Re: Logo procedure and ideas
Quoting Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>:
> 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.
I aggreed with your guidelines on this point.
>
> 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.
I think you got a good point here. Saying comment around from Ean and
other, I think this can give some food for logo designers.
>
> 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.
[I don't think that debian-devel is the best place for this but:]
Here's the brainstorm:
>
>
> 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.
Agreed.
>
> * Wall bricks (giving impression of solidity, but perhaps closedness).
Move this to figure/picture engrave on brick/stone wall (like some
old maia/asian sculptures) and will got your point, along with some sort
of artistic part and long-lasting/immortality ideas.
>
> * Open door. (Too close to `Open Source', `Open Group' et al ?)
Don't like it... Doors can be close. Openness are really exploit by
idea of sky/clouds. So a picture of a door/window open on the sky
give you the idea of "we free you from your jail (the windows ;) to give you all
the freedom of flying."). But sure, this kind of logo will fit better
for freedows, but the idea is there.
>
> * Spanner or some other kind of tool. A spanner could be something
> else on its other end.
Should be better than the claw and hammer (sorry for your logo) from
the control panel. The nearest thing of the idea we would like to
convince is the puzzle[don't like much -- idea of complicated parts]
or the bee.
>
> * `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.
Hum... That's why I like the magic swirl. We should avoid, however,
wizards and magic wands because they're alreasy used by infomagic.
>
> * Interlocking gears.
Engineering, well tuned mechanism... they're good but care should be
done for scalability. Similar theme can be acheive with the Cardinal
Axes or the compas (either magnetic or not), your logos being a good
example of this.
>
> * A rocket or spaceship (indicating progress and advancement).
Moon also is good. Dream, Artistic, the impossible goal given to
you by Debian... GNOME used a similar theme with its foot (idea of
evolution/progress) and I like it a lot.
>
> * A paintbrush (artistry and attention to detail).
The palette of colours are good also, showing that Debian is what
you decide to paint with. A ~similar~ effect can be acheive with the
rainbow.
>
> * Crossed implements of some kind (a la knife and fork).
Cross often mean multiple services but restrict the choices of elements
to linear one (like fork, paintbrush, claw, candle). Some good things
can be done with this but remove some "solidness" because it's often
look like a tin frame.
>
> * A spark (electrical spark, lightning bolt, or something).
>
Lightning bolt is good. Conduct ideas of control elements (engineering),
power (Jupiter) and magic (good old Lightening Bolt spell ;)
>
> I've come up with one complete logo design as a result, which I'm just
> about to post about.
good logo but I think a bit too much elements and miss the solidness of
Debian, an important point I think.
>
> Ian.
>
>
Good work :)
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Fabien Ninoles Chevalier servant de la Dame Catherine des Rosiers
aka Corbeau aka le Veneur Debian GNU/Linux maintainer
E-mail: fab@tzone.org
WebPage: http://www.tzone.org/~fabien
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