And without further ado...
A bit over a month ago, Team XBMC started a mascot contest that resulted in a 49 page thread in our forum, so many amazing Mascot contestants that we had to push back the results to get the best vote we could within the team, and quite a few new avatars and forum signatures. In total, there were more than 100 submissions.
We want to thank all the participants for their art and their ideas, and we hate the fact that we could pick only one winner. But that’s the way of these things. Of those original submissions, the team narrowed down the list to a final round of 10 candidates. From that list, we picked our first, second, and third place submissions.
Without further ado, Team XBMC has selected Zapy by da-anda to be the mascot of XBMC. Congrats da-anda! And Zapy, do you have anything you’d like to say?
Clearly, Zapy is speechless.
As I said, it was a tough vote for Team XBMC. Coming in 2nd place was htpc_guy’s absolutely amazing and versatile dragon. And in 3rd was grumpygamer’s awesomely friendly and sloth.
Da-anda, htpc_guy, and grumpygamer, you will all be contacted soon, if you haven’t been already. Everybody else, once again, thanks for all your hard work. You’ve been amazing.
@Kirk
I agree completely. What is on top of his head?
@mechiah
Seriously? I hadn’t even seen the other pictures of him before I saw this picture in the announcement, but I didn’t have to wonder what they might be. Looked just like hands to me, slapped on his head as if in shock
Wow. Just wow. This is absolute crap. What were you guys thinking? Despite the fact that things don’t need stupid mascots, you had some good entries and decided THIS was marketable? You’ve got to be kidding. Looks like a cross between mickey mouse and the tivo mascot with horrid reuslts. I will make it my mission to strip that logo from wherever it may begin to appear. What a joke guys.
@tacoguy
Until XBMC “just works,” popularity will remain among people who have the time and inclination to poke at it and spend hours upon hours going through forums to find answers, which people mistakenly assume replaces actual documentation.
i think its like the mediaportal thing. nothing that says xbmc. i dont like it, but its ok…
the Sloth should have won. but if i had to choose between Zappy and no mascot. i would choose not to have a mascot in a heartbeat.
Absolutely a step backwards for XBMC
@wmclain
Not really for a mascot but I would like to see it as a new XBMC logo. Very slick!
So long as Zappy does not get integrated into Confluence, I’m OK with it. One of the worst things about MediaPortal was that the mascot (MePo) was integrated into the default skins – it made the interface look childish and unprofessional.
I would have much preferred Joen’s octopus: http://xbmc.exstatic.org/mascots/joen_2.png
Well……… Not sure how I feel. It does seem a bit cartoony, but given the linux and open-source communities history of cartoony mascots it doesn’t seem out of place. Case in point: http://www.eukhost.com/josh/linux-penguin.jpg
Congrats to da-anda!
Really, XBMC? REALLY!? Did you guys let your children vote for you?
I hope this thing doesn’t end up in the actual product, or someone with a clue starts a mascot free fork, because this is seriously THAT bad. Please, listen to your audience before you go through with this
Thanks Wouter.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2765/5784574379_c239550b11_b.jpg
I think a lot of you are overreacting. The mascot looks good, mind you I think the version of him chosen for the post isn’t his best “angle”. He’s obviously not going to be posted all over the website and xbmc skins. The xbmc team is smart, they know people don’t want a cartoon on their tv, but it WOULD go well on some posters, t-shirts, or as a stuffed toy, which may not be for everyone but it certainly won’t detract from the xbmc name.
His name was spelled Zapy in the artwork……is this guy an impostor?
I really love XBMC, and I’m glad that so many people were compelled to spend time in designing and then had the courage to show their work to the world. Congratulations to Da-anda.
Unfortunately, I must add my vote of dissatisfaction to the others here who really feel this mascot doesn’t fit with XBMC. Obviously, it is the XBMC team, who spend their time to make XBMC the awesome product that it is, who should be able to choose their own mascot. But, and I say this as humbly as I possibly can — as a simple, fanatical user of XBMC, I REALLY HATE ZAPPY. He does, as others have pointed out, look like Mr. Tivo. He reminds me of Microsoft’s Clippy (it’s the eyes, I think), and he (or she?) looks ridiculously cartoony and childish.
I will, of course, continue to use and love XBMC, and will continue evangelizing it to my friends and family. But, I really hope Zappy stays exclusively on the web page and does not make any appearance in the XBMC product itself. Sorry.
I must add my support for the anti-Zappy bandwagon. This mascot is childish. If I wanted a media center for kids I’d go an buy a Microsoft product.
Well I didn’t vote so I guess it’s my fault, but I really like the sloth entry
Really agree with this. Seems like such a big step backwards in making XBMC a modern a polished product.
@Elia
Sorry, out of curiosity, in what way do you think Zappy is going to affect the XBMC product? The only product the team makes is the XBMC Media Center, and I don’t recall anyone ever saying Zappy was going to be in the media center itself. Perhaps you could enlighten us?
Not exactly sure why XBMC needs a mascot and I agree, this is a step backwards. You should look at BOXEE for inspiration on something a little more acceptable.
I also add my vote against Zapy and the dragon with the usb tail, there are many good designs as I pointed out before, and I was quite shocked to see many of the good ones ditched in Zapy’s favour.
I understand Zapy is really easy to change, but it DOES really look unprofessional.
I suggest opening a poll and then compare your userbase’s choice with your own and make an average out of it.
Man, this truly is a crappy mascot. Why would you even need one, you got a logo that works just fine. And this guy looks like a bad mixup of disney and nintendo. Oh no wait, it reminds me of that annoying little tell-sell character. Or that vacuum-clean-mascot guy…
PLEASE dont go thru with this, it will just make you guys look bad.
First congrats to the winner, the mascot is well drawn and looks nice, but please do not understand me wrong, I love everything the XBMC team does, I appreciate the hard work you put into the XBMC project and will always respect every decision you do. But my opinion is that this mascot does not fit my understanding of XBMC. For me, XBMC is cool, stylish, modern, technical, progressive but discreet. Zappy is coltish, comic and a bit childish. Imagine Zappy walking through the Aeon skin…
Please do not misunderstand this post and do not get me wrong, this is only my opionion.
Agreed. Some people are in desperately need to get a grip.
I kinda liked the dragon one more but this one is fine.
He kind of reminds me of the character ‘Mike the TV’ from reboot.
Can’t believe how many people are getting all emotional over the mascot. Good choice guys!
Couldn’t we get one of the model girls (wearing the mascotte t-shirts) as a mascotte?
… Zapy looks ok, but lacks charisma.
A lot of overreaction here. It’s a mascot. Personally, I don’t know if it’s the original intent of the mascot, I wouldn’t mind there being a mascot intro-ing xbmc for new users.
Don’t really understand how a mascot is a step backwards, or going in the wrong direction. Has xbmc become closed source? Is Zappy-ence the new default skin? How about a new non-zappy xbmc fork? Get real. How is xbmc for adults-only? Should I be over 18 to use xbmc?
I like the direction xbmc is going. Congrats to the team and the users who participated in the contest.
I too have to agree with the general negative vibe towards the chosen mascot.
Granted, the socks-on-head pose depicted in this post isn’t the best – the other versions of it look better and I appreciate the time and energy that were put into creating it but I don’t think it “feels” XBMC. Looking at it makes you feel like you have seen it elsewhere already plus, as mentioned by others here, it just looks childish.
Green pants? Seriously? Nothing about the mascot says, “XMBC.” The mascot has a TV monitor for a head so it could easily be a mascot for any other media oriented program. The XBMC logo in the top-left of the banner bar is the most recognizable.
This is what happens when programmers and geeks try and make art decisions. I knew the new mascot was going to be awful when I looked at all the “amazing mascot entries” and so many of them were copyright infringements.
Only one was any good, although I knew the sloth would be a lot of people’s favorites due to a certain picture. There were those that were interesting artistically, but made no sense as a mascot (like the octopus). The fish was the only one that worked. It was simple, clean, could be worked into the logo and didn’t look like it was made for a five year old.
@Bob
Complely agree with you and all the other negative comments. I’m assuming Zappy won because all the entree’s were crap…. so it’s the best of the worst. Don’t get me wrong, I do think Zappy is decent, and I see the creativity behind it, but it does not need to be associated with XBMC :(
I think XBMC needs a new logo, new design, perhaps a new name, but not a mascot… or at least none of the ones chosen. Sad to see this day :( Wish some professional designers came in and created one
QFT
Is this what you really was looking for? I love XBMC as a mediacenter, but I think it just got a really childish logo. I really prefer the simple “XBCM” logo letters.
I’m all for community participation and I can respect the effort people put into this contest, but really? I’m no expert in advertising or brand recognition but I know enough to understand that this decision will do nothing good for XBMC’s brand recognition or public image. I feel really bad about all the flack the “winner’s” art work has received but its true… There is no way this type of mascot would have ever been taken seriously even as candidate if qualified professionals were consulted. Mascots are supposed to improve a product’s image and brand recognition and unfortunately this selection does neither. Personally i was more partial to the fish and dragon entries. The dragon entry has a “napster” like vibe that was clean and modular. The simplicity of the design would have made it extremely versatile. The same went for the basic fish design, clean lines and simplicity. I trust the developers because of the amazing work they do to make XBMC a great piece of software but in this they made a big booboo, they should have opened this up to the community and poled (not that the type of people that participate in OSS communities know anything about marketing), I guarantee that the mascot they deemed as the winner would have never been considered. This is just one more example of why software engineers should have nothing to do with product marketing or brand building (this is why ALL big IT firms have PR and marketing departments); software engineers just don’t have the expertise to do good work in this department. At the very least they should have given the final say to active skinners here in the XBMC community, I am confident they would have made a better selection because they understand the importance of esthetic and continuity in relation to visual appeal.
Cheers
Microsoft Clippy ;-) …. Personally, I liked Annie the most as it fit so well with the current logo: http://tinyurl.com/3eg8cds
I’m noticing a certain repetitive use of the word clean. I’d really love to see a few examples of mascots that are similarly “clean.” Maybe it’s the fact that I’m a sports fan or the fact that I’m an OSS fan, but I’ve never personally seen a memorable “clean” mascot before. I am agog to see an example. Specifically, an example that ISN’T a logo. Everyone does understand the difference, right? For example the “fish” was a cute logo, but MUCH more a logo than a mascot.
For reference here are arguably the top 25 mascots of all time.
mascots
Not a lot of “clean” there. Excluding Mr Clean, of course!
XBMC is Open Source software AND free. Why would it ever need something like PR? it IS “public” already…
A lot of you don’t get, that the contest was about a mascot, not about a new logo. Go read the forms, seriously!
I agree in Zapy beeing a little childish, thats why my Octopus/Squid was in the contest (I explained that in the forums – go read it), but it is very well drawn and will work as a mascot. Especially the different poses are what makes it so nice.
Congratulations to Da-anda, htpc_guy, and grumpygamer.
BTW: I would like to release the squid into the ocean of “public domain” – any tips on where to upload the source files (.svg) to?
Great work and I like it.
no disrespect to the chosen winner but I’m totally against such arbitrary logos/mascots, its one thing to use animals that represent a lifestyle i.e. a sloth to represent a couchpotato/tv buff. but what the hell is this?? its like a green tivo icon, which I loathe btw. Sorry I had to express my opinion, again no disrespect. Its not a bad creation, just not one I would use for XBMC.
I really thought this fish logo would win or at least be in the top 3. Zapy looks nice but not for XBMC. Too childish, like others have said. Even Zapy looks surprised to have won. I say revote.
@p-kard
LOL
Terrible choice! I can’t believe you didn’t go with the dragon!
Congrats Da-anda! I would have been very surprised if Zapy hadn’t won!
Congrats Da-anda, no surprise Zapy won! Very polished and versatile design, well done!
stinks
Do you consider the Android android a logo or a mascot or both ?
I though the fish work in both situations, that’s why I kept it flat looking (and because I also lack the skill to make it look more detailed and lively)
I’m happy for the creator of zapy. It’s awesome to be recognized and win a mascotte contest, but this design really doesn’t show any thought on design philosophy. I don’t see it being very versitile, and it doesn’t reflect the design standards of the many great themes that XBMC has to offer.
Xbmc please think twice before using it!
Hmmm as I said in the thread… to me its all a bit “Gary the no trash cougar” Family guy… dont really do mascots, but well in to the winner.
I’ll stick with my grown up Xbox.. oopps.. did I say that out loud!!? :o) just kiddin
@Wmclain
I have to admit, my statement should be construed as me (and nobody else) talking in that quote. Several devs agreed that the fish worked both ways and quite a few expressed a desire for it to win.
Also, just so you know, cute was pretty much the entire goal of the process, so when I say the fish was cute, I mean that in a good way. My point is only that logos definitely need to be clean. Mascots do not. I apologize for catching you in the crossfire of my irritation at what I believe to be an incorrect belief among the complainers.