On Mon, 2003-12-01 at 23:55, Raj Mathur wrote:
>
> LL> ummmmmm,... was just gonna tell you guys it is a great
> LL> illustration, but not a logo. these are two different
> LL> things. a logo is *not* an illustration. there are some strict
> LL> rules that must be adhered to, before you get a true logo.
>
> Which are...?
sigh! was trying to avoid this.
anyways, here are the rules for designing a logo.
[published under FDL by linuxlingam. aish karo!]
have formulated these rules over the years working in graphic design,
and for students and graphic design workshop participants.
1) logo has to be a shape. a strict line-art. {not an illustration,
photo, painting, etc}.
[google the word 'glyph' to get a synonym for shape]
2) it must have a squarish proportion. [read on why..]
3) it must be scalable: from a tie-pin and a cuff link all the way to
the side of a building. [so if it is widely rectangular it will give you
scalability problems when trying to reduce it to fit on a tie-pin or
something]
4) it must be easily reproducible on a range of media [fax, photocopy,
weave, newsprint, bubblejet, web(in websafe colors), cmyk print, emboss,
extrude, wood-cut, knit, even landscape (like the famous maurya logo),
die-cut, screen-print, video graphics, web-animation, etc.
[you want to diffuse the logo in the real world out there, not hang it
in a museum somewhere]
5) colors: it must be created in the following minimum versions
concurrently:
i) black-and-white
ii) grayscale
iii) spot-colors (ideally 2 or 3)
iv) cmyk process offset
v) rgb (which obviously means avoid gold and other stuff)
vi) web-safe index
note: options i) and ii) automatically allow it to be reproduced in
various tints and tones. (such as a nike logo in red, blue, white, etc.
6) it must also be reproducible in inverse or reverse colors.
that is, both black and white, and white on black, and so on.
7) it must have a mnemonic factor. this means something about it that
aids recall. for example, the apple logo is half-bitten. (aside: the
apple ass is also half-bitten, but that's called M$, not mnemonic! :-)
) for instance, the ibm logo has stripes on it. that's a mnemonic
factor.
8) its use with an accompanying logotype (letters that spell out the
brand or the idea that it stands for, must be clearly defined and
consistently followed: the logotype on the left, on the right, etc etc,
and is a clever placement.
9) the logotype must be such that the logo+logotype composition and
visual placements allow for the logotype to be switched in any language
of the world. don't be obsessed with the english language and alphabet.
the world's third largest language is tamil. chinese is number one. i
forget number two. raj may mistakenly believe it to be perl. :-)
finally, the LinuxLingam recommendation:
*never* design a logo out of shapes of the alphabets. you are
automatically locking out people who do not use that alphabet. the logo
must always be a visual shape. besides, playing with alphabet shapes is
so cliche, so tired, and so creatively mundane, unchallenging, and may i
say, pathetic. however, the logotype must be really advanced
understanding of typography.
hope this helps.
the current linux delhi 'logo' fails all the above 9 points. hence it is
not a logo, it is an illustration. (try scaling the maharaja or other
image to a tie-pin size, and all the details in the turban etc
disappear).
in fact, by strict design terms, the TuX penguin is *not* and can never
be a logo. it is in truth, just a mascot. like ronald is a mascot of
mcdonalds, and the paint boy of asian paints, etc etc. however, a
creative person can create a logo based on shape or aspect of a shape of
the penguin, that resonates the mascot. linus trovalds chose the penguin
as a mascot. period. who ever said that's a logo. it isn't.
and if you must know, even the gnu head of gnu.org is an illustration (a
pencil illustration) and therefore not a logo.
okay, so what am i doing about this.
am working with a bunch of graphic design students at the moment. will
suggest to them if they can think of a logo. they will do it in sodipodi
as an svg. but it is their initiative if they wish to take it up.
in the meantime, go ahead and print teeshirts with the linux delhi
mascot illustration. they will look great.
the logo will come one day, somewhere, somehow.
:-)
LL
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