Forum OpenACS Q&A: OpenACS Logo?

1: OpenACS Logo?

Posted by Scott Mc Williams on 04/28/00 04:42 AM

Hi all. I've been lurking for quite a while now. I'm a marketing/graphics kinda guy with very limited hacking ability. But when I saw the call for a new logo I felt I could finally offer something besides bug reports!

So here's a first draft of a possible Open ACS logo. I read the comments on the Naming topic and thought this could use it's own. I am using a certain dog as a model...but I think you'll get that.

Let me know! Like I said...first draft only...

2: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Roberto Mello on 04/28/00 05:14 AM

Ahahah, really nice logo and nice idea to use Alex in the logo. I am not a graphics person but here are my suggestions:

- The logo would have to be something that could be shrinked or expanded, say to use in a page footer so that we could have millions of pages saying "Powered by OpenACS".

- Make Alex's face smaller to comply with the above.

- The "Open" in light blue kind of disappears. Maybe another color (darker) ?

That's it. Thanks for taking this over ! This is really nice.

3: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Ben Adida on 04/28/00 05:48 AM

wow, a logo designer on board! I'm impressed. I agree with Roberto's points. Making the head smaller and the "Open" more noticeable would be really useful. This is going to be great! I'm psyched!

4: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Gregory McMullan on 04/28/00 05:57 AM

Hmm, interesting - on my screen, the "Open" is in no danger of disappearing, so I don't see that as a problem. For a smaller version, is there any chance of just shrinking Alex's head and having him look out from the "O" in "Open"? Or possibly in the "C". That way, the "Powered by" image would just be bounded by the letters.

Very cool logo, though, Scott!

5: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Brent Fulgham on 04/28/00 06:28 AM

I really like this! I would prefer if the face were only as high asthe O/A combination, which would make it much more "button-friendly".But I love the concept -- and it's quite well done, too.

6: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 04/28/00 06:29 AM

Shrinkability, yes, that's the only complaint I have, though I suspect Roberto's comment about light blue may well hold, too (we need a logo that plays to the least common denominator in regard to color space).

But, the in-your-face aspect of using Alex is only matched by the in-your-face aspect of the OpenACS name. Might as well have a logo in keeping with our name.

OK, I'm not one to play subtle so if folks want to stick it to 'em, so to speak, I'm for it. Maybe it will cause Philip/aD to start thinking about the real meaning of Open Source.

7: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Scott Mc Williams on 04/28/00 06:48 AM

Thanks for the response guys! I agree that the face needs to be smaller. In fact I was thinking that it could be a separate element altogether and only used in larger situations.

I can darken the OPEN a bit...the intention in keeping it light and thin was to signify...open-ness! Put that on top of the strength of ACS...well, it's corny but that's the thought process.

I definitely don't want to do anything that would get Philip upset, though. If you guys who know him better think that he won't like us using the Samoyed image that's fine too. But, he seemed like a pretty easy going guy to me, so I didn't think he'd mind!

Ok...tomorrow I'll put together a couple of variations so you can see it at smaller sizes.

Thanks again for the input! Now it's back to work on our next OpenACS project. (actually working on three of them right now!)

Scott

8: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 04/28/00 03:44 PM

Oh, I doubt Philip will be really pissed. A lot of aD folks will get a kick out of it.

Damn, this is as good as the penguin! I like it!

9: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by james shannon on 04/28/00 04:08 PM

Yay scott!!!
I knew you'd be good for something sooner or later :). Now we just have to keep you from deleting source and everything will be great.
I definitely think the samoyed rivals the penguin for coolness and quirkyness.
Smaller? yes, but maybe two different dog-head-to-text porportions, one for smaller buttons where the text would be too horribly small and one for the larger logos such as on this site and in the /docs directory on distributions.
And when you're going for the whole buttons/graphics suite, maybe screw around with the body or the big white fluffy tail.

10: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Chris Rasch on 04/29/00 12:51 AM

I suggested to Philip that he should make Alex/samoyeds a symbol for the ACS at a one day seminar at Caltech last August, so I don't feel too bad about using it now--they've had a long time to follow up.

I think that we should use a Samoyed unless/until they express strong dissatisfaction. Who knows? Maybe the mushrooming of thousands of "Powered by OpenACS" sites will gently spur them to help make the open source databases comparable to Oracle.

If Philip gets too upset, we could modify the logo. For example, we could create a winged samoyed, a "pegasamoyed". The samoyed would signal the strong ties to ACS Classic, and the wings would signify the free nature of OpenACS. ACS Classic could then use a regular Samoyed as symbol.

11: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Ben Adida on 04/29/00 01:01 AM

Hey, no need to overreact about the Samoyed! I think it's great. It pays homage to Philip, he did start the ACS after all, and this is based on it :) So this is extremely appropriate, I think.

12: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Chris Rasch on 04/29/00 01:32 AM

Hi Scott,

I forgot to express my thanks for taking the time to make this logo--I like it! I would echo the others who suggest making the head the same size as the lettering. Other possibilities: what about a full body shot of a dog sitting on its haunches facing the viewer? On top of the lettering?

Sorry if my previous post came across as overreacting--my intent was to allay fears that aD's likely to care about the use of a samoyed as a logo--if it were a burning issue for them, they would likely have pursued it by now. I also think it would be a great way to pay homage to Philip and Alex (or George, assuming that you believe it would better to model the logo after a great dog of the past, to avoid inflating Alex's ego too much).

13: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 04/29/00 02:00 AM

I think the head alone is perfect, no body, just the head. The more I look at it, the more I like it (and I liked it a lot the first time I looked at it).

14: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Michael Feldstein on 04/29/00 02:47 AM

I vote a resounding "Yes!" too.

As for the ongoing discussions about offending Philip, I think the most important thing is that we see ourselves as supplementing and supporting what aD has articulated as their mission (and I mean their mission, not their business). As long as we don't imagine ourselves as being a some kind of splinter group or revolutionary cell, I think we have much less chance of offending anybody. Now, if we start catching ourselves saying/thinking "F*ck aD!", then we'll be more likely to do something that pisses them off. As long as we're focused on adding value to the larger ACS community as a whole, I would hope that we're pretty safe.

15: Some logo rework stuff... (response to 1)

Posted by Scott Mc Williams on 05/03/00 03:18 AM

Well, I didn't get to the logo as fast as I would have liked. Here is a quickie rework based on some of the notes above. I made the head smaller and the blue darker on Open.

I'm showing it to you in a couple of different sizes. The mid sized one doesn't look too good, but that is probably just the conversion to gif process. I wanted to show a button too, so you can see how much detail is lost whenit gets small like that. Someone had mentioned having the head looking out of the "O" in Open, but you can see that that would be tiny (even though I like the idea)! Also, on the button, I made the blue even darker and the ACS pure black.

I'll keep noodling with it, though and have something better to look at.

16: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 05/03/00 04:27 AM

OK...

Your very first effort, "Large Alex", is our T-shirt design. Any questions? :)

I actually like the text overlapping the doggie in that one, though I'm not sure it would work for the smaller versions. Also, I like Alex being bigger than the text, I wonder what it would look like if you maintained a bit of that flavor in the smaller versions?

As far as the button goes, I wouldn't mind a slightly more rectangular version. That would let you put a slightly bigger Alex to the left, and "powered by Open ACS" in the same vertical arrangement you've showed to the right.

OK, now you get to tell me how to hack Tcl for a week :)

Seriously, these are just ideas spawned by your efforts. They're all very good.

17: Great Logos! (response to 1)

Posted by Brent Fulgham on 05/03/00 07:05 AM

I love these logos! Where can I get a coffee mug or ball cap?

18: Response to OpenACS Logo (response to 1)

Posted by Roberto Mello on 05/03/00 07:15 AM

This logo rockzzzzzzz !

I agree with Don that the button could be more rectangular and it doesn't have to be that small (e.g. the "Powered by Apache" logo).

All the rest looks awesome. I want a t-shirt and baseball cap of OpenACS !!

19: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Roberto Mello on 05/12/00 04:57 AM

Hi Scott,

When you get to getting the final version of the OpenACS logo, it would be really good if we could have a banner (say 90x175) that we could include in the /ads section of OpenACS. It would be the default ad, instead of scorecard.org

Just a suggestion.

20: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Roberto Mello on 05/30/00 04:49 AM

Any news on the OpenACS logo ? Release date is within less than 2 weeks and it would be nice to have it included in the distribution.

21: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Guan Yang on 05/31/00 08:54 AM

How much interest is there in an OpenACS T-shirt? How much would you be willing to pay for it?

I work for a T-shirt company, and if there is enough interest, we might be able to print some.

22: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 05/31/00 03:36 PM

There's plenty of interest, I'm sure. As far as cost, I dunno, $10? It's been years since I've organized a t-shirt printing effort so I'm not up on wholesale costs of nice T's like Beefy-T's and the like.

23: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Guan Yang on 05/31/00 03:47 PM

I've talked with my boss, and he says that we can sell them anywhere in the world for $10, including shipping. However, he warns that it is going to be a huge administrative mess -- receiving payments, packing the T-shirts, going to the post office, etc.

24: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 05/31/00 07:10 PM

Well, tell him to charge $12, then!

25: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by Guan Yang on 05/31/00 11:51 PM

You don't understand the dynamics of this organization. Nobody wants to do real work, even if they're paid for it. ;)

More seriously, does anyone here want to do the actual work of selling the T-shirts?

Also, I'm located in Denmark. It really isn't worthwhile to attempt shipping T-shirts over to the US, what with customs and all.

26: Final logo... (response to 1)

Posted by Scott Mc Williams on 06/01/00 07:21 PM

I just wanted to check in to let you all know that I have been paying attention. I've just been swamped at work. Let me know what you need for the release and what format(s). Also, if you want to do tshirts...hook me up with a printer and I can supply artwork for them.

Let me know...

Scott

27: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by David Cohen on 06/19/00 03:51 AM

Just found this thread--interesting logo ideas.

A comment on the small logo--first of all, I think that most of the "powered by" logos are usually more rectangular, that, is they are maybe twice as long as the small logo you've got (I don't know what dimensions people use, perhaps someone else's could be measured or whatever). Here are some examples I got by searching for "powered by": http://www.darryl.com/vipower.gif and http://www.casinomontecarlo.com/newimages/poweredbycryptologic.gif and the slightly-longer-than-usual Apache logo: http://www.apache.org/images/apache_pb.gif

Also, it is a bit unfortunate that at the small size the dog head is very hard to see and the light blue is not so easy either.

Graphics are not my strong suit, so the only things I can think of are using a bolder type on the "Open" and/or a darker color, at least on the small one and possibly having "Open" next to "ACS", at least on the small one to get the rectangle be longer.

28: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by David Cohen on 06/19/00 04:36 AM

A few more examples on this page, of those "powered by" logos, though at least 2 of them are too big, I think: http://www.daemonnews.org/200006/

Also, an idea for a logo graphic with a bit more semiotic content: a jolly roger but with Alex's head where the skull should be? (If you don't like it, remember I did say that graphics are not my strong suit )

29: Response to OpenACS Logo? (response to 1)

Posted by David Richards on 06/29/00 07:28 AM

Well, maybe I'm putting too much money where my mouth is, but I'd be willing to fork as much as $75/T-shirt and call it a funding campaign. I'm sure the openACS could use some financing for this or that. Logo looks good. I'll have my partner take a look. He's a graphics man. Maybe he'll have some technical ideas that the uninitiated such as myself would never think of.