Kristjan Jansen Interaction designer and social activist. Contact: kika at trip.ee

I was recently asked to bring back memories of early Drupal history, especially the birth of the Drupal logo. For research I found a goldmine: Drupal CVS commit history http://drupalcode.org (renamed from cvs.drupal.org). Combining that with CHANGELOG.txt and my hazy memory here's the short unofficial story of Drupal logo – in full color.

Note that I included some personal notes but I do not want to over-emphasize my role: biggest credit for creating early Drupal visual image goes to Steven Wittens aka Unconed and there are tons of others not mentioned. Thanks for you all!

Also, if you have any corrections to this history – or some funny details to add, let me know via e-mail, Twitter or the comment form below.

2000

May 9 2000 (Unconfirmed)

drop.org was born with Dries post “drop.org has been activated, Natrak smoothly switched things /…/ Oh, I installed a new poll and whilst doing so I discovered a few poll problems I'll have to fix /…/”

May 18 2000 (Unconfirmed)

First commit to Drupal CVS repository http://drupalcode.org/…al/index.php?… (I tracked index.php – are there older files?)

May 27 2000

First commit of drop.org logo in Jeroen theme. The logo was created Jeroen Bensch (Dries nephew he shared the dorm with) using Gimp, drawing all the details pixel by pixel. He later comments “I should've rounded the corners better with some shading in between the pixels on the border, but OK, what did I know”.

Here's the CVS commit: http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.gif?…

I addition to pipes metaphor and “Tears of technology”, also by Jeroen, the “black drop” (is it really oil?) makes its entrance in commit a day later. http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.gif?…

Sept 26 2000

Half year later, Marvin theme was created (or actually renamed from some ealier theme) with Dries CVS comment “Updated and renamed my 2 themes: I removed redundant boxes and tried to work towards simplicity.” Here's the “black drop” is placed inside “DROP” type. http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.gif?…

Oct 10 2000

Unconed theme was committed with the logo above http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.gif?… with cryptic CVS message by Dries “… and the winner is …” (?)

Included with the same day commit was an interesting theme screenshot http://drupalcode.org/…es/theme.gif?… – something like a an early precursor of current theme screenshot infrastructure we are having now.

This image was removed from theme in Feb 28 2001 with a Stevens note: “removed that stupid theme.gif that looked cool, but was unimplementable in NS”. NS stands for Netscape.

And yes, there is that notorious Lara Croft post ;)

Dec 6 2000

Oldest copy of drop.org preserved in archive.org http://web.archive.org/…ww.drop.org/ using Marvin theme. Note that I cut out the top part: archive.org copy uses the newer, incorrect logo.

2001

Jan 15 2001

Drupal 1.0.0 was released

Mar 2 2001

Proto-3D-drop (most likely) by Steven/Unconed makes its way to drop.org logo http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.gif?…

Also, “Powered by Drupal button” was introduced with the same 3D-drop http://drupalcode.org/…bydrupal.png?…

March 15 2001

Drupal 2.0.0 was released. Personal note: A bit ealier I started visiting Drop.org and testing out Drupal. I wrote my first review of Drupal 2.0 (in Estonian) in March 19 2001.

Sept 12 2001

First sighting of Druplicon in Drupal CVS in Marvin theme, replacing black drop inside “drop.org” and upgrading a typeface. http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.gif?… with CVS comment “Added new Drupal logo made by UnConeD.”

Another version for Unconed theme three days later Sept 15 2001 http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.gif?…

There is also a yellow version of Druplicon from the same time found in Goofy theme: http://drupalcode.org/…s/drupal.png?…

Druplicon was also introduced in new “powered by” button http://drupalcode.org/…bydrupal.png?…

History of the Druplicon logo page states: “Kristjan Jansen (Kika) came up with the idea of putting two sideways drops together to form an infinity symbol”. I can not recall that I was involved with those infinity eyes at that early in time, I have gut feeling Steven was creating it on his own.

Sept 15 2001

Drupal 3.0.0, was released

Nov 1 2001

Another version of Druplicon was added to Trillian theme http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.gif?… but the whole theme was removed a month later Dec 27 2001 with a straightforward comment “Removed theme "Trillian”: it sucked."

Mid-Dec 2001

http://drupal.org was getting separated from drop.org, some content migrated and first project issue created by ax in Dec 17 2001 http://drupal.org/node/6

Dec 12 2001

Commit of giant misc/druplicon.png http://drupalcode.org/…ruplicon.png?…

2002

Jan 21 2002

First usable copy drupal.org in archive org http://web.archive.org/….drupal.org/ Drupal.org looked like this already a month ago when it was created.

Jun 1 2002

References to drop.org were dropped in Drupal CVS: http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.png?…

with CVS comment “Got rid of the drop.org logo's in the themes and replaced them with the Drupal logo.” This is the point where Drupal finally got a life of his own. Note that Druplicon got some finer gradients by Steven/Unconed but basic shape was still the same.

Jun 15 2002

Drupal 4.0.0 was released

Personal note: This is likely the point of time where I was pushing my “more serious” designs of Drupal logo (see the blog post http://kika.trip.ee/…l_lost_logos) . Here are the designs form Oct 2002:

Dec 24 2002

Commit of druplicon-small.gif http://drupalcode.org/…on-small.gif?… – likely not the first commit but a reorg?

2003

1 Feb 2003

Drupal 4.1.0 was released

4 Jun 4 2003

CVS commit was about spicing up the logos of Marvin: http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.png?…

and Unconed: http://drupalcode.org/…ges/logo.png?…

with CVS comment “GUI improvements: new logos for theme Marvin and theme UnConeD. Logos by Kristjan Jansen.” Same Druplicon, new typeface (it was most likely Dax)

1 Aug 2003

Drupal 4.2.0 was released

1 Nov 2003

Drupal 4.3.0 was released

2004

15 Feb 2004

Reorg of Drupal theme directories in CVS reveals a Drupal logo version http://drupalcode.org/…ruplicon.gif?…

The toned down and shadowy version was was likely meant for Bluemarine. Original Bluemarine logo commit has been lost but there is something like this http://drupalcode.org/…ine/logo.png?…

1 April 2004

Drupal 4.4.0 was released

June 7 2004

Michael Angeles aka jibbajabba, famous UX guy created several designs for Drupal t-shirts for a LinuxTag conference.

There is another cool one: Personal Expression.

June 2004

Personal note: My love for Dax culminated a year later with creating Drupal promotional materials http://kika.trip.ee/node/190 in mid-June, 2004. As you can see from poster and brochure PDFs, 3D Druplicon was already there. This means “3D Druplicon” as we know him now was created by Unconed/Steven around 1st part of 2004.

Jul 5 2004

Some weeks later, a marketing materials contrib repo was created by ber with CVS comment “/…/ These are various files that are a result of Gerhards (vdst.net) and Kristjans (kika.trip.ee) hard work and Stevens (acko.net) nice 3D work /…” with some notable stuff inside:

1. Old Druplicon with my spiced up typo and effects, likely based to my Feb 2004 experiments http://drupalcode.org/….default.png?…

2. Steven's 3D Druplicon, already mentioned: http://drupalcode.org/…on.small.png?…

Also, in the same day referring drupal.org page was created by ber http://web.archive.org/…rg/node/9068 Updated version of this page can be found is http://drupal.org/node/9068

Jul 27 2004

Michael Angeles / jibbajabba, famous UX guy was expressing his concern with Drupal logo hackerish feel and proposed some alternatives http://urlgreyhot.com/…pal_identity

Oct 18 2004

Drupal 4.5.0 was released

2005

Apr 15 2005

Drupal 4.6.0 was released

May 12 2005

Another commit of Druplicon “crystal” look by diepoog in CVS http://drupalcode.org/…al.small.png?… Note that it is based on 2D or “Cell” Druplicon, 3D has not yet hit the masses, they co-existed for a long time.

May 22 2005

Chris Messina, Open Web legend jumps on board and creates some classic Drupal artwork. Flickr set can be found here.

Jul 27 2005

First commit of 3D Druplicon to Drupal CVS, to /misc directory http://drupalcode.org/…ruplicon.png?…

2006

Jan 15 2006

Drupal gets 5 years old and he gets a birthday cake by Dries and Karlijn.

Around these times Druplicon mania really got started, check out the related post in drupal.org by ber. Druplicon was spotted in most unimaginable places, from pumpkins to bacon.

May 1 2006

Drupal 4.7.0 was released

2007

Jan 15 2007

Drupal 5.0 was released

Dec 13 2007

“3D Druplicon” is introduced to Drupal core themes by kkaefer http://drupalcode.org/…ine/logo.png?… with CVS comment “update bluemarine, chameleon and marvin themes with the current 3d Druplicon, instead of the old 2d one”, related issue here http://drupal.org/node/200334.

2008

Feb 13 2008

Drupal 6.0 was released

Aug 2008

Mark Boulton creates a Drupal workmark, part of Drupal.org redesign project.

Early version:

Final version:

Dec 20 2009

First sighting of Drupal tattoo.

Addendum

Drupal 10th birthday is not far away. It's time to start gathering together the memorabilia. We are old enough to let nostalgia loose.

One more thing: dear git-migration team, can we keep alive the read-only copy of Drupal CVS repository, there are tons of gold still to be dug.

It's time to get back to Brazilian music vaults, straight from São Paulo Cidade Universitária. This time explore some rare fusion grooves, jazz, soul and funk. We do not landlock ourselves to Brazil only, we also check out what brazilians recorded while living in outside home: France and Italy. And vice versa, let's hear some heavily Brazil-influenced tunes as far as Japan and Peru.

Though the show is in Estonian, but I try to talk as little as possible so you can enjoy the music ;)

Kristjan Janseni Brasiilia muusikasaade 8 (46 MB MP3)

Here's the tracklist:

1. Antonio Adolfo “Caminhada” – Viralata, 1979
2. Elis Regina “Mundo Deserto” – Ela, 1971
3. Cassiano “O Vale” – Apresentamos Nosso Cassiano,1973
4. Dom Salvador E Abolição “Evo” – Som, Sangue E Raça, 1971
5. Rolando & Luiz Antonio “Nacional Kid (Ou Brasileiro)” – Meu Coração É Um Pandeiro Ou…, 1976
6. Ezy & Isaac “Take off!” – Soul Rock, 1974
7. Matsuoka & Wesing “Pão de Açúcar” – Fiesta Fiesta, 1979
8. Bossa 70 “Birimbao” – Bossa 70, 1970
9. Quarteto Novo “Misturada” – Quarteto Novo, 1970
10. Grupo Pentagrama “Pingo De Cor” – Grupo Pentagrama, 1976
11. João Donato “A Rã” – A Bad Donato, 1970
12. Marcos Valle & Azymuth “Jingle Cruzeiro” – Brazil By Music: Fly Cruzeiro, 1972
13. Marcos Valle “O Cafonia” – Garra, 1970
14. João Donato “Lunar Tune” – A Bad Donato, 1970
15. Jardes “Grilos da Vida” – ?, ?

And here's the highly recommended Brazilian music mixtape Discos Originais by San Antonio I mention in the show.

I am breathless: considering Estonian astonishingly slow Drupal pickup rate, a first big-name site has launched: Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Was it the Drupalgate affair making diplomats finally move faster?

Edit: the conversion was made in-house, with Canadian company Liefa Communications doing design as Photoshop comps.

The title may suggest a bit medieval setting, but do not get wrong about it: in true e-Estonia fashion, every decent wooden shack around Estonia has a WiFi access and a projector to run meetings.

In one rainy Friday, 12 July, first ever Estonian Drupal convention gathered in a forest hideout near capital Tallinn. In addition in lengthy debates on Drupal latest developments and sharing best practices (Artisteer was mentioned, the usual Views and CCK gospel shared), we also talked about infrastructure of Drupal Estonia: g.d.o. group vs regional domain drupal.org (usual debate in every country's community?), releasing a proper Estonian translation (we are almost there) and founding a nonprofit organization to support Drupal Estonia activities. There was even a talk about EU funds to support regional translations of Drupal.

Meet the mighty pioneers of Drupal in Estonia – the detailed links with names and links can be found here.

When I was asked to talk about user experience in DrupalCamp Finland in Helsinki University, I first came up with the long-winded presentation title ever: “Drupal UI challenges: Creating better user experience for Drupal 7 and beyond” – to cover my back obviously – since I did not had much of an idea what to talk about.

I tried to narrow it down to two things: introducing D7UX to Finnish Drupal community and talking about my recent pet peeve: re-usable interaction patterns and user interface components.

You can download the presentation here (2 MB)

Some credits: The font is free Rabiohead. Dude and angel pictures are from Flickr and picture of Chucky is well…from the hell of course!

Recently I was called to help a very special initiative in Estonia: a grassroot non-commerical project My Estonia, a 1-day country-wide brainstorming session designed to provide all citizens to gather around issues that matter to them – from local neighborhood to larger-scale concerns.

I volunteered to help them in data visualization: to take geodata about “My Estonia” brainstorming locations (all 500 of them), split them by county and deliver freely printable maps to usein event headquarters and also distribute them in local newspapers. Since the whole thing had to be without restrictive license, I couldn't use usual “Google Map + KML on top of it” route. So, what to do then? I only had half day to come up with solution.

I turned to Mapping Kit, Drupal's plug-in suite what I noticed in DrupalCon DC presentation – and I was blown away. Although a bit complex at start (especially because of cryptic terminology of geoinformation systems) I was quickly up and running, creating maps, embedding marker layers and querying mapping servers. All I needed was there, and more.

I addition to great backend I was also blessed by very helpful individuals: Andres Kütt and his team to provide a KML with source data (view in Google Maps) and allowing to split it up by county using URL parameters.

Next step was to embed the data to the open source map: OpenStreetMap source map and OpenLayers map rendering – both supported out of the box by Mapping Kit – were both natural fit. I attached each county to separate marker layer so the client could hand-pick the any data combination he needs.

There was still more to tweak: the markers. KML source had a minimal markup and no styling whatsoever. I tried several Google's default markers but they tend all to be too complex and unsuitable for print. I finally decided to create my own simple marker (available here: marker_ball_white_32×32.png).

Now, my map was looking something like this (county layers were accessible under “+” sign):

But something was still missing: the county borders to give a clearer overview what locations belong to what region. I checked out Estonian Land Board, as they are running some geoweb public services. I tried to query their Web Map Server for county borders using Drupal's Mapping Kit and use it as WMS layer in my map. Querying part worked like a charm, but unfortunately the border data was not in the presentable format: filled polygons instead of lines, data scattered across several layers etc.

At that time I was almost running out of time so I gave a call to Land Board where Raivo Alla provided me a helful tips to fix the problem and rendered me a decent KML file with the county borders. The 5MB KML file was unfortunately too big for Google Maps and OpenLayers to crunch (Google Earth made it) so I had to cancel the effort to add county borders to my map. But nevertheless big thanks to Land Board (I am working with them to make the border file simpler and publicly available in their website).

The bottom line is this: if something makes you from zero to “homegrown geoweb expert” in half a day, it must be one hell of a tool. Also, I am glad I live in Estonia where organization structures are not too hierarchic, it's easy to avoid bureaucracy and get the public data you need fast. Thanks to all!

Second video take on content type editing is embedded below: this time focusing more on workflow-oriented fields such as status and author.

Slides can be found in Flickr.

These are exiting days for Drupal. Behind D7UX, a cryptic name meaning “Drupal 7 User Experience” hide bunch of talented professionals who really want to take the notoriously complex piece of code to a next level. Their headquarters: http://d7ux.org

So, it's time to join in. Here's my first contribution, a 10-min video embedded below what tries to explain how content type editing should work in new UI framework.

The slides I am using in the presentation can be checked out in Flickr.

Some background reading: my Drupal UI challenges article, especially “Views + Panels + CCK UI” section and also wireframe by Lullabot what explains the complexities around mapping content editing and viewing UIs.

Phew, despite the lack of proper rehearsals and last-minute new members in the band, Mosaiik's first live turned out a nice, cosy and groovy event.

In addition to the usual line-up we managed to get to the stage the guitarist extraordinaire Tõnis Leemets, from Treee and WGT.

In true Mosaiik style we played almost exclusively Eastern block retro instruments: Orpheus bass, Jolana guitar and Faemi-1M analogue synth. For Rhodes and Hammond sound we used Nord Electro, 12-string, and drums were more of a modern fare. And berimbau straight outta Brazil!

We played 4 songs, first one from the demo CD, “Vanilla Cafe” and then on three new pieces. There was a hope for proper live recording, but all we got was super lo-fi photocamera storage: poor microphones of the IS-S3 just were'nt able to cope with volume levels and resulted with pretty bad digital clipping.

But still, here's the snippet from our last song with working title “Batido de Abacaxi” aka “Pineapple Coctail”.

There are more clips though over here but be warned about the sound quality.

Finally, thanks for everybody: Our friends, rampade.org team, the headliner band ÖÄK and of course the super-warm audience!

A day before our first gig, Mosaiik got together in a almost-abondoned Soviet schoolhouse and tried to come up with the repertoire. Here we play our “radio single” Vanilla Cafe. (Hidden video bonus: Can you spot the flying drumstick?)

The lineup: on drums Madis Zilmer from Phlox, Erki Jansen on bass, Paavo Eensalu on keyboards, Mari-Liis Girassol on berimbau and Kristjan Jansen on 12-string guitar.