The Dark Age That old black Magic has me in its Spell Right before the site would celebrate the fourth Event Month, our site host, the Ascension Web, somewhat surprised us with the demand for a uniformed group look of all their members. While we understood the reason behind their decision, we didn’t like the manner in which it was forced upon us, or that we were given next to no say in the new design. Apparently, all Ascension sites were to use an image with black background, consisting of eight equal squares next to each other, in which different images could be placed. The square borders were not to be crossed, for the image was exactly 800 pixels wide and, for people using a higher monitor resolution, the first squares would appear a second time on the right side. While we could have lived with that, things got worse. The disclaimer “The number #1 .... resource” had to appear beneath that image, and we always felt that it sounded somewhat arrogant. Maybe others can say that about the site, but displaying it ourselves? Still, we were not to argue and not even the fact that the logo for the Magic Month had already been created mattered to Ascension – we were to comply. The only thing we could convince them of was not to use what they had originally designed for us (some bad-quality scans of random X-characters appearing in the black background squares) but a redone version of the Magic Month banner, according to their guidelines. At least, we managed to keep our own logo version for the message board, and naturally the magical items were supposed to appear in the add-on part. Needless to say, we didn’t like losing our own site logo – kind of our public face – especially when we discovered that after all this arguing, Ascension Web had several ads pop-up right on top of the logo, and nine out of ten times you would visit the site you wouldn’t even see it! Grant design Another downside of the new situation was that we no longer had control over the logo. We couldn’t simply change it whenever we felt like it, but had to send our idea to the Ascension people for them to okay it and put it up. Kind of like your mother still buying your clothes and telling you what to wear – and that after you have already lived on your own for a couple of years! Well, the Magic Month at an end, we played along as we wanted to have a regular logo back up, but the decision had been made to leave Ascension as soon as possible. As we expected it to take a few months to find a suitable place and transfer all the data, we knew the design had to be one that could remain online for quite some time. Grant Morrison’s X-Men line-up was chosen for several reasons: there was quite a lot was going on in his book at the time, it had some of the most popular characters and, frankly, his run was about to end a few months later – leaving not too many more opportunities for having that logo. Once more, we also created a version in our former style to be used on the message board.
Shaman’s pouch, Talisman’s tiara, Magik, Belasco,
Margali Szardos (left to right)
- Shaman from Alpha Flight (1st series) #8
- Siege Perilous from Uncanny X-Men #251
- Soulsword from Excalibur (1st series) #84
- pouch from Alpha Flight (1st series) #44
- tiara from Alpha Flight (1st series) #38
- Magik from New Mutants (1st series) #66
- Belasco from Ka-Zar (3rd series) #11
- Margali from X-Men Unlimited #19
Emma Frost, Cyclops, Phoenix IV (left to right)
- Fantomex from New X-Men #133
- “Magneto“ from New X-Men #146
- Xavier from New X-Men #141
- Beast, Emma, Cyclops and Phoenix from New XXX-Men #130
ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT UXM.NET LOGOS: Page 4 of 10
Last Updated:
24th August 2010