On Fri, 21 Feb 2003 23:23:49 +0100 (CET)
Thomas Runge <coto@core.de> wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Harry Waddell wrote:
> 
> > That's "a reason", but perhaps not "reason enough". The argument about
> > the how the poster diverges from the website has some merit. Is there an
> > official "netbsd style-guide"?
> 
> Not that I could find one. We really need a corporate design. Someone
> that pinpoints a style guide, fonts, colo(u)rs, logos. 
> Ah, while we are at "logo". A nice NetBSD logo wouldn't hurt. 

Developing an entire indentity for NetBSD.org is a non-trivial undertaking. 

The logo is actually one of the hardest parts. During the great internet
explosion, just about every simple, clean design imaginable has been
strip-mined from the heads of the worlds graphic designers. It's really hard
to come up with anything simple and original.

We need to figure out exactly how we want to portray ourselves. All too
often people produce a laundry list of things they want crammed into a 1/2"
square which rarely leads to anything but garbage. To create a compelling
logo, given todays bleak creative landscape, I strongly believe that we need
to first clearly, simply and succinctly articulate a theme OR message that
we are trying to convey. 

Most designers work well within a small range of themes. An
associate of mine is a talented, but busy, designer whose done lots of
logos, but I would never ask him to create something with a "Mary
Engelbright" look to it. [If you aren't aquainted with Mary Engelbright,
count yourself amoung the fortunate :-) ]

I miss the old days where you could do something like the GE logo

http://www.ge.com/images/10923_s.gif

simple, beautiful! you can see the brushes of an old motor/generator around
the outside. These days, they are a multinational corp with many major
divisions, but they keep the old recognizable logo. We may want to do the
same with the daemon. [ and as a complete sexist I think the girls in the
daemon outfits look way cuter than the stupid penquin at trade shows and
conventions. I'm sure some he-manly daemons could be arranged as well. :-)]

here are a few other logos you can look at

http://www.caravan.com/Demo/John/Images/logoing.gif

 A short style-guide is good, nothing too pedantic. In addition to the
above, it may also specify less obvious things like logo and text size and
placement relative to each other. Switching the web and docs to some wsort
of stylesheet system is probably the easiest way to ENCOURAGE uniformity.


> Over the
> years I got comfortable with this civil war-like logo on our home page,
> but it's not appealing to non insider. Too complicated, no eye catcher.
>

It's alluding to WWII actually. The [second] raising of the flag at Iwo
Jima.

 http://community.webshots.com/photo/5465042/5422317iuaZSPcEMl
 
> How about a brainstorming session? Some ideas for a new logo?
> 

I'm in. I still think we need to narrow the field a bit. But, oh yeah, then
it wouldn't be brainstorming. 

-- 
Harry Waddell
Caravan Electronic Publishing
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