Wikipedia logo
The logo of Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia, depicts an unfinished puzzle globe—some jigsaw pieces are missing at the top—each inscribed with a glyph from a different writing system.
[2][3] In January 2001, Jimmy Wales used the flag of the United States as a placeholder logo for Wikipedia's UseModWiki instance.
It utilized the fisheye effect to make the text appear to be wrapped onto a sphere, leaving only part of it readable.
I never could quite see the reasonableness of this immemorial law: subjects there are, no doubt, which are in their essence too serious to admit of any lightness of treatment – but I cannot recognise Geometry as one of them.
Nevertheless it will, I trust, be found that I have permitted myself a glimpse of the comic side of things only at fitting seasons, when the tired reader might well crave a moment's breathing-space, and not on any occasion where it could endanger the continuity of the line of argument.In November 2001, Wikipedia users began suggesting new logos for the website.
[6] The logo included the quote, taken from Thomas Hobbes's 1651 book Leviathan, from chapter VI of part I, placed within the circle and distorted by the fisheye effect.
[6] The text used for the logo was (visible text in bold): Desire to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man: so that man is distinguished, not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion from other animals; in whom the appetite of food, and other pleasures of sense, by predominance, take away the care of knowing causes; which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.As the logo utilized text in English language, its usage was not favored by other-language versions of Wikipedia.
[12][13] After a two-stage voting process, a design by Paul Stansifer, at the time known under username Paullusmagnus, won with considerable support.
[13] The logo included 16 characters from 16 different writing scripts, many of which—but not all, chosen to represent due to their similarity to letter W from English language, as in the name Wikipedia.
[14] For the new logo, the Wikimedia Foundation defined which characters appear on the "hidden" puzzle pieces, and had a three-dimensional computer model of the globe created to allow the generation of other views.
To provide the traditional appearance of the Wikipedia "W", a "crossed" W was added as an OpenType variant to the Linux Libertine font.
In 2009, the Wikimedia Foundation had put a 3D printed sign depicting a half of the Wikipedia globe, in its headquarters in San Francisco, California, United States.
The monument depicts four nude figures holding aloft a globe based on the Wikipedia logo, reaching over two metres (6 ft 7 in) up, made out of the fiber and resin.
[23][24][25][26] On 29 September 2017, the sculpture of the logo of Wikipedia was submerged to the bottom of Lake Sevan in Armenia, to form an artificial reef.
