Sam posted about the new Jive logo a couple of weeks ago. I promised myself I’d post something more in depth but let myself forget about it. Then I saw this post over at 37signals and it reminded me how much I love how-they-did-its.

Sam’s already done a great job of explaining why we went with a new logo:

The “Bullhorn” didn’t represent collaboration as much as it did an individual voice. And it certainly didn’t match the new product logos and corporate identity. We hired a designer to help us back then but it didn’t result in anything we loved. It was just a painful experience and we decided to table it and concentrate on Clearspace. That behind us now, we embarced on re-addressing Jive’s logo a few months ago.

I’d like to add that the timing was great. We were already consdiering a new website, new marketing materials and even possibly a new booth. If we were going to change the logo it was sort of now or never.

We immediately went to Raja. He was a complete rockstar on several of our current product and website logos, including Clearspace and Ignite Realtime. Raja brought along Mike Erickson to help us out. At the beginning the one thing that was clear was that we really wanted to focus on a text-only treatment. We wanted to let the products retain the more icon-like marks and to make Jive more of an all encompassing emblem. We also suggested that it might be good to remove Software from the logo. Everyone refers to us as Jive. We call ourselves Jive. Why bang it over everyone’s heads that we create software?

Raja and Mike immediately began taking stabs at it. Our first direction was more of a take on “infinite unity” with a few simpler take on a stylized Jive inside a container.

This one we really liked at first but but never could get past the sporty, Nike-ness of it.

There were a few that were interesting but perhaps a bit too bizarre and others that just didn’t make the cut:

We saw a ton of options:

Eventually we saw something with some potential. It was a bit too whimsical at first, but Raja and Mike had stumbled upon something we really liked. We loved the flow of the inner line, how it created the dots for the J and I. We also liked the dimension created because the line didn’t cut completely through the V. Almost like whatever was cutting the logo apart was going behind it.

We went through several variations, until after a late night I stumbled into this idea. It had the feel that we wanted. Large, bold, concrete, energetic, and with the right balance of enterprise-class business and hip technology company.

Of course just because I was close didn’t mean we were there yet. Raja and Mike spent plenty of time correcting the kerning and letter weight. We explored a multitude of different typefaces until we had altered things so much it was pretty much our own. We bounced ideas around internally, sometimes quite heatedly. John (dude, get a blog already!) pointed out that the swoop was a bit too much of a “comet” crashing down to the ground. To emphasize growth he flipped that frown upside down, which made a subtle but quite impactful difference.

Color was a particularly hard decision for me. I really loved the green and blue. In the end I finally relented when I realized my feelings were more ego-driven than logical. Finally we decided on what we have today. A logo that looks great on pretty much any color background you throw at it. Its an equal balance of sophistication and energy with a tone that speaks to both business and technology.

I’m incredibly proud of all the work we did. Huge thanks to everyone who helped. So far it has been a huge success. I’ve been surprised at how quickly it has been adopted and its finally starting to feel like us again.

If you’re still reading then you might be interested in a little pixel-love I eeked out for the unveiling of the new logo. It’s a Jive wallpaper at 1600x1200. Enjoy!

Here is a little glimpse of the new website we are working on for Jive. We’ve been going for a few months now and have been through 5 or 6 major revisions with a multitude of variations. Slowly but surely we’re getting there. I can’t wait to launch it. Mad props to Kalani for all his help. We’ve also brought in Josh and David to help us kick even more ass.

I’m proud to announce that the new identity for XMPP / Jabber is here! My friend Raja has done a stellar job creating the new mark. He really knows how to combine color and style into an effective logo. Of course it doesn’t hurt that I’m a sucker for a green-blue-orange combo. My own personal tastes aside, this new mark does a great job of conveying a much needed official face for the XMPP Standards Foundation. It’s great to see the amount of attention and appreciation that design is getting in the engineering-centric world of open protocols and open-source software.

I cornered Matt Tucker (our CTO and a huge advocate of XMPP) about the logo as soon as I saw it. He explained that the XMPP foundation needed to stand apart from the rest of the crowd. There is a tradition in the open-source/open-protocol realm where most logos are only afterthoughts (no offence IETF). XMPP/Jabber is a bit different from others in that they have a more structured and controlled standards body and wanted an identity to reflect that. Being an open protocol, they wanted the logo to feel open in nature. They also wanted something colorful. Jabber, Peter Saint-Andre’s parrot, provided inspiration in both the colors and the general wing-like shape.

I really think Raja’s done a great job conveying all of these ideas, while creating a mark that meets the many subtle requirements that go into logo design. It has a distinct silhouette. It is in part both an X and a J. It works equally well in black or white. There is a lot of movement, conveying the idea of communication. Can’t wait to show you guys what he’s been doing with us on the new Jive logo.

As a designer I never thought I would nerd-out on such a thing as an open messaging and presence protocol. As far as I knew, gremlins snuck into my computer and Pony Expressed them through some magical realm to suddenly appear on the screens of my friends and co-workers. Matt, Gato, David and the rest of the RTC team here at Jive has changed that. It’s great to see a bit of a design love given to those who make such magic happen.

Can’t wait to see what we can do with the XMPP website.

So tonight, around 10:15pm, a bouncing baby logo was born. Jive Software will soon be unveiling a new logo and holy cow, I can hardly wait. Sam and I have spent the better part of 3 months toiling away on a new Jive identity. As you can imagine it was full of frustration, irritation and pain. At the same time it has been the best identity design experience I’ve ever been a part of.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Never before have I worked for a company that so values disruption. I’ve never had a boss that not only tolerated but truly valued my nature to pick and poke at just about every idea or thought. And trust me. I poke a lot. There are no sacred cows at Jive.

And now I am bouncing up and down in my chair, dieing to show it off to everyone. The amount of elation I feel is incredible. Alas, we’ll have to wait until Friday, when the rest of the executive team finally gets to see it. They are going to love it. I can’t wait.