Please don't even try to imagine a graphic designer that would turn abstract ideas like Stability and Ease of use into a useful graphic. That's impossible. In reality, it's the reverse. You have a memorable image that you can associate with the qualities you discover in a product. And only then does the image 'obtain' those qualities.
Does a 3-pointed star represents German high-precision engineering, and luxury? I doubt that. Yet, Benz is using that shape. And people have come to associate those qualities with exactly the kind of 3-pointed star Benz uses, and no other. You can put just any kind of 3-pointed star on your car and expect it to look well-made and comfortable. It only works if it's the Mercedes-Benz 3-pointed star. When Arch Linux community had it's logo design contest, we run into this very problem: discussion about the qualities that a logo should represent. And, of course, you can't find those qualities in the logo that's currently being used unless you've associated them with the image yourself. But the discussion dragged on for days, and the whole community was divided in a flame war. There were even some 'professionals' who claimed a logo really can speak 1000 words. That's so far from truth. You'd really have to draw a painting of a logo to pull that off. So, what are the notable exceptions to the above? Concrete imagery. In other words, mascots. And only those mascots that have some root in the culture. Lions, Tigers, Crane, Frogs, etc. Those animals have traditionally lots of characteristics associated with them. So using such images definitely can tell a story. What about that ship? Well, it's a 50-50 bet. To some it may speak, to others it may not. And here's a good test of this. How many of you had the following ideas when seeing that ship: * Ability to carry a huge amount of load: scalability * A graceful voyage across a vast ocean: stability * Took a lot of manpower to build: great community How many of you got those ideas upon seeing it? I suspect most had other thoughts. I seriously doubt there is a unified and universal graphical language that you can use reliably to relay abstract messages. IOW: Graphic design still hasn't got it's HTTP. ;) So, before this turns into a pointless discussions, let's just stop wasting time on abstract ideas. Stability, Speed, Scalability, et al. those are for the product itself to achieve, not the logo. Logo can be colorful, sharp, cute, dull, crap... Let's focus on what the logo CAN be, please. On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 6:36 PM, mwolfe02 <michael.joseph.wo...@gmail.com> wrote: > Excellent points. > > On Oct 26, 12:04 pm, Anthony <abasta...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Also: >> 3. Easy (to learn and use) >> 4. Open/welcoming/friendly/helpful (this refers to the community) >> 5. Active development (i.e., constantly being enhanced and improved) >> >> As for the logo, I'm sure opinions will differ on all-text vs. image >> logos (and will probably depend a lot on the particular design), but >> I'm not sure a highly literal physical object image (e.g., boat, >> train, animal, etc.) will work that well for web2py. Those kinds of >> images certainly make sense when they represent something directly in >> the brand name (e.g., Ruby on Rails has a ruby with rails; Turbogears >> has a gear; Flask has a flask), but can be confusing otherwise. That's >> not to say we shouldn't have an image, but if we do, something more >> abstract may work better (e.g., like the old logo). >> >> Anthony >> >> On Oct 26, 11:27 am, mwolfe02 <michael.joseph.wo...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > I really like the idea of a bold, simple image to represent the >> > framework. I'm just not convinced a ship is the right image. >> >> > Maybe it would be more helpful to the few good logo designers on this >> > list (of which Branko is certainly one), for us to propose different >> > images. I'll list what I feel (personally) are the strengths of the >> > framework that an image would ideally represent: >> >> > 1a. Speed (of development) >> > 1b. Security >> > 2. Reliability/Stability (ie, promise of backwards >> > compatibility...the one thing that *truly* distinguishes web2py from >> > other frameworks; most others don't even try) >> >> > Some quick image ideas off the top of my head (that may or may not be >> > practical as logos): >> > - 'bullet' train >> > - sailfish >> > - catamaran sailboat (a bit more modern-looking/faster than Branko's >> > original ship design; though I'd imagine less logo-friendly) >> > - hummingbird >> > - chain (close-up of two or three individual links) >> > - hawk >> > - lion >> > - gazelle >> >> > Please note that I've left off spiders and snakes. I think they would >> > add less than nothing to web2py's brand identity. >> > -Mike >> >> > On Oct 26, 9:56 am, Anthony <abasta...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> > > What do people think about including "Enterprise Web Framework" tag >> > > line in the logo? I've noticed that in quite a number of public >> > > discussions of web2py (e.g., on Reddit), the term "Enterprise" is both >> > > misunderstood and mocked. That doesn't mean we should stop using it, >> > > but I wonder if we want to emphasize it by including it right in the >> > > logo (maybe at least consider a logo that could work with our without >> > > the tag line included). >> >> > > Anyway, this all-text logo by Branko is very nice. I like it better >> > > than the ship logo. For me, although the ship logo is aesthetically >> > > appealing, both the ship and the font give it sort of an old-fashioned >> > > feeling (i.e., rather than modern and cutting-edge). Also, I don't >> > > quite get the meaning of the ship -- how does it relate to the web2py >> > > brand identity? >> >> > > Anthony >> >> > > On Oct 26, 6:49 am, Branko Vukelic <bg.bra...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> > > > On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 2:00 AM, mdipierro <mdipie...@cs.depaul.edu> >> > > > wrote: >> > > > > I have no strong opinion one way or another. >> >> > > > How about this one? >> >> > > > -- >> > > > Branko Vukelić >> >> > > > bg.bra...@gmail.com >> > > > stu...@brankovukelic.com >> >> > > > Check out my blog:http://www.brankovukelic.com/ >> > > > Check out my portfolio:http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxbunny/ >> > > > Registered Linux user #438078 (http://counter.li.org/) >> > > > I hang out on identi.ca:http://identi.ca/foxbunny >> >> > > > Gimp Brushmakers Guildhttp://bit.ly/gbg-group >> >> > > > web2py_lettering.png >> > > > 116KViewDownload- Hide quoted text - >> >> > - Show quoted text - -- Branko Vukelić bg.bra...@gmail.com stu...@brankovukelic.com Check out my blog: http://www.brankovukelic.com/ Check out my portfolio: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxbunny/ Registered Linux user #438078 (http://counter.li.org/) I hang out on identi.ca: http://identi.ca/foxbunny Gimp Brushmakers Guild http://bit.ly/gbg-group
