Time to talk brand.
Very few people liked the logo. It has a few problems:
* It doesn't look like a logo
* It doesn't look much like what it was constructed to look like
* It does not include a clear product name
We've stuck with it because it's what we had, and change is hard and
painful. I think most of us have thought that we should do better, not
just with the logo but with the look of the site and other design
elements, generally.
I've put a bit of thought into prior discussion about logos. There was
a lot of talk about just using an "H" for the logo. I've always thought
that the H by itself was too plain, but that decorating the H by adding
bits was more like putting lipstick on a pig than trying to create a
recognizable, iconic logo. There were attempts at color, which we
should all know better to avoid around here by now.
So I began styling the H a bit, in my head and on paper. I thought it
might be fun to have an H with radio waves coming out of it, and so I
drew a few of those. I thought about how the name and logo might be
animated, and that the first and last letters of "Habari" are "Hi",
which is interesting to me, as it evokes the kind of feeling you get
being around our community -- "Hi! Welcome! What's new?"
Ultimately, I came up with a design that pleased me, and pitched the
idea to a couple of people to see what they thought. Some feedback and
tweaks later, and I've arrived at something that we all seemed to like:
http://static.owenw.com/habari_logo_draft_2.png
I'm not claiming that this logo is perfect. It does correct some
problems that our current logo has. The font for the domain name might
not be ideal, but this is a detail that's easily altered if there's some
consensus as to what might be better. It does hit some key logo features:
* Scalable - It's legible/recognizable when small on screen or poster-sized.
* Memorable - I think this design is distinct enough that you could
describe it from memory.
* Simple - The design is not complicated, having few details or frills.
* Effective without color - It might be nice to apply some color to it
in certain situations, but it's not necessary, which is good when
printed in monochrome.
* Timeless - This logo doesn't cater to any current logo design fads.
* Original - The custom welding of the upper case H from a lowercase h
and i gives this just enough originality without complicating the design.
Aesthetically, we can't please everyone. I think this particular
iteration is reasonably inoffensive enough that, if it's even necessary,
it could be tweaked only subtly to arrive at something we could accept
as a community for the logo.
My intent is not to start a thread filled with new logo submissions.
Rather, I'd ask you simply to consider whether you would accept this as
a logo for Habari. If this logo has some specific reason why it's use
is unacceptable for our project, please reply with those thoughts. If
you like the logo, maybe even you have some specific useful suggestion
to tweak it that could improve it -- you can reply with that too. Let's
just get a consensus going one way or another, and maybe we can move
forward.
Thanks.
Owen
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