I really like this iteration, although I am not sold on the domain name font, but that is minor.
I think the font used for the letter mark might be able to be tweaked a bit, but that is minor as well. All in all I really love the direction and the effect. Thanks for the work on this Owen! On Feb 23, 2012, at 12:31 PM, Owen Winkler wrote: > 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 > > -- > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/habari-dev -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/habari-dev
