Would it be ok to change this from a contest to more of a team-work effort? Or is our hearts set on having a contest.
In a team effort we could take everyone proposals and integrate and adapt the best practices and most liked parts. In a team effort we could cut up the different branding tasks and assign them out. I think we can build a brand together better than we can individually. We certainly can have a contest in a different area though, like a promotional video. I feel that a brand shouldn't be something up to a contest, and a RFP process is too bureaucratic for a voluntary organization. Does anyone feel similar? I don't know if people are thinking the same as well. Specially because a lot of time has passed. I am willing to take responsibility to drive the effort and work with the volunteers who have already prepared work on the wiki and are willing and waiting. I would head the proposal for a new branding, organize the volunteers to work together or integrate each other's ideas or designs. Then from it we could take two or three full brand proposals and host them on the wiki, then have the AOO community vote on those. I would provide and organize all the material on the wiki, work with volunteers to achieve their goals, yet satisfy our criteria. I would communicate with marketing team to capture that criteria or even just to confirm what I make is fine. I would have to do my due diligence in researching branding so that our talented designers doesn't need to worry about it. Does anyone have an objection to me taking responsibility, working with the designers and changing this effort to team based? Samer On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 1:49 AM, Graham Lauder <[email protected]> wrote: > > Firstly an apology for my extended absence, however the contract that has > been > consuming my time finishes tomorrow so I shall be unemployed and able to > devote some time to AOO once again. > > > On Tuesday 05 Feb 2013 13:50:35 Samer Mansour wrote: > > I just talked to a few full time designers at IBM I ran into while at > lunch > > and showed them the proposals so far just as a "what do you think?" > > > > Just saying this now, my design got slammed, after they told me tips and > > feedback I was convinced it was bad, even though I thought very highly of > > it 10 mins prior. I think I want to pull it out at this point, but we'll > > leave it up as what not to do... > > I love the IBM design team! :) Take it as a learning experience however. > The one time I made a gentle criticism of someones art work on the old OOo > art > project list I got attacked and abused and the guy never talked to me > again! > :D So I tend to be a little deferential these days. > > They are so right however and I think I tried to cover those things in the > original proposal mail. Take some time to read the original proposal for > the > RFP thread on Gmane here: > http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.apache.incubator.ooo.devel/27742 > > > Branding is not just a logo there is a whole raft of considerations that > need > to go into a brand. This site explains the types of considerations, they > are > a commercial desgn house but they explain it quite well: > > http://www.redfiredesign.co.nz/difference-between-a-brand-and-a-logo/ > > We don't want just a logo, we want a brand. That brand has to have > impact, be > unique, and tell the world about AOO across multiple cultures and > languages. > Remember; OOo had around 120 Native language projects, it is a global brand > and the brand has to reflect that. > > > > > > I would recommend anyone here to reach out to designers they know and ask > > them for feedback on the proposal pages, ideas they have. The more > > knowledge and feedback we collect the better we are going into this. > > > > I can summarize their feedback and some helpful points. We don't have to > > do any changes we don't feel are right, but it could only help us to hear > > this. > > > > No particular order, I wrote down points, just writing them out detailed > > now. > > > > 1. It has to be reproducible. > > Chris R's is a great example, very simple logo. Both logo's with > feathers > > would be a nightmare to reproduce. Suggested not to be part of the logo, > > but it can be part of a website design or splash screen, refresh/changes > > with versions. > > > > 2. It does not need to be part of the icons. Bonus points if you can make > > them related though. > > Tips for icons > > - Can't go solely on colours for distinguishing modules. > > - Primary detail (Table, Sigma, Database, Text Lines, etc.) should be > > fairly large and pronounced as the main idea being communicated to the > user > > visually in the icon. > > - Secondary detail - (brand) smaller, eg. single small bird in corner to > > tie it to the brand, again optional and remove for simplicity. > > - Do not user language characters, as it does not internationalize well, > ie > > C for calc, M for math. Criticism seen in Adobe products (they get away > > with it). Sigma is fine, as its internationally known. > > > > > 3. Font > > What's in is thin, sleek fonts. ie. my font choice looks like I'm stuck > in > > the 90s, very techy looking. Who are we appealing to? End users, > everyday > > folk, they like sleek. > > I like them better and better, End Users, that's who we're communicating > with > and should be the arbiters of our brand ... in fact they will be in the > end. > It's good to have input from people at the coalface who know what will push > the right buttons with our endusers. Remember that the vast majority of > our > end users are non-techy > > > > > 4. Don't constrain ourselves to rounded square > > - We seem to be trying to fit a predefined container. Same with trying > to > > integrate the colours. We're trying too hard. Keep it simple and > original. > > Don't have the gulls hanging in mid air. "Ground them" Michael's #8 > where > > the wings touch the circle is a good example of how to do that. They are > > part of it. > > > > I'm going to go home and make a new proposal that will highlight this > > feedback, soon hopefully. Just to show the ideas in an example. I will > > quantify some of these as possible requirements so that we have something > > to aim for. > > > > Samer > > I look forward to seeing it, however it's just a logo, we need to build a > brand which is a whole different ballgame. > > Cheers > GL > > > > > > > > > On Feb 5, 2013 4:41 AM, "Jürgen Schmidt" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On 2/5/13 7:31 AM, Samer Mansour wrote: > > > > Picking a logo, hmmm. > > > > > > > > First part is dates. > > > > We could find our dates by working backwards: > > > > 1. When is the estimated release date of AOO4? > > > > > > we currently focus on April/May but no exact dates planned yet because > > > we have still many things to do. I expect a more detailed schedule > later > > > this month. > > > > > > > 2. When do we need to have a logo picked (consider time to > > > > integrate). > > > > > > I would say we should focus on end of February. Keep in mind that we > > > need final design work after we picked a proposal, need icons, app > logo, > > > banner logo etc. > > > > > > > 3. When do we need to start a final vote. > > > > > > aligned with 2. > > > > > > > 4. If/When do we need a preliminary/elimination vote. > > > > > > not sure if this is needed at all > > > > > > > 5. When is proposal deadline. > > > > Consider how much time for each of the above steps, advertise the > > > > > > schedule > > > > > > > so that everyone voting knows when voting will occur and won't miss > > > > it. > > > > > > > > Second part is voting: > > > > How do we pick a logo by voting: > > > > - We could do rounds of elimination voting. Like American Idol, the > > > > weakest X number of logo gets eliminated. You can then vote again > > > > on > > > > > > the > > > > > > > next round for a logo that survived if your first logo pick did not. > > > > - Who gets to vote? Help me on this one, I'm newb, is it all the > > > > mailing lists? Dev list, etc. one person a vote. > > > > > > good question, we can run of course several rounds but I wouldn't do > too > > > many. But I am flexible > > > > > > > Third part is criteria: > > > > - What are the minimum criteria for the logo. > > > > - What are the constraints of the logo, if any, ie. technical. > > > > > > at least free and proper licensed font > > > > > > I personally would keep the blue as our preferred color to demonstrate > > > continuity. > > > > > > We should keep in mind that a logo that can be used for different > > > merchandising material has some advantages. > > > > > > > From the sounds of it, we were not proposing finished work at this > > > > point> > > > in > > > > > > > time. Still a lot of bouncing ideas, I do feel like our designs > > > > are > > > > beginning to conform to a higher than all of us design from our > > > > > > feedbacks. > > > > > > > Maybe voting will be easy, who knows. I'm optimistic here. > > > > > > In general I would recommend to select one of the proposals until end > of > > > February and target the final bits until end of March. Integration > > > should take not too long and we can test it afterwards in detail. > > > > > > > Feedback is welcome, specially in areas like voting. We can start > > > > populating this, such as dates. > > > > > > thanks for driving this forward. A new fresh design with keeping some > of > > > the former elements or colors is a good move. We don't need a radical > > > new design, a refresh is perfect form my point of view. > > > > > > Juergen > > > > > > > Samer > > > > > > > > On Feb 4, 2013 6:11 AM, "Jürgen Schmidt" <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > >> On 2/1/13 6:03 PM, Kadal Amutham wrote: > > > >>> I have edited the wiki , giving numbers to all the logos. So all > > > >>> of us> > > > > > can > > > > > > > >>> have a look and vote as follows giving the ranking. Kinldy use > > > > > > alphabets > > > > > > >>> for ranking meaning A as the best, B next one and Z the last. > > > >> > > > >> before we start voting on the logos I would suggest that we define > > > >> some basic rules and a timeline (when to start, how long the vote > > > >> is open etc.). We have some very interesting and good proposals > > > >> but in the end only one can make it. We should also consider a > > > >> complete brand, means a proposal that can be applied everywhere > > > >> (logo, file icons and app icon, webpage, intro, about, ...) > > > >> > > > >> Just my opinion > > > >> > > > >> Juergen >
