitting. Surely if you have an ounce of art inyou, you should appreciate that naming of a film, book or anything artistic is not solely determined by its content or potrayal.
Personally,I like Sintel and I would hear rather your instinct carry on screaming as loud as it so wishes.
April 29th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I agree with Johan actually. It’s definitely not the best name in the world. But what makes it even harder to make the design is the fact that we really don’t know all too much about what the actual feel of the movie is, I mean sure we know it has a dragon in it and a couple bad guys but it’s hard to design something when you only know half the story.
@ Sávio Pedro
“UP” was actually a very good title there’s nothing wrong with it (fantastic movie aswell). It’s something people say possibly every day so it kinda just rolls off the tongue, but “Sintel” is name we have never really heard in our lives so it’s hard to get used to and to be honest it kinda makes you not want to tell people about it.
Unlike Johan I did actually make an effort however to do up design for Sintel, It could be better but from what i know about the movie it’s all i could come up with.
It can be found here:
http://sites.google.com/site/robertyoungspeed/Sintel.jpg
May 2nd, 2010 at 2:11 am
@Rob
In my country (Brazil ) we don’t speak “Up ” every day. And Sintel seems to be a word of a dutch language. And Up is the more beautiful animation I ever seen. One thing that don’t works in this world anymore is irony.
May 9th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Just remembered I posted this comment- here’s my response.
@ScottKelly: Yeah I can. Give me five minutes and a pencil.
@Sávio Pedro: ‘Up’ is corny, but a step up from ‘Cars’. I’m sure some people pointed out every day that they were not up to working on ‘Up’.
@munhu :Yeah, biased by my Dutch heritage. ‘Sintel’ doesn’t work in Dutch either.
Thanks for the feedback everyone, but I think I’ll stick to my original position that ‘Sintel’ is an epic fail for a movie name. Mmmmm…maybe the new logo will prove me wrong.
PS: Just saw the new logo. It didn’t.
May 9th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Agree with Johan. They should have taken the suggestion that was posted in the logo submissions and called the movie SYNDEL which sounds more like an ancient legend instead of a technology brand.