The ISCA Logo and ISCA Newsletter
In 1988, shortly after the establishment of the European Speech Communication Association (ESCA), the ESCA board decided it needed a logo and wanted a newsletter. Below follow two brief histories on the ISCA logo and newsletter.
(Author: Odette Scharenborg, with a lot of input from Joseph Mariani, Maxine Eskenazi, Christian Wellekens, and Emily Mower Provost)
A brief history of the ISCA logo
In 1988, a Call for Ideas for a logo for the newly established ESCA was sent out. Around a dozen potential logos were received (the top 6 logos can be found here). The winning logo was designed by Dominique Béroule, a CNRS researcher from LIMSI, Paris. In the ESCA logo, the speech signal transforms into the letters of ESCA, as a wonderful illustration of the mystery of speech, going from a continuous signal to a sequence of meaningful discrete symbols.
In 2024, the ISCA board decided on a large update of the ISCA website and database structure. While building the new website, a new, temporary blue logo was designed by Mia Grote. This logo was ultimately selected as the new logo of ISCA by the ISCA community through a logo competition (announced at Interspeech 2025 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Interspeech).
A brief history of the ISCA Newsletter
In 1988, Joseph Mariani, the ESCA president, asked Maxine Eskenazi also at LIMSI-CNRS, to become the first Editor-in-Chief. This newsletter was called NESCA (as in Nescafe) and the logo was a cup of coffee, inviting the reader to relax and read its content. The newsletter was printed on paper and distributed by post (snail mail) twice per year. In 1992, in issue 8, a survey to the readership was included to inquire what topics they would like to see addressed in the NESCA. In 1992, Maxine stepped down as Editor-in-Chief, and Antonio Rubio took over, followed by Joaquim Llisterri. In April 1998, Isabel Trancoso became the Editor-in-Chief when she became the ESCA board member in charge of publications. The frequency of the newsletter changed to monthly. The name of the newsletter was also changed: During an ESCA board meeting in Grenoble, hosted by Christian Benoit, they had dinner in a restaurant called l’Escapade. During this dinner, the name ESCAPad was proposed by Christian Benoît, which is a joke in French with the French word "Escapade" (“getaway”). After the founding of ISCA, the name of ESCAPad changed to ISCAPad, and the joke of course no longer works.
After editing 43 newsletters, Isabel Trancoso stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of the ESCAPad in 2002. Christian Wellekens then took over. He was the Editor-in-Chief for 282(!) issues, i.e., for more than 23 years. He received an ISCA Service Medal for his great work on the ISCApad in 2018.
In August 2025, the ISCApad changed format, name, and Editor-in-Chief again. The new Editor-in-Chief is Emily Mower Provost who is on the ISCA board the person in charge of communication. The name of the newsletter changed to ISCA News after a voting amongst the ISCA board. Moreover, the newsletter is now more integrated with the ISCA website.