Logo procedure and ideas
I think it's good that we're going to have another chance to produce
logos. Many of the ones from the GIMP contest weren't logos at all.
Voting on a wide selection is a good idea, but I think we need to be
clear that we can't have in the vote logos which
- are too Linux-specific
- are just text or the letter D in a funny font
- are actually pictures and not logos at all, eg
+ can't be made distinguishable as a 32x32 or even mono 16x16 icon
+ rely too heavily on colour
+ can't be made to work both light-on-dark and dark-on-light
- rely on `in-jokes' to be interpretable
I think it would be appropriate for some kind of committee to decide
that.
What we should be voting on is the concept. When we have a good
concept it will be worthwhile spending lots of effort on execution -
producing versions tuned for various formats, etc. So voters should
be encouraged to look to the idea, and disregard questions of how well
a particular logo has been executed. If we pick a logo of which we
only have a poor execution at the moment it should be relatively easy
to make a better one later.
At the moment we seem to be very short of ideas for actual logos.
There are perhaps half a dozen or so core ideas, though this is
improving. I think it would be good for people to post their own
ideas, rather than keeping them to themselves. That way the best
ideas can be taken up by others, merged together if necessary, to
produce the best possible concept.
In essence, I think we should be brainstorming at this point. I think
we've gone too far ahead in the process if we think we can at the
moment vote on actual pixmaps.
So, in this spirit, here are some of the ideas I have had, which vary
from hints to overall structures for a logo. Many of them may not be
feasible, but I post them in the hope that they'll give inspiration.
If you like or dislike these ideas *don't* say so - criticism or
praise is out of place in a brainstorming session. If you have your
own ideas, post them. If you like some of these ideas enough, make a
logo from them, or suggest how to put them together with other good
ideas.
Concepts we might want to convey:
* Solidity.
* Cooperation.
* Freedom.
* Diversity.
* Power.
* Flexibility.
* Together.
* Everyday/common/easy.
* Good ideas.
* Light/illumination.
* Forward motion.
* Stability.
* Accessibility.
Ideas for (parts of) logos:
* Penrose tiling, possible as whole logo, or background, or something.
* Wall bricks (giving impression of solidity, but perhaps closedness).
* Open door. (Too close to `Open Source', `Open Group' et al ?)
* Spanner or some other kind of tool. A spanner could be something
else on its other end.
* `Any technology which is distinguishable from magic is
insufficiently advanced' (mutation on Clarke's Law - from or via
Richard Kettlewell). Hence: a magical object of some kind with a
cutaway showing gears or something.
* Interlocking gears.
* A rocket or spaceship (indicating progress and advancement).
* A paintbrush (artistry and attention to detail).
* Crossed implements of some kind (a la knife and fork).
* A spark (electrical spark, lightning bolt, or something).
I've come up with one complete logo design as a result, which I'm just
about to post about.
Ian.
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