One of the big 7 questions.
Logo guidance, from Jin (resident UI designer for at least some of the Stack Exchange sites):
Please note: I prefer gray-scaled logo submissions, that way we can judge the IDEA of the logo more objectively. We can always add colors to the logo later. Also, the logo itself(sans the site title text) should be able to fit in a square dimension nicely. This way we can use it for favicons, mobile touch icons etc.
The first thing that springs to mind is a (famous?) playing piece in front of a deck of cards (perhaps the latter shouldn't be distinguishable as playing or specific game cards).
I was trying to think of a logo that could convey both board and card games, while not trying to be too specific, or using copyrighted images.
I bashed these out in a few minutes to try and mimic a checkboard with playing pieces.
I then decided to add the four card suites, to show both board games and card games.
Again, they're not much, but hopefully they'll get things rolling. All constructive criticism is welcome!
A couple meeples sitting around a table, playing cards.
I also like the idea of using both board and card game imagery.
My thinking was the most easily recognizable iconography for card games is standard-aspect-ratio playing cards arrayed as they are when held, and the most recognizable and still somewhat ambiguous game board is the chess and checkers board.
It's gray-scale per the instructions and I put literally no thought into the typography, so this is just a conceptual design. Additional things that could be tweaked by a professional:
A big pile of spilled out random game boxes with some dices/tokens/figures in front.
Does anyone know the copyright rules of using board game pieces in the Logo? I like @Jon Hadley's idea about the cards and a board game piece, but not sure of the legality.
My suggestion would be a big king's chess piece for the logo. There shouldn't be any legal issues with it. It is easily recognizable and unambiguously liked to board games.
For the design one could add an assortment of Go, checkers and those generic cone game pieces, some dice or fake money bills.
