The Mysterious Origin of the Papery NEOS Logo
Every year, as the NEOS Conference looms on the horizon, a noble quest begins: to find the perfect thank-you gift for our speakers and helpers. You know, something meaningful. Something unique. Something you can’t just grab off AliExpress at 3 a.m. while impulse-shopping in your pajamas.
We know that preparing a talk involves more than just 45 minutes of PowerPoint glory on stage. And we’re well aware that volunteers put in time, effort, and caffeine to make this conference the magical tech-fueled chaos we all love. So naturally, we wanted gifts that say:
"We see you. We appreciate you. Also, here’s something you can glue together!"
Honey? Easy.
Our first gift idea was sweet (literally): honey from local bees around Karlsruhe. Not only delicious, but the bees were union-approved and had a strong record of community service in pollination. But we needed a second gift—something fun, crafty – something gluey.
Barcelona, Paper Pokémon & a stroke of genius
While wandering the enchanting alleys of Barcelona (as one does), Jürgen stumbled into a small shop called Yonadiy. The walls were covered with famous paper models — from superheroes to video game characters. It was glorious.
Naturally, he bought a Vulpix (because: priorities), built it at home, and it quickly became the star of every dinner conversation. That’s when inspiration struck harder than a Pikachu thunderbolt:
"Could we make the NEOS logo out of paper?"
Email sent. Fingers crossed.
The long wait (and the mild panic)
To our surprise, the shop owner replied quickly and agreed to try. She said she’d get back to us in two months.
Two. Months.
That was late February. Cue nervous pacing.
But lo and behold—on February 26th, 2025—a photo landed in our inbox: a stunning, almost-finished paper NEOS logo. 80% done! The hard part was over!
Or so we thought.
Paper, printing and problems
All we had to do was find a print shop that could cut and package it. “Piece of cake,” we told ourselves, naively.
Spoiler: Not cake. Not even muffin.
Turns out, precise die-cutting is surprisingly expensive, and the price difference between “cut” and “uncut” was enough to make Jürgen rethink his life choices. Oh, and finding the perfect shades of blue? Let’s just say, if you ever want to pay €9 for a single sheet of cardboard, we know a guy.
In the end, we went with a fresh, minimalist look: white and light blue. 300 NEOS logos were born, and Jürgen requested 25 early copies to see how hard it really was to build one.
The Glue Diaries
Assembling the first one was... a journey. A therapeutic, sticky-fingered, “where-does-tab-C-go” kind of journey. It quickly became clear we needed a proper guide, so we wrote one. You can find the full tutorial here.
We hope building your NEOS logo brings you as much joy as we had in organizing the chaos that made it possible.
And just so you know—every euro from the sales of these paper logos helps support the NEOS Project. So while you're folding tabs and wondering where your life went wrong, just remember: you're helping build more than just cardboard. You're supporting open-source innovation, one papercut at a time.
