Draft CUTwC logos

This was a work-in-progress which led to the current semi-official logos page. The content here is retained for historical interest and the contrary.

I've been having a think about modernising the logo. I'm fond of the Pot Rampant, but it doesn't work all that well when you scale it down (it's more complex than it needs to be, the motion lines are frankly not very good, and the distant wink takes up a lot of space that makes the pot unidentifiably tiny), and there's nothing about it that actually identifies it with CUTwC (as opposed to any other winks club), so I wanted to try to work in some Cambridge Blue or some text. Here are some drafts ("they're not draughts, they're tiddlywinks"); feedback is welcome. I'm not sure they work, or at least need refinement. Animated logos are also in this year; if we decide on one, I could do something with it. See also a previous selection of candidate ETwA logos.

If this wasn't obvious: large (visible) version on the left, tiny (as seen in your icon bar) versions on the right; random wittering in the middle.

Logos that have been used historically, for reference
	The traditional (colourised) Pot Rampant. Not really "Cambridge", wastes quite a bit of space as the size reduces, so it's hard to see what it's supposed to be. Note the actual favicon (icon in the title bar of browser tabs) is squared off a bit.
	The traditional Pot Rampant. Not really "Cambridge", wastes quite a bit of space as the size reduces.
	Historical logo. Wastes quite a bit of space as the size reduces. Thin lines are apparently in. Looks more like a power station cooling tower than a pot (given the vintage, this may have been deliberate).
	Historical logo. Wastes quite a bit of space as the size reduces.
Redrawn pots (simplified, using gradients)
	Nearest to Pot Rampant and looks the most like a wink being potted, but the contrast isn't great as size reduces. I'm told gradients are currently in.
	Potting away from ourselves to improve the contrast - it looks a bit like the Apple logo if you squint.
	Inverting it so we can have a Cambridge Blue pot.
	Trying without the background, which lets it be bigger. Too simple?
	Accurate pot colour. Disappearing wink?
	Trying some transparency (probably not contrasty enough).
	Hideous colours...
	Trying a mix.
	Another mix - might lose the Cambridge Blue at small size and the yellow on a light background.

By popular demand, the same with the wink on the left
	Potting away from ourselves to improve the contrast - it looks a bit like the Apple logo if you squint.
	Inverting it so we can have a Cambridge Blue pot.
	Trying without the background, which lets it be bigger. Too simple?
	Accurate pot colour. Disappearing wink?
	Trying some transparency (probably not contrasty enough).
	Hideous colours...
	Trying a mix.
	Another mix - might lose the Cambridge Blue at small size and the yellow on a light background.

Text-based (etc.) logos
	Text logos with negative space are apparently in this year. Helpfully the monochrome conversion is trivial.
	Similar but with a less weird T. This seems to have some traction among those who expressed an opinion, at least for some uses, so I've promoted it to the main CUTwC page.
	Blue disappears less than yellow at a small size, but also interferes with the text more...
	Squarer version for favicons.
	Squarer version with a less weird T for favicons.
	Squarer version with a less weird T for favicons.
	Apparently custom fonts and geometric designs are in too, even if it's a bit like a graffiti tag (or, according to Steph, a chameleon). The excessive ligature looks a bit like Arabic script, though, and the "U" might be too clever. (The pot is, of course, the correct dimensions, but may not be clever enough - the problem is that any thinner and it doesn't look like a pot, and you lose the "W" when it's fat.)
	Trying the custom font and geometric logo theme again. No winks imagery other than circles and no association with Cambridge (unless it's coloured), though, and it looks a bit like 1980s BBC styling (think Open University), even if it's reasonably legible at small sizes.
	Same thing in colour. Which is somewhere between stained glass and graffiti. Larger I quite like it, but it loses legibility as it shrinks. (More accurate wink colours have much too much contrast between RGB and yellow.)
	Trying to be stylised with simpler lettering...
	Even more simplified, with something that looks more like a letter T. A bit low contrast when it's small.
	A somewhat more contrasty version of that.
	Derived from a proposed ETwA logo: - too subtle? (Also Safari filters weirdly, which would need debugging.)
	Borrowed proposed ETwA logo that only I like. Doesn't particularly say CUTwC (unless we append "CUTwC" to it) though, and it's a little weird shrunk down.
	I'd hoped this would work out better, even without the "CU", but I drew it, so here it is.
	Slightly better in 3D, but things often are, and it's less flexible; currently lacking a "CU" Cambridge connection too.
	Retrofitted with some Cambridge Blue. Sadly kills the shape a bit, at least at a small size. We could be responsive and lose the blue just for the smallest version... Update: I realised that a Cambridge blue glow (implemented as a drop shadow) kind of works. It also arguably looks like a "history" icon - I noted "it works on several levels", and was then morally obliged to use it on the web site. The CUTwC text logo is an inconvenient shape for that; they probably both have their uses. I feel a little bad that it lacks the direct connection with the text logo of the "Tw" variant ("T-pot"?) though.
	Flat 2D, but now with the geometry of the 3D version (ish).
	An idea from 2023. Highly stylised, possibly too clever for it's own good with the "C.U."?.

Conclusion

For now, the text version seems vaguely popular, so that's made it onto the "The Club" page for suitable uses. A modified version of the "wink pot" with a Cambridge Blue glow seems to work in some places too, so that also has made its way to the Club page in various forms. Expect more churn.