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on
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Hi everyone,
I have been using Nextcloud for a while now, and I have a curiosity about the design of the Nextcloud logo. The three connected circles remind me very much of an artwork called “Il Terzo Paradiso” (The Third Paradise) by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, who is from the province of Biella (Italy), where I currently live.
This symbol – three circles aligned horizontally, where the central one represents a “rebalanced connection between nature and artifice" – has become iconic in our region, and is even used as an official symbol of the city of Biella being part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
I’m wondering if the resemblance is just a coincidence, or if there was any inspiration drawn (consciously or not) from this piece when the Nextcloud logo was designed.
Does anyone in the community or on the design team know more about the origin or the meaning behind the logo?
For those who are interested, here’s an older website which goes much more into detail on the artwork and its installations across the World.
EDIT: Added references
@jan Can you give us some insights?
The Nextcloud logo is basically an evolution of the ownCloud logo - which was a cloud consisting of a collection of circles. We thought the ownCloud one was to complicated (it never scaled well to a small logo). So the Nextcloud logo is the same concept simplified, just 3 circles that form a cloud shape… I recall we had a version where the circles were overlapping but we thought it looked like a monkey head 
Similarly, we skipped the capital C in the new name - trying to simplify things. Lessons learned, you know, this capital C in the middle of the name and the complicated logo were often causing problems.
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That’s what I thought too – the simplified version of the logo is definitely more iconic and impactful compared to ownCloud’s, even if I never used it in the past. A confirmation by your side is still nice to hear!
we skipped the capital C in the new name
I’ve been self-hosting a Nextcloud instance for my family for about two years now, as a replacement for Google Drive, and I honestly never noticed that the “c” in Nextcloud isn’t capitalized. Thanks for pointing that out! (And while I’m at it, I’ve updated the post title accordingly 
).
That said, I still think the meaning behind the artwork can resonate just as well with this project, even if the similarity is just a coincidence.
Nextcloud is an artificial tool created by people to help society be more productive — but it doesn’t aim to replace anyone, and it still gives us full control over our own data.
In that sense, it really is a “balanced connection between artifice and nature”.
It sure would be fun to see Nextcloud being used by the city’s administration, although I fear no one is willing to change his ways of working in the near future… but there’s still hope with the new call for data sovereignty!
Thank you for the clarification @jospoortvliet!
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