Druplicon
The Druplicon is the Drupal icon: a stylized drop with infinity-shaped eyes, a curved nose and a mischievous smile, used as the project's symbol.
The Druplicon is the icon of Drupal: a stylized drop with a face, used as the symbol of the software and the community around it. It has infinity-shaped eyes, a curved nose and a mischievous smile. It stands alone as an icon, and it also sits next to the Drupal wordmark in the combined logo, the lockup.
Where the Druplicon comes from
The drop is the idea behind the name. Drupal.org explains that Dries Buytaert considered the domain dorp.org (dorp is Dutch for village), mistyped it as drop while checking it, and the site went live as drop.org. He released the software as Drupal in January 2001; the name comes from the English pronunciation of the Dutch druppel, which means drop.
One early idea was a cartoon-like drop with a face, and Steven Wittens made a 3D version of it. Kristjan Jansen, known as Kika, then joined two sideways drops into an infinity symbol. Placed in a filled circle, the shape reads as a pair of eyes, and the drop becomes a face. With contributions from Wittens, that design became the Druplicon. Drupal.org does not give a date for when the logo was made.
Icon, wordmark and logo
Drupal's brand has three parts: the icon (the Druplicon), the wordmark (the name in type) and the lockup that combines the two. The Drupal media kit recommends the lockup for most external communication, and says the icon alone may be used where the Drupal brand is already established in context. The kit offers the logos in full color, reversed (white) and single-color versions, in SVG, PNG and EPS, through the Brand Portal.
Rules for using it
Drupal itself is free and open source software, but the name and the logo are a separate matter. The trademark policy states that Drupal is a registered trademark of Dries Buytaert. It grants an automatic license for the official logo shown standalone and unaltered, for example on a website, a banner or a t-shirt. Changing the logo or combining it with another logo requires the license grant procedure. The policy also says that any use of the Drupal icon, the Druplicon, is subject to separate licensing. The Drupal Association can provide more information.
Common mistakes
- Treating the icon like the logo. The automatic license in the policy is for the official logo. The icon has its own licensing.
- Assuming open source means free to use. The software license and the trademark policy are different documents.
- Redrawing or recoloring it. Use the files from the media kit and Brand Portal. An altered logo needs a license grant.
- Describing it wrongly. It is a drop with a face. It is not an animal.
For marketing and content teams
If you write about Drupal or build a page for a CMS built on it, decide early which brand assets you need, and where they come from. Download them from the official media kit rather than from a search result, and ask the Drupal Association before you use the icon in a product, an advertisement or merchandise.