Clean "forum sized" Barsoom logo needed

[Havard]

A lot of nice logos in this thread

-Havard

[Falconer]

Just a test (not clean):

[Big Mac]

I have to say this…



…is the closest thing to a Barsoom logo in my head. Though if you don’t own that book you might not feel the same way. If there’s any interest, I can work on a clean version.

The problem with novels is that the publisher, rather than the author, usually designs the covers and the covers get rebooted a lot. I found this version of the same book:

To be honest, I do fall in the camp that “John Carter” is a lousy name for the franchise. I don’t know all the details, but from what I know, the Burroughs estate insists on all its licensees using “John Carter” in the title of their products. The books are in the public domain, but the estate owns the trademark “John Carter” and sues the pants off anyone doing anything Barsoom-related. (I think this forum is safe, though!) My point is I think fans can call it whatever they want.

Sure, fans can call it Barsoom or the world of John Carter or anything else. And the forum tag for the topics was "[Barsoom]" and "[Barsoom]" is a better tag than "[John Carter of Mars}" because "John Carter" (let alone "John Carter of Mars") is too long. But if we are going to use the logo from a Barsoom-based roleplaying game, and the roleplaying games have "John Carter" in the name, then it is more logical to go with brand awareness. (This is why I started up another topic: "[Barsoom] How many John Carter of Mars RPGs are there?". That is going to let me get a full list of actual roleplaying games, so we can review the logos of those games and see if any of them have better "brand identity" than the RPG that came out recently.)

FYI: A Google search for "John Carter of Mars" returns 22.5 million results vs 629,000 for a search for "Barsoom".

Anyhoo. Back to logos.

[Big Mac]

Just a test (not clean):

It does look pretty good.

If we switch from John Carter of Mars to Barsoom, we might well go with a cleaned up version of that.

[Big Mac]

And another attempt...

Thanks Angel.

But it looks like you changed the aspect ratio.

Here is a page called Modiphius To Create Games Based on John Carter series of books where they have a big version of the "john Carter of Mars" logo with a plain background.


Would you (or anyone else) be able to get the logo into 90x30 PNG format...while retaining the aspect ratio?

[Angel Tarragon]

At 90x30 this is the best that can be done...

[Yaztromo]

Perhaps a forum sized Barsoom logo could be obtained from this?

[Big Mac]

Perhaps a forum sized Barsoom logo could be obtained from this?

I would prefer to use a logo from a roleplaying product, if possible (as it helps get across the fact that this is a roleplaying forum for Barsoom/John Carter, rather than a generic forum about that world). But if we go for a non-roleplaying product, it does look like A Guide to Barsoom is a popular book.

[Sturm]

I think the one done by Angel is the best option..

[Yaztromo]

So... shall we go with this?

[Tim Baker]

So... shall we go with this?

I like the John Carter of Mars logo from the RPG. However, I don't care of the lack of the "of Mars" portion of the logo in the one that Big Mac found and Angel Tarragon was kind enough to resize. Also, the subtitle "the roleplaying game" is so small, it's illegible.

[Tim Baker]

What do you think of this logo? If the image doesn't come across here, try it at this link.

[Falconer]

Just logging my continued preference for this:



It’s not an official logo, but it’s attractive, easy to read, and economically conveys what it is. It’s the right color palette (sand, red planet, space).

I understand the desire for an “official logo”, especially one associated with a RPG, but the other thing really is pretty generic and not a very good logo for our purposes. As I’ve explained before, “John Carter” is what the Burroughs Estate insists its licensees use, because that’s what they have trademarked. But “Barsoom” is what the gaming community (even on this board, but going back at least as far as the Diplomacy variants scene of the 60s) has always used for gaming on the planet, because it’s about more than just the one character (even in the novels—many of which don’t feature John except as maybe a cameo), it’s got cool flavor, and it’s economical (“Mars” needs a qualifier).

Finally, unlike other worlds which have a long tradition of licensed RPG products (or originating as RPG products), Barsoom has a much different history—almost entirely dominated by fan/homebrew efforts. So I think a departure from the usual policy/preference for official logos can be considered appropriate.

Well, I’ve made my case, but I’m fine with whatever everyone else wants.

EDIT: And, let me add this clarification, for archival reasons and just FWIW: this post was made before a final decision was made, not as a protest against the final decision.

[Yaztromo]

What do you think of this logo? If the image doesn't come across here, try it at this link.

I can see that, eventually, this is the one that was adopted!

[Tim Baker]

Happy I could help the community.

[Big Mac]

What do you think of this logo? If the image doesn't come across here, try it at this link.

Thanks for making that Tim.

It is the first in proportion logo we have from a published RPG for this setting.

(I had a bit of trouble getting it uploaded, so I asked Chimpman to put it up for me, so sorry for not saying so earlier.)

[Sturm]

I like it! Falconer's logo was nice too but I too think the logo of the more recent rpg is more appropriate

[Big Mac]

Just logging my continued preference for this:



It’s not an official logo, but it’s attractive, easy to read, and economically conveys what it is. It’s the right color palette (sand, red planet, space).

I understand the desire for an “official logo”, especially one associated with a RPG, but the other thing really is pretty generic and not a very good logo for our purposes. As I’ve explained before, “John Carter” is what the Burroughs Estate insists its licensees use, because that’s what they have trademarked. But “Barsoom” is what the gaming community (even on this board, but going back at least as far as the Diplomacy variants scene of the 60s) has always used for gaming on the planet, because it’s about more than just the one character (even in the novels—many of which don’t feature John except as maybe a cameo), it’s got cool flavor, and it’s economical (“Mars” needs a qualifier).

Finally, unlike other worlds which have a long tradition of licensed RPG products (or originating as RPG products), Barsoom has a much different history—almost entirely dominated by fan/homebrew efforts. So I think a departure from the usual policy/preference for official logos can be considered appropriate.

Well, I’ve made my case, but I’m fine with whatever everyone else wants.

That's a cool logo and I've tagged plenty of topics with "[Barsoom]" myself, and I tried to find a commercial RPG product with the word Barsoom in the title, but could not.

There is a brand new RPG with "John Carter" in the title and at least one older RPG product with "John Carter" in the title.

While it might be the case that some old school Barsoom fans prefer the name of the planet "Barsoom" over the name of the character "John Carter", The Piazza is not going to get involved in any fan disputes with the Burroughs Estate. What is a major factor in "John Carter" being chosen is brand recognition and there are far more hits on Google for "John Carter" than there are for "Barsoom". It's what the new fans are going to expect to see.

The forum blurb has "Barsoom" in it, to try to ensure that Barsoom fans know they are also welcome, and I've actually started a topic about A Guide to Barsoom, so that people can talk about the cool stuff that specific non-RPG book has in it.

The bottom line is that I wanted to get a Barsoom forum up and running, as soon as possible and that we have a logo that has the most brand recognition for being from a RPG based on the world of Barsoom.

If there had been an OD&D, Classic or AD&D book for Barsoom, things might have gone the other way (because The Piazza was set up as a D&D community). But there wasn't one. So I really have had no other reasonable choice than to go with the logo of the new RPG.

If some fans want to call the setting "Barsoom" that's fine by me. And if people want to talk about old freebies that is great too. The Piazza is a no school community where both old and new stuff can be discussed and I'd like to see classic fans and new fans come together to talk about the setting. The logos on the forum are really only there to make the website look pretty. Nobody is telling you not to like the old school stuff. (I'm going to be a lot more interested in D&D compatible material than 2d20 products myself, as I am a 3e fan.)

We have a logo now (thanks to Tim). Please go write topics about your favourite RPG stuff for Barsoom/John Carter.

[Big Mac]

I like it! Falconer's logo was nice too but I too think the logo of the more recent rpg is more appropriate

If this forum had been set up several years back, as a forum for homebrew rules for Barsoom, that logo totally would have been chosen.

(You can tell I was initially leaning towards "Barsoom" by the name of this topic I started.)

[Tim Baker]

We have a logo now (thanks to Tim). Please go write topics about your favourite RPG stuff for Barsoom/John Carter.

I'm glad I could be of assistance.

[Yaztromo]

Thank you!