FIRST Brand Refresh
 

From the official FIRST Robotics Competition Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FIRSTRoboti...72664062798892

Besides for the logo change, they also did away with the acronym logos, they adjusted the colors of each program, changed the name of Jr. FLL to FIRST Lego League Jr., and changed usfirst.org to firstinspires.org

New Logo:


EDIT: Here's a list of all the changes:

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I actually like the old font better. Also, not a fan of the new website name.

However, I do like the subtle changes in the logo design and the switch to a consistent logo across all of the areas.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I see the new website launched, though the dashboard still refers to Junior FIRST Lego League (not FIRST Lego League Jr.), and the YouTube channel still has the old logo. Do we know when they will release all the new branding and graphics on the website?

Edit: Also, the Programs>FIRST [program] menu now brings up a submenu for About, For Teams, Game & Season, etc. so you don't to click so much as earlier with the beta site.

Edit2: About>Press Room>Brand Standards. And it looks like they've announced the next FLL game name: Animal Allies.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Small changes. I like the FLL Jr. change. I always wondered about usfirst.org. It seemed odd for a global organization.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Well, they are (still?) officially incorporated as The United States Foundation for the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (USFIRST).

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

For Inspiration & Recognition of Science and Technology Inspires dot org.

Add this one to the list of RAS Syndromes like MSDS Sheets, LED Lights, PIN Number, RAGE Event, ATM Machine, AC Current, LCD Display, HIV Virus, LAN Network, RF Frequency, and BBS Systems.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Team webdevs everywhere cry out in agony for all of the content they have to update.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

This site is still a work in progress. As you navigate through it you will find links that are not working yet, such as the quick link to VIMS.
Great start though.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Well, their new url is blocked at my work. :rolleyes:

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Blog link and Event links still say "Coming soon"

Dashboard still isn't linked to your TIMS, STIMS, VIMS, etc.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

How about the old URL? It still works for now.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

The old url redirects to the new one. All old links that used usfirst.org no longer work and just send you to the homepage...

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

you can still go to the archive site under the community pulldown and navigate that way.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I clicked on chat and got an immediate response. Awesome!!:] :] :]

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

You can, but in a world of searching Google and using a direct link I think kids will struggle. I can find the information I want just fine, I just don't want to go looking for it when it used to be a two second search and click. I've become spoiled in the ways that Google has made life easy...

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Is there anything more inspiring than inspiration? The answer is no; there is not.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

My biggest grievance is the stress put upon moving to the new logo, all while Don Bossi is wearing the "old" logo, sitting in front of a large poster of the "old" logo.

How can we look as "One Brand" when the production of the video itself is still using both brands?

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

As a red-green color blind individual, I really dislike the color changes. At a distance, the old colors were easy to distinguish. Now, for me, FTC, FLL, and JrFLL kind of blend together if I don't look very closely.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

+1

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Meh, since this is the new brand announcement I don't have a problem with the old logo being there. Takes a bit to get new stuff made.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

This made me recall an article I read in our local news recently.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/S...338189942.html

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

A revamp like this would take any organization months. I think that is plenty of time to embroider an Oxford and print a poster.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Well I mean, I can get shirts and banners made and shipped in two days for my team and we're nobody, but it's whatever. As has been brought up earlier, energy spent questioning minutiae of FIRST's decisions should not outweigh analysis of larger, sweeping changes in the organization that actually affects teams. It's not like the updated logo is a lewd hand gesture or something.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

The new logo looks so cartoony. I'm glad I bought my FIRST appeal before the change!

Also, FTC is changing from Gold to Orange, interesting. Wonder if the banners will be changing colors for everyone?

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Making the site phone friendly is a good thing. I really don't pay much attention to colors and logos.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

FRC will almost certainly be getting a "jazzed up" blue banner that will be different from the old blue.

So reaction to that reveal is gonna be fun.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

"AND HERE IS THE NEW BABY BLUE BANNER!" :confused:

I still don't like the fact that FRC has banners for Chairmans, Winning, Rookie All star, And much more... While FTC only gets an Inspire banner. It would be nice to receive a banner when you WIN at WORLDS....

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

This is also a small change, but one I like. FIRST has altered the team info. In the awards/history section, there are no more division names for events, rather "The Championship Event", etc., which is less confusing for readers. Not only that, the layout is more readable and less data is missing (2001 and 2002 championships are now present for everyone). The new layout actually makes the FIRST webpage more useful than TBA for general awards and stuff.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Anybody see where the links are to TIMS, STIMS, and VIMS on the new website?

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I found VIMS but still can't find TIMS or STIMS.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Any way to use the old website? The biggest thing is I don't know how to get to anything. How do I navigate from the home page to the events page with each event having a list of teams at the event? That is something i really want. Thanks.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Some hot-take reactions:

1) The URL change is going to bug me, because the URL change comes with 12+ years of inertia.
2) You know how someone organizes your shop and then you can't find anything? That's the new website for me. (It also breaks frclinks.org, which is a tragedy.)
3) Even going back to the old-old logo, the triangle-circle-square logo was always as prominent or more prominent than the FIRST or program wordmark. That's no longer the case. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
4) Switching to FLLJr is fair enough, but thank you for losing that crayon bit.
5) Losing the acronyms from the program logos is good for outsiders, but man does it get clunky. (On the flip side, the logo should print better in smaller applications. It took a lot of fighting with the printer to get the old FLL logo right on our team shirts.)
6) Does anyone have links to where we can download these? My team was going to order some apparel this week, and I can't find it on the website (see point 2).

Having done this dance in the fall of 2004 (the world didn't end then), I'm going to sit back for the most part and see how it shakes out.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Go to Programs -> FIRST Robotics Competition -> FRC -> For Teams and it's there. a bit complicated but managed to find it.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Logos (About>Press Room>Brand Standards)

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

That explains last year's blue carpet color.

I think the domain name change was the right thing to do, and the new name is pretty good given likely availability of names.

S

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I wish they didnt nix the "old" event list. The new filter thing that lists literally every event scheduled through all programs is annoying to have to go through.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

first.org would be great, but it's used by some security company.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Anyone know where to report broken links? I've come across a few. I can't tell if it's the fact the website is so new and some broken links haven't been found or if it is the fact I'm using crappy Chrome OS from my school computer. Thanks

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

The FIRST Robotics Competition ("FRC" is no longer going to be used by FIRST :rolleyes:) only gives out banners for Chairman's, Woodie Flowers Finalists, and event winners. There's no official Rookie All Star banner. If you saw a RAS banner, then the team custom ordered it.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

So no more banners or is it just that the banners won't say frc anymore?

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

You would have to ask FIRST, but my assumption would be that the banners will spell out "FIRST Robotics Competition"

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Random thought but what if the banners next year were red banners? :ahh:

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Red is the FLL program color.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

But then we'd never win a blue banner.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Then we could make a whole set of banner bumpers.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Most importantly Frclinks.com is now slightly broken :). Team pages don't link but the events still work, which is how I will be getting around till FIRST realizes how poor there new search list is. Also with this brand new website they still didn't give us an easy url system. Clearly something like firstinspires.org/frc/team/3847 should take me to the information page about our team.

Also I don't like that they added a map on the team information page. Since you can't add more then just your city in TIMS it's just silly and useless information. The map portion it shows for Houston for our team is unbelievably small and to my knowledge may contain zero high schools that actually have an FRC team. To make it worse it's not even a picture of our zip code which is listed right next to the map.

I like the move to FLL Jr. and the mobile website but otherwise I don't think this really improves anything all that much.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

+1, i found the old event system better, even if it was far from perfect. This new event lookup will have some getting used to (but I feel like this one makes it easier for most purposes). API wise, what does the new website change?

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

It is sort of bizarre that an opportunity was missed to potentially create a tree of useful urls for use

http://firstinspires.org/programs/frc/about would take you to a basics page for FRC
http://firstinspires.org/programs/frc/game would take you to a page about the game and manual links
http://firstinspires.org/programs/frc/blog self explanatory
http://firstinspires.org/programs/frc/events would take you to the events page.

Eh, it's alright. I'm curious to see when the switch is going to get pulled to push all of the STIMS/TIMS/VIMs information into the new dashboard. You can log into it (at least with my TIMS account) but you effectively get nothing for it.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Yeah it's great that we have a flashy new site, but if FIRST could make frclinks' features built in, that would be so much more useful.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Weren't the old ones actually baby blue? For some reason my brain is telling me that our 01 Champ banner is a significant bit lighter than the more recent event banners.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

It would be cool if this year's banners were a dark purple. Stick with the mid evil theme. Dark purple of violet was considered royalty. That'd be cool.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I believe the older ones were a lighter shade of blue. I really don't know how to call it because it's been a while since I've been in art class, but the new blue is brighter than the current blue (a more vivid hue) while the old blue what lighter (a lighter shade of the current or similar hue)

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

It would be useful for the events to be listed chronologically.

Even after applying filters for FRC (I'm not going to stop using the acronym!), USA and CA, a list of 16 events appear (regionals and kickoff events) in seemingly random order.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

So here is the thing: we can squabble about the details to death, but this change IS for the good of FIRST and the movement. From what I hear, the core of this campaign is to make FIRST more understandable and palatable to those on the outside. FIRST has been struggling with that in the past. I welcome efforts to change that.

Yes, it means change, work to update materials and tools, and trying new things. However rebranding is just something that happens in the life of an organization from time to time. Let us put our energy into planning for the needed adjustments. Plus remember, there is a transition period. I'm sure FIRST doesn't expect us all to be in compliance over night.

---

On another note: thumbs up to the standardized region nomenclature and logos. It'll save districts time and effort in developing brands, and makes FIRST look much more united.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

This should be the new logo:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B70...ew?usp=sharing

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I got a response from FIRST on Facebook. Basically, they are officially the one with foundation but they would like to be called just the "short version."

From Facebook

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Good thing we just got a banner printed and 100 sponsorship packets made with the old logos.

I feel like this would have been better received if done in a summer month but at the same time understand the issues with rebranding.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

It was teased during the Stronghold teaser next month, and the rebrand itself probably won't be really present until Champs.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I wouldn't worry about it so much, up until last year there were still sponsors using the old old logo on their websites. I presume there will be a year or so of overlap for printed materials, even within FIRST as it would be really wasteful just to throw them out.


The thing that is really bugging me about the new website right now is that they have quite literally broken every single link to any FIRST page everywhere online. Google anything about FIRST and click the link, it will be broken. They could have done a much better job when phasing out the old url and done a full sitemap re-direct instead of a full url redirect, so that all of the content still shows up.

While FIRST doesn't really care about SEO because they have some help in that regards, it will be frustrating for quite some time.

Thankfully this link still works, which is the one I use 99% of the time. https://my.usfirst.org/myarea/index....mber&year=2016

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

The same goes with the FTC Forums. They have a few posts, answering questions from teams, from last night, and even this morning, that are broken already...

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

On the other hand, it conflicts with the already well-established Indiana FIRST name. I'm looking forward to finding out whether FIRST HQ's provisional "grandfathered acceptance" for the name will have to be revisited in the light of the new branding guidelines.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Anyone know, can you get a list of more than 100 teams? Like, how do you see all the FRC (sorry, FIRST Robotics Competition) teams in Michigan? And can the list be sorted? Default seems to be by team name.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Yes, this is absolutely ridiculous. Cool URI's don't change.

I've also filed an issue about frclinks being broken as a result.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I'm not sure this is the answer you want, but http://frclinks.com/t/MI-USA

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Don't mind the lighter color blue.
I like FIRST LEGO League Jr.
I like the words FIRST being bigger.
I dont understand why bringing the square to the front of the triangle signifies "keeping up with the times"
I do like that the triangle isn't significantly taller than the circle and square.
I like the darker outline around the triangle-circle-square
The URL needed updated.
I'll never be able to stop saying "FRC" "FTC" and "FLL" but at least I can stop using it in print.

I am saddened that FTC is changing from gold to orange. Gold is a much more flattering color for the judges' polos.

.....I just realized I had a large FIRST logo embroidered on the back of my blue flight suit last year. do'h. I'm going to be hearing "That's the old logo" for years.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

And then it becomes nostalgic, then retro, then antique.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Barry: "Yeah, I was in FIRST way back in 2015. Back before the water game changed everything..."

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Has it really been 11 years since the last time they changed the logo?

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Thinks to self: "Huh, I wonder what people thought of the now-beloved 2005-2015 logo when it was first announced?"

Looks at thread. First reply is: "Oh, my. I think that is absolutely aweful"

Yep, exactly as expected. History will repeat itself.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

The same thing will probably happen again in another 10-15 years. Everyone will say that this new logo is the best logo ever and whatever they change it to will be bad in some way. People just don't like change. While I'm partial to the old logo, I expect this new one will grow on me eventually. It would be interesting to see what the people who commented on that thread 11 years ago have to say now about the FIRST logo history...

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I think it's important to realize that rebranding is sometimes necessary. FIRST has gone through many changes in its program and how they "advertise" their programs to others, and are looking for a brand change that seems to embody that. After scanning the old logo change thread, I see a lot of the same responses. People don't enjoy change with something so familiar, especially something that can be so nostalgic for some like FIRST.

On the other hand, I will agree the new site has tons of broken links, but I'm glad that they did this before kickoff got any closer so they will have plenty of time to work on it.

I'm a fan of the old FIRST font. I also think that the new logos for FIRST's programs will grow on me.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

+1

I understand the change and I currently am not a huge fan but it will grow on me.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Agreed. Unless a credible terrorist organization takes on an acronym of FRC, I'm not going to change all the tags on my images from #FRC3946 to #FIRSTRoboticsCompetition3946. Even then, I'd probably do something like #FIRST-RC3946.


As someone who spent the better part of a professional decade programming geographic information systems (GIS), [particularly the 1990s programming GRASS] and who now uses COTS GIS on a daily basis, I have to disagree. While the current level of geographic detail leaves much to be desired, geospatially enabling the information allows it to be used for a variety of purposes.

The Vornoi polygons posted a while back for the nearest regional, and the erroneous "nearest CMP" map published recently are just the tip of the iceberg in working with geospatially enabled data. With geospatially enabled data, districts and regional-hosting organizations can better identify optimal locations for new event locations. Teams can better plan their competition season. HQ can (in future years) more efficiently allocate teams between the two CMPs.

YES, YES, YES!

Bottom line: new logo, great - fills a rectangle much better. + 2 points. Introduction of poorly geospatially enabled information, +1 point. Sudden disruption of every link into usfirst.org with zero time interval to fix, -150 points. Net, -147 points. I'd really enjoy seeing how you thought this would work out. This is probably one of those cases where no one had the guts to say what needed to be said. I can somewhat proudly say that this afternoon I literally told a roomful of people (and at least as many people on a worldwide voice virtual meeting) that there was an elephant in the room - based on someone else's evaluation. I fear that the sudden rebranding without providing at least interim links may be on a par with Coca Cola's New Coke decision.

The only change I get was changing jr. Fll to fll jr. And changing that awful crayon logo.

I feel like the other stuff is just pointless corporate banter but who am I.

Literally don't care its still FRC I'm lazy and acronym everything.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Dropping the acronyms from the logos doesn't mean that FIRST is going to send in a SWAT team if you refer to the FIRST Robotics Competition as FRC. It's stressing that people unfamiliar of FIRST as a whole and some even familiar with FIRST may not think of our competition when they hear "FRC".

Use of FRC in official internal FIRST documentation will likely continue and will definitely still be accepted as a constant in the constantly evolving jargon surrounding participants in the league.

When you introduce your team to others though, tell them you're a FIRST Robotics Competition Team, not an FRC team. You probably already do it, and you probably should have been doing it before the official change.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

*begins the long process of updating images and URL's*

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

It's not that simple for our team. We're incorporated and registered as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization as "FRC Team 980 ThunderBots."
No way that's going to change (unless we just go away).

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

There's no reason that would have to change.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Maybe the banners and logos should say "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics Competition". Just sayin'.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Looks at Wikipedia - hey, someone updated the logos. Ugh, Jr. FLL needs renaming.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

The only constant is change ...

A few website links to change, and I need to get all new denim shirts, but otherwise this isn't a major impact.

(Of course, I always thought the program should have been called FIRST DUPLO League ..." :rolleyes: )

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

One great improvement I noticed with the new website is, when you're signing in to TIMS you can type your username and password then hit "Enter" and it logs you in. You used to have to click on "Log In" with the mouse!

What an amazing world we live in...:p

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Is it sad that this is the change that I have been excitedly sharing with students and mentors?

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

This means I have to buy another FIRST beanie.

(/me is actually looking forward to an excuse to buy more FIRST apparel)

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I've been logging in to TIMS with the keyboard for years. I just have to hit TAB a couple of times between the password and the Enter key.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

Does anyone else realize that if you go to http://www3.usfirst.org, it takes you to the old first website. Very beautiful thing.

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

You fm also put archive.usfirst.org/xxxxxxxx to get to be d site and documents

Re: FIRST Brand Refresh
 

I had to click the Login button with a mouse up until a few months ago.