TSA Logo Contest Winner

In January I announced a contest to redesign the TSA logo. Last week I announced the five finalists—chosen by Patrick Smith from "Ask the Pilot" and myself—and asked you all to vote on the winner.

Four hundred and seven votes later, we have a tie. No really; we have a tie. Rhys Gibson and “I love to fly and it shows” have 135 votes each. (It’s still a tie at 141 votes each if I give half credit for all split votes.) Both are well ahead of the third place winner, with 81 votes. There were a few ambiguous comments that could possibly break the tie, but rather than scrutinize the hanging chad any more closely, I’m going to appeal to the judges to cast the deciding votes.

Although both logos are excellent, both Patrick Smith and I vote for Rhys Gibson.

U.S. Department of Security Theatre logo

Congratulations. Send me your physical address and we’ll get you your prizes.

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Posted on February 22, 2010 at 2:00 PM • 41 Comments

Comments

second-best • February 22, 2010 2:16 PM

Wow, I could have cast the deciding vote. But you chose my preferred logo, so it’s like I did.

peri • February 22, 2010 2:42 PM

Thanks for holding this interesting contest! I also wanted to thank everybody who entered for making the world a funnier place.

HJohn • February 22, 2010 3:04 PM

@Randy: “I protest. I want to check the ballots for dimples!”

Are you calling for a Chad Revolt?

🙂

Congrats, Rhys. It is kinda cool to win one of Bruce’s contests. 🙂

Rhys Gibson • February 22, 2010 4:23 PM

I’m stunned – like with a taser.

I’d like to thank the members of the academy, my mum for having me and my technical support:
* Google for providing images to plagarise; and
* Microsoft for Paint and PowerPoint, which are an indespensible part of any logo designer’s arsenal.

Not being a US resident or citizen, I’ve probably now put the kibosh on any chance of ever legally visiting the US again. So that fake boarding pass may actually be useful if the kids ever want to go to Disneyland. Can you make it first class?

I’m off for a celebratory glass of “saline” and to plan my retirement off the t-shirt sales.

Thanks for playing. It was fun. Let’s do it again sometime.

Alan • February 22, 2010 4:51 PM

I doubt I need to bring this up, but just in case, make sure to verify that the person giving the address to ship books to is the same person who made the image (for instance, ask for the person to post a specific image to their Flickr account next to the winning logo, to prove that they control the account). This will prevent schmucks like me from impersonating Rhys and getting the prize sent to me instead of the actual winner.

Craig • February 22, 2010 5:08 PM

Congratulations Rhys!

That was a close competition and could have gone either way.

Both winners and the redesign of the logo was the ultimate winner at the end of the day 🙂

Kurushio • February 22, 2010 6:22 PM

Congratulations to the winner! Great work, it’s well deserved. (I was happy to be among the finalists, and I didn’t have the time to make a high-quality version of my entry.)

Cheers, kurusio

DaveM • February 23, 2010 1:32 AM

Congratulations and good work! If you do make this into a T-shirt, I’d suggest rotating the “No Fly list” a little to the left so that you can fit an ‘F’ on it or similar, otherwise a reader pretty much has to be told what it’s supposed to be.

yt • February 23, 2010 6:17 AM

Congratulations Rhys. I’m also looking forward to the tee shirts, but I don’t think I’d have the nerve to wear them through airport security.

The runner up logo gave me another tee shirt idea, though: a torso as it would appear on the new body scanners. For bonus points,print female torsos on men’s shirts and male torsos on women’s shirts as well.

askme • February 23, 2010 8:29 AM

@Lyda, @Bruce

+1 for a follow-up on this! This is some good work and also shows how a lot of the “sophisticated trojan technology” used again against Google is really mainstream (LanREV is just a bitfrost rip…)

Prince Bruce Schnier, ESQ • February 23, 2010 9:06 AM

Dear Mr or Mrs Rhys Gibson,

I am very thankful for the contest winnings you have done. However, there seems to be a problem getting you the winnings you deserve. We will need a small funds guarantee of $190 US DOLLARS in order to cover some postage processing fees. Do not worry, you will be reimbursed for these costs once the transaction is completed. Please send by wire transfer to:

Bruce Schneier
Lagos, Nigera

Thanks you very kindly for your assistances!

His Excellentcy,

Bruce Schneir

Thomas W. Swidarski • February 23, 2010 10:42 AM

It was our pleasure to sponsor this election. Brought to you by Diebold systems!

Remember our motto:
When you realize that votes don’t win elections–counters counting votes win elections.
Then you realize you need Diebold.

Kingsnake • February 23, 2010 12:50 PM

Toothpaste? Guess I should have looked at the image closer. I thought it was anal lube to make the “security” probing less painful …

Bitstorm • February 24, 2010 11:41 AM

@Scott T-shirts
Send the art work to http://www.customink.com and they’ll make you to order for btw 20-30 bucks US.

Interesting point re:acceptable use.

I’d like to print some up for fundraising at the Next Hope, Defcon and a few other places the whole sick crew hangs out.

Didn’t see any thing about it in the rules. Is Rhys still copy right holder?

Rhys and/or Bruce would you release it under a creative commons license?

CK • February 24, 2010 3:54 PM

I have to say that I particularly appreciate the use of the double-headed eagle. It’s a symbol of the Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and … Russia 🙂

dangerjim • March 15, 2010 7:49 PM

Very nice!

I don’t know much about Latin, but on a(n) (pseudo) official seal, shouldn’t the list be titled, “personae non volo?” 🙂

Roxanne • March 16, 2010 7:29 PM

So where do we order the sticker from? Although it’s probably not recommended to put one one your suitcase, is it?

dennis • March 17, 2010 12:13 AM

Is it any surprise how the logo that uses Bruce’s favorite phrase ‘Security Theater’ is the winner?

Ronbo • June 3, 2010 11:54 PM

I’d be interested to know if the winner actually received the prizes. As a former winner of a Schneier contest (second annual screenplay), I didn’t: the books weren’t autographed as promised, and the Amazon gift certificate never arrived. We won’t even mention the Hollywood director’s call, as I never took that promise seriously. But signing a book before you pack it off to send it – really, how hard is that?

Bruce Schneier • June 4, 2010 3:28 PM

@ Ronbo

Apologies. It’s been so long that I don’t remember what happened. But I can certainly make things right. I will contact you via e-mail.

Douglas Lucas • November 20, 2010 12:23 PM

Has anyone figured out if Rhys Gibson has either 1) released the image under a Creative Commons license, or 2) doesn’t mind if some of us stick it on a T-shirt for either a) private use or b) commercial use (i.e. sell through zazzle.com or whatnot)?

‘Cuz I’m flying soon. =D

GoldenRule • December 11, 2010 12:57 PM

I think >ALL< TSA employees should be required by law to perform all there “official TSA duties” in their underwear. After all, don’t we value equality in the United States?

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