[post] Rector logo journey (#2744)

* [post] rector logo

* cleanup sponsorships, over os funding budget for 2024

* gram

resources/blog/posts/2024/2024-09-09-rector-is-joining-open-source-pledge.md

@@ -63,24 +63,13 @@ In 2024, so far we've contributed:
 
 <br>
 
-## Launching Open-Source Scholarships
-
-As of this article and September 2024, we're starting 3 PHP open-source scholarships and **give monthly**:
-
-* [staabm](https://github.com/sponsors/staabm) - 800 $
-* [peterfox](https://github.com/sponsors/peterfox) - 500 $
-* [janedbal](https://github.com/sponsors/janedbal) - 300 $
-
-<br>
-
 Total of **18 663 $** to this day.
 
 <br>
 <br>
 
-
 Is your company building on top of open-source? Do you want to enjoy more tools in the future to help our IT economy?
-<br>
+
 Here is how [to join Plege](https://osspledge.com/join/).
 
 <br>

resources/blog/posts/2024/2024-12-16-evolution-of-new-rector-logo.md

@@ -0,0 +1,171 @@
+---
+id: 75
+title: "Evolution of New Rector Logo"
+perex: |
+    After 7 years since the first Rector commit, we have a new logo!
+
+    Today, we're proud to share a streamlined, smooth, and modernized version of the Rector logo. Similar to a project upgrade, the final version looks great, but the journey is the destination. Did you know it took 40 commits, 5 sketched paper pages, and 3 months to get there?
+
+    Today, I'd like to share the backstory with you.
+---
+
+Rector started as a pet project to ease my daily work. I asked a friend to make a logo, and he helped me.
+
+The job description was "house, left part old, right part new". I wanted to show the main purpose of **rec**onstruc**tor** (original name) = a code reconstruction. I haven't told this to anyone, but it represents the house in Liberec where I grew up with my family. My father used to reconstruct it all the time. The result was the logo we all know:
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/logo-old.png" style="width:9em; margin: 1em 0 2em">
+
+It was good for the time being. But Rector grew, a pet project turned into full-time work, company, [a book](https://leanpub.com/rector-the-power-of-automated-refactoring) and regular conference talks. A logo with 30 colors+, gradients, and tiny details was impossible to use in printed material. The need for a new version was imminent.
+
+We have been thinking of a new Rector logo since 2020. We wanted a new logo to land on [Rector 1.0 live release in Laracon 2024](/blog/rector-1-0-is-here), Amsterdam. But many of the new features presented in the talk had to be delivered first. After the Rector 1.0 release, we received a few offers from external designers, yet we could not find a good fit with any of them.
+
+We joined [Open Source Pledge](/blog/rector-is-joining-open-source-pledge) this year to spread the "giving back to open-source is normal" message. A couple of weeks after joining the pledge, we got a surprise message: "Oh, your logo will be on Times Square." The only problem was that we had to stitch up a new, temporary, simple logo within a week.
+
+"Just strip down every detail; make it simple". This was the result:
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/rejected-01.png" style="width:9.3em; padding: 1em 0 1.5em">
+
+Butter, but still not pretty to watch. It was the last nail in the coffin.
+
+**We've decided to land a new logo before Rector 2.0 is out.**
+
+<br>
+
+## It's an Upgrade Time... of Logo
+
+I wanted to keep the house, as it's a part of Rector's DNA. I wanted to keep the left "shady" and the right "modern" side.
+The logo should represent modern, streamlined change as we do with legacy projects that are perceived as impossible to upgrade.
+
+<br>
+
+The logo must be:
+
+* **simple = 2 colors maximum**
+* **modern with curves**
+* easy to print and spot in a tiny version (favicon)
+* **A/B tested on users**, so we get the idea of how developers see our identity
+
+<br>
+
+We've decided to make as many iterations as needed until we're sure it's the right one.
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/making-01.jpg" style="max-width: 30em" class="img-thumbnail">
+
+<br>
+
+<hr>
+
+<br>
+
+**2nd iteration** came up with an idea: "Let's use CI colors, the left for warnings, the right for a successful pass.":
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/rejected-02.png" style="width:9em;padding: 0 0 1em">
+
+What was the feedback?
+
+* "The yellow/orange colors do not contrast enough."
+* "There are too many lines and details
+* "There are basically 4 colors."
+* "What are those horizontal lines?"
+
+<br>
+
+<hr>
+
+<br>
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/making-02.jpg" style="max-width: 30em" class="img-thumbnail">
+
+On **3rd iteration** we've found a great [color palette](https://colorhunt.co/palette/4d46465b56567fcd91f5eaea) we fell in love:
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/rejected-03.svg" style="width:9em; padding: 0 0 1em">
+
+What was the feedback?
+
+* "Colors look much better"
+* "When it's small, there are still many details"
+* "Is the roof flying?"
+* "remove windows, remove doors - people will get it"
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/making-03.jpg" style="width:9em; padding: 0 0 1em">
+
+<br>
+
+<hr>
+
+<br>
+
+We've integrated feedback, and in **4th iteration**, we removed all the details but cracks:
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/rejected-04.svg" style="width:9em; padding: 0 0 1em">
+
+What was the feedback?
+
+* "House looks neat."
+* "What are these lines?"
+* "Is that the homepage icon?"
+
+<br>
+
+<hr>
+
+<br>
+
+We don't want to make another homepage icon. We want to make a logo that represents **R**ector. We've removed the confusing lines and tested various "R" fonts.
+
+On **5th iteration**, we felt we were getting closer.
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/letter-voting.png" style="width:20em; margin: .5em 2em 1.3em 0" class="img-thumbnail">
+
+What was the feedback?
+
+* "2 in the middle"
+* "2 and 5"
+* "The roof is tiny, though."
+
+<br>
+
+<hr>
+
+<br>
+
+We added a roof testing for **6th iteration**
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/roof-voting.png" style="width:14em; padding-right: .7em"  class="img-thumbnail">
+
+What was the feedback?
+
+* "2 and 3."
+* "3 or 4."
+* "4 but with bigger chimney."
+
+<br>
+
+We went with version 3 and made the chimney slightly bigger. Time to test on production!
+
+## Final Version
+
+**We silently pushed the logo on our homepage to see reactions in the wild. It was great to see people noticing the change and giving us feedback.
+
+Here is the final version:
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/rector-logo-final-square-white-bg.png" style="width:7em; margin: 1em 4em 1em 2em">
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/rector-logo-final-with-name-black.png" style="width:16em; margin: 1em 0 2em">
+
+<br>
+
+## New Rector Book Cover
+
+While at it, we've designed a new cover for the [Rector book](https://leanpub.com/rector-the-power-of-automated-refactoring), so it runs Rector 2.0 not only inside but outside as well.
+
+The 5-iteration journey looked like this:
+
+<img src="/assets/images/blog/2024/logo/book-how-it-went.png" style="max-width:45em; margin: 0 0 2.5em 0">
+
+It's been a long but adventurous journey. **Rector is built on the PHP community, so we've really enjoyed including the community in making the new logo** the best version possible.
+
+We're proud of the final result, and we hope you like it, too.
+
+<br>
+
+Happy coding!