I’m about to get on a plane back to warm Phoenix (I don’t know how you people live with freezing temperatures), and I’m trying to get back on top of my email/rss feeds. I did see that Google created a new category in the table of contents called “Geographic Web” in Google Earth (and turned on by default). The name is a very poor choice, but that is a topic for another day. I’ll admit I never use Panoramio, so this was the first time I’ve seen the logo in months but I did notice that it looked very similar to another logo out there.
Panoramio updated their logo back in October so I’m not sure what the logo looked like before as I can’t find it. Now this could all be a coincidence as the process of developing the logo seems innocuous. One might say it is natural to have a compass with a “geo” site, but the similarity has to make some in the open source community a little disappointed. Of course this is the second time Google Earth has been involved with using a logo similar to OSGeo so maybe deep down everyone just loves it.
Update - There is a similar discussion on Geowanking.
18 Comments
Try a Google Image Search with the two words LOGO and COMPASS for some perspective on the topic.
Looks like NATO’s logo to me !
That is so stolen. I don’t care what you say James, Google stole that logo from OSGeo.
I don’t know Mike, those two logos look very much alike. With the tilt, the green, the same small marketplace. I did a google search and no two compass logos look as similar as these two.
I think James is correct, it is just a coincidence, but I thought the same thing when I first saw it.
Hi,
I’m one of the guys behind Panoramio. I don’t both logos that similar, but maybe I’m too biased.
Mike’s article is very clear, but I also published an article some months ago with more sketches. The article is Spanish, but the sketches of every phase at the end of the article are self explicative.
Eduardo
I’m not sure what to say. One has to wonder though that one wasn’t influenced by the other.
I don’t think there is any confusion because most people don’t have a clue what OSGeo is.
Again with the Google Earth hating James.
You are just a hack.
Hi guys,
Just to give me a little more info on the creation of the logo, the basic motif of the logo was chosen by Eduardo & myself from a list of sketches done by Mike.
Mike wanted it without any tilt at all, I suggested to make it a little bit tilted, induced by the look of the Safari compass, and we then played with possibility of using two arms or only one (we discarted the one arm version because it looked too much as a cat’s eye).
Now, my personal opinion is that it looks closer to the NATO logo than the OSGeo logo (that neither Eduardo, Mike or me knew back then). In fact I’m amazed some people may find them to be “close”, once you factor out that both are based on a compass.
If someone from the OSGeo team wants to take a look at our emails when we discussed the logo just let me know.
Best regards,
I confess–I have a compass-type symbol on my business card that came from an ESRI font set, plus a globe in my company’s logo: don’t tell the trademark police.
BT
I’ve already posted a like to a blog where the designer shows the progression. As I said I think it was developed independent, but you can’t ignore the similarities.
@ BT
Which North Arrow did you use, “Not to scale” or “ESRI”?
For what is worth, we didn’t updated the logo on october as this blog post claims.
The main page of Panoramio was redesigned last october, the logo has remained the same one since we started Panoramio, circa october last year.
Cheers,
@Joaquín Cuenca Abela
Fair enough, I’ve made the change. The blog posting that I saw seemed to imply that the logo was changed in October, but I assume now it was just the web design.
With more than 3300 compass-based registered trademarks at the USPTO, it seems odd that a discussion of Panoramio’s logo would be phrased as “OSGeo vs. Panoramio”; OSGeo is clearly not the center of the trademark universe any more than it is the center of the GIS universe. In fact, searching the USPTO website for any registered marks of OSGeo.org has yet to show a result. (It does show that the new FAA logo uses a four-point compass, but without the steering wheel horn button in the center that makes the OSGeo logo so different from the others.)
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=doc&state=uv2ecr.3.95
OSGeo not the center of the GIS universe?!?! Who is? Manifold?
Michael,
FAA and OSGeo are apples and oranges. OSGeo and Panoramio are more like Granny Smith and Fuji apples especially when Google Earth is involved.
James, interesting topic and commentary by your readers. As the designer on the Panoramio logo, I can confirm that my very first sketches of a 4 sided compass idea were done on September 18/19th. Here’s a link to the first loose set of sketches:
http://www.makalumedia.com/projects/panoramio/panoramio-sketch.01.jpg
Further, I can state without a doubt that I have not seen the OSGeo Logo before today — so I can confirm that it’s indeed a coincidence.
One thing to note also is that the compass icon used in the Panoramio logo is integrated into the words, replacing the first O, rather than appearing as a separate icon to the left of the type. We felt this helped make the mark more unique, as well as more compact.
In this area, I think it’s pretty natural to explore the idea of a stylized compass, since it immediate connects what the product or service is about.
If you have other questions, just let me know.
Thanks for the info Mike.