As usual, I invite folks to peruse my gallery of past version-banner entries, and winners, for inspiration and perspective:
https://tw-logo-contest.tiddlyhost.com/#v5.3.7
I’ll also try to keep up with this thread as current entries come in.
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Nothing to contribute but some thoughts…
As this is likely the last release in the 5.3 series, it might be good to return to referencing of the main features of this series: functions and procedures, which you can see throughout Springer’s gallery.
The sunset/horizon image by Christian is good too as a metaphor, showing distance (from the first release in the series) and hinting at ‘reflecting back’.
For what it’s worth, it didn’t strike me as AI-like at all and I would have assumed it was homemade vector art. Funnily enough, it reminds me of an intro to a short 2000s Flash film. I tried to find it again on Newgrounds without success. It was pirate-themed and had the Monkey Island theme song playing.
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Well, Christian, I like it. Thanks for sharing it with us. The cat’s really cute in this one.
I love the “confetti explosions” you get during the instruction tour. I just wonder why it is rectangles. 
PS: It’s all homemade and available as SVG. No AI.
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I like it and I have to say it goes to show, that the output of AI depends on the input. 
Maybe a little too literal, but it was a significant end of an era.
560 x 315
Please excuse any anachronisms, all depicted species are purely fictional. Any similarities with real specimens, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
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All of you have great designs. Here’s my attempt. I really appreciate any feedback.
Alfred A
P.S. Oops! Line was on top of cat’s legs.
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Like @Christian_Byron — who got us quickly launched here — I like the “sunset” theme.
But I wanted to do something with an actual feature… and palettes do figure heavily in the improvements list.
So, here’s a design reworking a “tw” mask from a prior version banner idea, but now built entirely on colors from the (updated) Nord palette. Sunset into (nordic) dusk.
Cheers!
Fine print: No automated image-generation engines contributed to the creation of this banner. 
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It is not a “WAS A” yet. You are supposed to promote it before it’s birth, not mourn it’s death (dino extinction) prematurely? 
That said, the meteor in the sky is a good symbol of future promise (Jesus Sign et al).
But what about some detail of the release?
OR do you think it just a step to a halcyon next version?
Just asking, TT
I like it!. v5.4.0 is something to look forward to, and the shooting star is certainly something to look forward to for us dinosaurs. Duarte is really able to bring our eyes to it with that effect. And the dinosaurs are all witnessing it. WE are witnessing the evolution of TW and it is great to be a part of it.
The “twinkle” in that image was something that inspired my own contribution. But it’s obvious I was not able to give it multi-spectrum flash it gives… this one almost hurts the eyes! Great work.
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We don’t have impact yet, those dinos still “are”, most probably survived some time after, so it is still a somewhat accurate depiction of the situation.
I confess I didn’t look much into the new features, I just took Jeremy’s word for it being an interim release and his intention to mark the end of an era.
Hopefully I’ll be able to revisit the theme for the last of the 5.4 series before 6.0
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A vero.
I think we may add elements of the text “v5.4.0” instead of the element of end of the era. An example for it may be a hand tearing “v5.3.7” at half, showing “v5.4.0” under it.
The only problem there (setting aside the challenge of being extra-careful to ensure that it doesn’t look like this is already the banner for the incoming 5.4) is that on at least two occasions (in recent years I can recall) we needed a speedy follow-up minor release (so fast that there wasn’t a full banner preparation interval).
Of course a quick-fix release is never something we positively expect. But surely we shouldn’t completely tie our hands so that v5.3.8 is ruled out. (But maybe a v5.4 subtly on the horizon wouldn’t have the same effect as a tear-off page …?)
Great to see all the entries, and the discussion is helpful.
We are indeed fairly likely to need to make further v5.3.8+ releases, but they would strictly be bug fix release, with no new features. In that situation, I would prefer the banner image to stay the same, just with the version number changing.
I will ask the winner of the banner competition to also prepare artwork for v5.3.8 and perhaps v5.3.9. If we need a bug fix release beyond that I think I would want to change the banner image to reflect the unexpectedness of the situation.
Minor points:
- I agree that there is a risk of confusion if we include v5.4.0 in the banner
- I prefer the banners that have resonant imagery, rather than just typography
- I like the dinosaur idea as an exploration of depicting the end of an era. Perhaps there are other metaphors that might be fruitful: the end of one journey and the beginning of another, or a caterpillar turning into a chrysalis, or a bridge leading to the future. As others have noted, the difficulty is depicting the end of the era, and not the start of the next
Title: It’s a Journey
PS: Completely AI generated using the Edge Copilot. With a prompt that took me 2 hours to refine
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Maybe overstating the gap here - but illustrates the coming transition!
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Probably, one could find some inspirational images in the poem of the same name: The End of a Beautiful Era by Joseph Brodsky. An ax and a laurel? Or a tabby cat with a glass of wine?