Blackbox Artwork

This page links and information about various Blackbox-related pieces of artwork.

Note: You cannot show images directly on this wiki. It is a feature very prone to abuse, and is one of the WikiDisabledFeatures. You can still link to them.

Note: Please do not mention artwork which is not related directly to Blackbox. Specifically, do not enter pieces of artwork created for any of the RelatedProjects. Many of them use some form of black cube and it's hard enough as it is for each of them to maintain their individuality.

1 Special notes

1.1 Image formats

1.2 To artists

1.3 To contributors to this page

2 Artwork

2.1 Logos

2.1.1 Logo information

2.1.2 Logo artwork

2.2 Buttons

2.3 Banners

2.4 Mascots

2.5 Wallpapers

1) Special notes

1.1) Image formats

To everybody: vector graphics are always prefered to raster graphics, because they can be scaled to any size without any loss of quality. So please provide or seek artwork in formats such as: SVG*, EPS*.

If you cannot, the next best choice are formats which allow for as many as possible among high definition, great color depths, layers, alpha-blending, lossless definition or meta-formats. Best examples include: PSD, XCF. In second place come: TIFF, BMP/DIB, PNG.

Stay away from lossy or obsolete formats, such as: JPEG, GIF.

Note: JPEG actually has a lossless mode, but most software will give no indication whether their "100%" mode is the lossless one.

1.2) To artists

If you wish to create artwork for Blackbox, you're more than welcome! Please see AboutTheWebsite or BlackboxCommunity to learn how you can get in touch with someone, and submit your artwork for approval and feedback.

1.3) To contributors to this page

When you're adding links to artwork, please include, if possible, a background of that particular piece of artwork: credits for the creator, how is the artwork licensed, how it came to be, where it made the most important appearances, time line.

2) Artwork

2.1) Logos

2.1.1) Logo information

While there's no such thing as an "official" Blackbox logo, there are images that have traditionally been used more than others and have grown to gain near-universal acceptance and recognition.

Traditionally, the reoccuring motive in the most popular Blackbox logos seems to have the following characteristics. Please note that these are guidelines, not rules.

A black cube, showing three faces to the viewer. The view is from above the horizontal plane.
The color is black or dark gray, but the faces may exhibit certain light effects (highlights).
Various effects are applied to the cube edges: thickening, light.
The cube seems to be "facing" the viewer's left.
The cube is slightly "crooked" ie. the faces are not perfect squares nor parallelograms*.

2.1.2) Logo artwork

xwinman logo*. Source and author are unknown.

Black 3D cube facing the viewer's left, thick black edges, and the word "blackbox" with black-gray highlighted letters, on a blue-gray background. The image file used by Matt Chapman on xwinman.org has a timestamp of Feb 2000, so we can assume it dates at least from 2000. The same image, with a timestamp of Mar 2000, was also reportedly used on the former bb.themes.org*, which transformed into http://themes.freshmeat.net in the meantime.

Blackbox Logo*, by Ciprian Popovici.

Simple black 3D cube with highlights. Original artwork, provided in SVG and PNG formats, under a free/libre license, specifically for Blackbox endorsement.

Blackbox logo and wallpaper*, by Young Hahn.

A Blackbox logo and wallpaper. The logo includes a 3D abstract design and uses the colors lime green, gray and black. The wallpaper includes the logo and uses dark blue as the main color. Original artwork, provided in SVG and PNG formats and placed in the public domain.

2.2) Buttons

FIXME: add links to some

2.3) Banners

FIXME: add links to some

2.4) Mascots

Blackbox Mascot*, by nostrom and the team at Hitmeister*!

An image of a "cartoonesque" figure with no specific features holding a black cube with the top ajar, surrounded by a red swirl. A preview file is available. Submitted with a license contained within the zip file, to be used for Blackbox endorsement purposes. Also a .eps vector file is contained in the zip archive.

2.5) Wallpapers

Note: Most of the wallpapers presented here do not endorse Blackbox in any way. They are simply appropriate.

What's appropriate? Think "black cube". Or anything related to Blackbox, of course.