Perception, 2013, volume 42, pages 1009 – 1012

doi:10.1068/p4210ed

Guest editorial

ECVP logos
The history of the European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP) has been chronicled
by some of its founders (Cavonius 1999; Spillmann 2003), but less attention has been paid
to the visual accompaniments of the annual gatherings. More specifically, the meetings are
now heralded by logos which seem to reflect the activities or interests of the local organisers.
We will take a look at the logos that have been used and muse about their significance.
A listing of all ECVP meetings can be found at http://ecvp.org/meetings.html. First, however, we
will hark back to the prelogo era in the early years of ECVP before computers commandeered
conferences and before Pion printed elegant abstract booklets.
What is taken as the initial meeting was held at Marburg in 1978. Perceptual portraits of
the organisers of the ‘Workshop on Sensory and Perceptual Processes’ are shown in figure 1.
The Marburg meeting was visually stimulating because a large exhibition of works by
Ludwig Wilding was staged in the entrance to the conference building. The title of the second
meeting, held at Noordwijkerhout, was ‘European Conference on Visual Perception’, and it has
remained so since. It was with the Cambridge meeting in 1984 that logos appeared, both as
flyers for the conference and on conference material. The design (figure 2) not only started

Figure 1. [In colour online, see http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/p4210ed] European Perceptionists by Nicholas

Wade. Perceptual portraits of (clockwise from top left) Dick Cavonius, John Mollon, Lothar Spillmann,
Bernd Lingelbach, and Ingo Rentschler.
1010 Guest editorial

Figure 2. [In colour online.] Logos for the meetings from 1984 to 1992 which took place at Cambridge,
Peñiscola, Bad Nauheim, Varna, Bristol, Zichron Yaakov, Paris, Vilnius, and Pisa.

a trend that has not been interrupted but also implicitly established a theme that has proved
dominant in those that followed. At that time there was considerable attention paid to grating
stimuli—particularly by those in the host institution—and this was alluded to in the logo, as
were illusory contours; it also introduced colour. In contrast, the logo for the following meeting
(Peñiscola, 1985) was produced by an artist (José María Yturralde) who has made many subtle
variations on impossible figures. It is not always evident in retrospect what should be considered
as the logo for a particular conference. In some cases there have been separate designs for flyers
and abstract book covers. We have selected the latter, particularly as they were printed by Pion
after 1996. The logos from 1984 to 1992 are shown in figure 2, and they display variations of
theme from perception to place that continue to be aspects of ECVP logos (see figures 3 and 4).
Exhibitions of art with a visual scientific flavour have made occasional appearances at the
annual meetings. The most extensive was that by2Ludwig Wilding at the Marburg meeting, and
his work was exhibited again at Bad Nauheim (1986). Nicholas Wade had exhibitions of his
op art at Brighton (1980) and another (entitled Visionaries) of perceptual portraits in 1996 at
Strasbourg (see http://www.perceptionweb.com /wade / ). Paintings by Gaetano Kanizsa were
Guest editorial 1011

Figure 3. [In colour online.] Logos for the meetings from 1993 to 2001 which took place at Edinburgh,
Eindhoven, Tübingen, Strasbourg, Helsinki, Oxford, Trieste, Groningen, and Kusadasi.

shown at the Edinburgh meeting (1993), but unfortunately he died shortly before attending its
opening. Reverse perspectives by Patrick Hughes were displayed at the Oxford conference
(1998), and Calum Colvin’s complex interplay between three-dimensional scenes and their
two-dimensional representations were shown in Glasgow (2002); both artists discussed their
work at the meetings. An illusion contest was held at A Coruña (2005), which has turned into
the ‘Best Illusion of the Year contest’ organised and continued by Susana Martinez-Conde and
Stephen Macknik. Illusorimente, held in Alghero (2012), combined the work of many artists
with perceptual leanings as well as scientists who produce art works.
Acknowledgments. We are grateful to many people who have assisted in providing images and
information regarding the logos, particularly John Mollon, Bernd Lingelbach, Ingo Rentschler,
Brian Rogers, Andrei Gorea, Oliver Braddick, and Andrew Watson.
Nicholas J Wade
University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK; e‑mail: n.j.wade@dundee.ac.uk
Jan Koenderink
Delft University of Technology, EEMCS, MMI, Mekelweg 4, NL-2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands;
e‑mail: j.j.koenderink@tudelft.nl
1012 Guest editorial

Figure 4. [In colour online.] Logos for the meetings from 2002 to 2013 which took place at Glasgow,
Paris, Budapest, A Coruña, St Petersburg, Arezzo, Utrecht, Regensburg, Lausanne, Toulouse, Alghero,
and Bremen.

References
Cavonius C R, 1999 “Trends in European visual science: 1978–1997” Perception 28 1435–1442
Spillmann L, 2003 “Re-viewing 25 years of ECVP— A personal view” Perception 32 777–791