My idea would be to have a Python snake encircling a box and leave the content of the box to be a stylized capital P. The P here would represent both the language Python and also the P from the Packaging group/team/authority (whichever we choose to go by). Furthermore, child projects under PyPA could replace the box content with their own sub-logos, e.g. the build tool could put a gear icon into it.
Relevant to the discussion is also The Packaging Platypus. I find the platypus great as an overall logo for Python packaging, but sadly it’s not really reusable for packaging projects and doesn’t translate well as favicon either due to the lower pixel count available in there.
If you’d like, I can reach out to my sister about this to get a quote. She’s a graphic designer with a particular focus on visual branding and logo design, currently working with a company that does design and branding work for scientific and technical companies and organizations.
While unquestionably cute, as an animal the platypus is an evolutionary anomaly, poorly understood, complex and does things differently (e.g. eggs, bill) from what one expects based on all others of its kind (e.g. mammals). While perhaps an accurate description of Python packaging’s past, and arguably present, I’m not sure this fits the long-term vision for the future of the ecosystem.
Also, from a graphic design perspective, the graphic is utterly adorable, but is the lacking the clean, easily-identifiable lines to serve as an icon, and too busy and cluttered to work at smaller sizes, while at larger ones, due to the visual style and flat colors, gives me a little bit of “clip art” vibes.
I agree with your sentiment. Tagging @PSF-Board to see if the PSF would be open to commissioning such design work and subsequently holding the rights to it (as the PyPA is highly coupled with the PSF, I feel that would make the most sense).
I’d also like to see the opinion of other members such as @dustin@pf_moore@pradyunsg so tagging them, hoping they don’t mind
PS. My primary motivation in starting this thread is that I’d like to have a logo for virtualenv, and while looking for commission one I thought perhaps this is a good opportunity to make something that we can reuse as a group.
I don’t have any objection to having a logo. If we’re going to do so, getting someone professional to develop it makes sense to me. So in general I’m +1 on the idea. Having said that, I have a couple of points I’d like to flag up.
Getting something that can be re-used by individual projects is a nice idea, but it is something of a two-edged sword - if we do so, and projects buy into the idea, we have a nice unified “PyPA” brand, but if projects don’t want to use the common logo form, we end up with a fragmented look, which will ultimately confuse users (yes, setuptools is a PyPA project, they just don’t look the same as the rest because they didn’t like the logo…)
Also, if we have a main logo with a space for a project identifier, do we need those identifiers to be professionally/carefully designed to fit in with the main look? And if so, who funds the design of those identifiers?
And one final point, can we find a place for the platypus in any new branding? While it may not work as a logo, it’s cute and I’m fond of it. It would be a shame to lose it in pursuit of some nebulous idea of “being more professional”. (And for the record, I think that the idea that a platypus is an evolutionary anomaly is reading way too much into it - it’s cute and quirky, which seems fine for a language inspired by Monty Python!) Maybe retain it as the “packaging mascot”, with it popping up in documents but not having the status of a full-blown logo?
PS If we’re getting project-specific variants of the main PyPA logo, I’d vote for pip getting one
Regarding icons, would the logo be the same at icon size (16x16 or 32x32) or would it be simplified? Would project-specific logos include the PyPA logo in their icons, or just their flair?
In general, PyPA has no authority to enforce any changes to projects and that’s fine. Even if only 5 projects adopt the new design I think we’re better off, as at least there’s some cohesion as compared to today’s totally free for all. However, I do believe projects will want to adopt the design for appearing more official.
I think so.
I was hoping the PSF would take this on as I don’t think we’re talking about a large sum. Alternatively, some maintainers might support the cost if they wish to do so. Without any expectation to do so though, but I’d be ok to do so for projects I maintain.
I find it hard to make it fit… It’s just too complicated a design for a smaller space such as an icon, but perhaps a designer can change my mind. Alternatively, the flair of the box with Python snake around it might contain internally the platypus as the PyPA logo. Note also that if we put a P in the flair the P can also stand for Platypus besides Python and Packaging.
This would be my suggestion too. We can keep the platypus as the mascot but have something else for logo/icons.
I’d hope to keep it the same but ultimately comes down to the designer if they can make it work.
Sorry, my wording was bad. By “find a place for” I didn’t mean include it in the logo, I simply meant “keep it around as an image associated with Python packaging” - so something like a mascot is what I was getting at.
Question: what would be the suggested approach to the projects that already have a logo (which I guess are: setuptools, flit, pipx, maybe I am forgetting some[1])?
Can we consider the warehouse logo the same as PyPI? ↩︎
By Bernát Gábor via Discussions on Python.org at 29Mar2022 08:26:
I find it hard to make it fit… It’s just too complicated a design for a smaller space such as an icon, but perhaps a designer can change my mind.
Well, we fit a platypus on our 20c coin (a bit bigger than a USA quarter
IIRC). We fit an echidna on our 5c coin (about the size of a USA 5c or
10c IIRC).
A beak, lays eggs, has venomous spurs. What’s not to like?
I will just express my concerns on “reuse” of the modified logo, I don’t know which impacts it can have on trademarks.
As I also expressed in another private thread, I hope that the final deliverable will be a blueprint of how to make the logo, the various colors and dimensions, not just a final jpeg as I have too often seen.
I can assure you that any competent designer would routinely deliver at minimum the source file (e.g. AI), a SVG, and PNGs optimized at at least a few relevant sizes.
To be honest I like the https://pypi.org logo and I would see a simplified version of it as suitable, maybe even a single isometric box that uses the blue/yellow colors. Nothing fancy, we don’t eve have to put python snake-logo on it as it would only add noise to the design, especially when used in small sizes like favicon.
I also think keeping the platypus around as a secondary mascot-type image would be nice. Maybe it’ll end up being something we use more for packaging-wide contributor-focused stuff such as t-shirts, stickers, etc. while the new official logo is better for websites/platforms/etc. that are meant primarily for users and other external folks: the tutorials, favicons, avatars on social media, etc. plus as a default logo for individual projects that don’t have their own.
so tagging them, hoping they don’t mind 
