Hi Ivan, all,
Ivan M schrieb:
Hi Bernhard, all,
On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 11:40 PM, Bernhard Dippold
<bernh...@familie-dippold.at> wrote:
Hi all,
I created a wiki page covering some important points to be
considered on the way towards the new project:
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Design_Artwork_and_Branding_Project_Proposal
I'm sure I didn't think at all of them, so:
Please comment, improve, discuss - whatever ;-)
I have a few general comments/questions, so I'll list them here under
the sections they correspond to on the wiki page.
== First Steps ==
You have listed the Art project here; at the moment it is not clear
what will happen to the art project itself - will it remain, or will
it be integrated into this new project? This is probably still
something to sort out, but it's something that deserves
consideration. If the art project stays, would it still be a subset
of marketing or would it too become a stand-alone project?
I'm not quite sure, if it would be reasonable to have an extra Art
Project as it's the other side of the same medal:
Every theoretical branding decision has to be put in real graphics,
while new artwork needs to be looked at with regards to it's fitting to
the existent branding surroundings.
And when the project is working on improving the visual identity by more
general usable graphical elements, both parts have to work together with
a maximum of integration.
Therefore I'd prefer creating a single new project covering both aspects.
You are right - the wiki page is unclear in this point.
The User interface project is an interesting case, because this is
where Stella's work comes under - it is at the top of the list on
the UI project homepage [1]. [...]
Stella told me some years ago, that she's using the UI website just
because someone with write access to this projects could be reached
physically during minutes... So it's just convenience, her work is not
really part of this project.
On the other hand I think they should be included because of the
appearance of the branding elements inside the UI: Splash screen, start
center, about box, application background and others can be named here.
Even if their website and mailing lists have not been very active during
the last years, they should be mentioned (and perhaps they become more
active because of our work...)
One other thing we might consider is looking at branding related
projects in other open source projects [...] Other projects might
provide additional insights into different approaches we might take.
As far as I can see (having not been actively searching the different
projects), activity is directly related to the grade of impact on the
final product.
Similar to the present "official" and "additional" galleries I'm
thinking of a kind of "playground" or "sandbox" for new ideas not (yet)
fitting to the branding rules. Any new graphical topic might be
developed there, until the team decides about including it in the
general visual design.
This would allow to create artwork without restriction by the branding
rules that will not weaken our visual impact in public.
== After establishing the new project& Next Activities ==
The wiki page says: "Revise present artwork and design elements with
regards to their usability for a general branding design."
As I see it, this is a very complex and potentially problematic
matter. Do we try to make existing artwork consistent using current
artwork as a basis, or do we start again (e.g. begin with the logo
and then evolve other designs from the tone set by the logo)? This
has clear implications for the creation of a style guide.
Both aspects have their advantages and disadvantages, therefore I put
this part in the agenda for the new project.
Creating a branding strategy from the scratch can lead to optimal
results at the end, because it is not necessary to care for present
suboptimal elements.
On the other hand this would mean to lose everything what people already
recognize as OOo - our branding elements are having their effect since a
couple of years.
Therefore I'd go a way between these extremes:
Define the goals of OOo quite clearly (perhaps run a survey among the
community on that topic) and have a look at any of the present graphical
elements with regards to it's relation to this goals and it's usability
for our general branding. Keeping in mind the recognition value of these
elements (this might be part of such a survey too), we then have to
decide, if they should be part of the new branding identity, if they
have to be updated or recreated from the scratch.
== Continuous work ==
I was interested in Christoph's idea of having a branding/identity
person on relevant i-Teams.
Must be added to the wiki page - no question.
We could also try to have goals for each
OOo release.
And for other OOo related events. I like the modified website logo we
had in October and November...
I have been thinking about certain areas of OOo that
could do with some artwork, and many of them are listed on my wiki
page.[...]
You're totally right - all these areas (and probably much more) are
necessary topics for the new project.
They have to be represented in a proper area of the new project: easily
accessible, easy to update and to append...
If I have the time to do so, I'll include it in the wiki page, but if
you (or anybody else) want to, please update the wiki page by yourself.
Best regards
Bernhard
PS: I plan to include the other relevant projects in this discussion
during the next days. Do you (all of you here) have any objections? Do
we want to discuss anything internally before?
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