Hi, all – Jeff Warren here, OSHWA board vice president.
You’ve probably been aware of the ongoing process by OSHWA to develop a certification program, with community input. Now we need to develop a graphic mark — the actual logo which would appear on Open Source Hardware objects, products, packaging, circuit boards, and documentation — by the end of March/early April. In light of that, today we’re making a call for ideas for what this might look like! We’ll keep an eye open here for 2 weeks, and announce next steps shortly afterward.
Note that this is NOT replacing the Open Source Hardware mark folks have been using — it’s a new certification mark, indicating that your project is part of the upcoming OSHWA certification program. Think of it like a “fair trade” or “certified organic” mark — extra assurance that the project really is open source hardware. A mark you can trust, because OSHWA won’t allow its use if you don’t comply with the Open Source Hardware Definition! It should be:
- easy to distinguish from the existing “open source hardware” mark
- not like the OSI logo (no gears, keyholes in gears)
- monochrome-friendly (it’ll have to be printed on circuit boards)
- simple enough to read at ~¼ inch ~3mm, & ideally even smaller
- consider space for a unique identifier, useable in a URL (say, up to 5 characters)
Not this mark — a new one! But this illustration posted by Windell Oskay nicely shows how the mark will need to be legible at varying sizes.
Post your ideas in the comments — please embed images so people can easily scan through them.
Please note! OSHWA may incorporate ideas or use complete submitted logos for the OSHWA open hardware certification. That means that by participating you are agreeing to transfer all rights in the design to OSHWA. Why do we need the rights? In order to control the logo and the terms of the certification, we need to control the rights connected to the logo. We understand that arrangement won’t work for everyone, but it is the only way we can make sure the logo does what it is supposed to do.
Update: So, in response to some comments here and on the OSHWA discuss list, the nature of trademark is that we can’t re-use elements from someone else’s trademark, especially in a similar field. So although I see the draw of basing ours off of CC, for example, that would not make for a good mark, legally speaking. And in general, to avoid confusion, I think it’s best if it’s *quite distinct* from other marks, including the gear logo referenced in the post.
Re: embedding images, sorry, for the time being, please just link to images, and we’ll work something out soon.