Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

thebombsite · 2005-10-11 23:00:48

Well from my own view-point I think the names do the “branding” side of things. I wasn’t thinking in terms of having similar logos. I think the logos should reflect the content in some way so as to connect it. In other words we have the branding in the names, now we need some “theming” in the logos. I think TextGarden is a great name for the site but it doesn’t exactly shout “STYLES” at you does it? It needs something extra to make the connection and I’m not sure that a monotone logo like those above cuts the mustard here. Not that I’m moaning about the logos that came out of the competition I should add, I think they are excellent, but my own feeling is that TXG needs something with a bit of colour in it, just like a garden. That’s what TXG is all about. Colour and design.

You know, we have some well-known TXP users who design logos for a living. How do they look at this kind of thing?

bizartist · 2005-10-12 00:29:06

I guess I’ll just throw out some of my ideas in terms of the whole Tx* branding issue is concerned:

I think that the positive associations with the original TXP logo come from a general reverence of Ancient Greece. The chiseler denotes a time when you had to really consider your words because it was a big deal to put them down on pap….er marble, a time when there was a great respect for writing and thinking but only a select few could afford to have chiselers or scribes to record their work for all to see. The conclusion I draw from the chiseler logo is that we can now each have our own personal chiseler (TXP), who frees us up to record our thoughts and ideas on a whim for the world to view, ushering in a modern renaissance of ideas. This is a very positive conclusion, and when looking at the logo in the admin section, I get the sense that the chiseler is always there and “working for me”.

I would recommend that the other satellite sites run with this idea (and it needn’t replicate the exact style), maybe going with the same sort of loose associations with ancient greece. In that vein there is a lot of material to reference. TextGarden could be symbolised by the Greek reverence for beauty, perhaps a female statue in the garden? or a woman in toga picking the flowers? My middle school history is beginning to fail me at this point ;) but there is a great deal of imagery associated with the greeks. Ornate vases for storage, aquaducts for transmission to masses, the great philosophers of the age and their disciples, etc.. etc…

Or perhaps the symbology could be expanded to other ancient cultures as well, maybe even just a vague reference to the prototypical “ancient enlightened culture”.

Anyway, just throwing it out there, talk amongst yourselves…

Last edited by bizartist (2005-10-12 00:31:04)

michaelkpate · 2005-10-12 02:58:01

> thebombsite wrote:

> I think TextGarden is a great name for the site but it doesn’t exactly shout “STYLES” at you does it?

Actually, it does to those of us who get the Zen Garden reference. At least to Drupal users.

But I think that those who don’t get it will still probably find their way there.

Destry · 2005-10-12 09:30:05

Although I think having theme icons (person working somehow) is a great idea (as well as the associated buttons in a given site’s footer), which would effectively bridge the family of major sites across TxP, let’s not forget the objective of this current activity, which was to REBOOT — and on time.

I think the selection was a good one; though I commented before that digging guy needs a little modifying to be more reflective of the original working person style (fluid bold lines, less precision…generally less rubberstamp looking). The soil in that image especially should be feathered-out so it’s not so blocky in that corner, it should be more organic, perhaps extending out under the first couple of letters (Te) in the logo.

That aside, I don’t see anything wrong with making quiet changes later, whether to TxR’s icon or to any of the other sites. I would just hope that any implementation of a theme of working-person icons would be in the direction of the orginal style of artwork that chisel guy is in. To me, that just adds a level of professionalism to it.

—-

It occurs to me that having a person doing brick and mortor work, like a brick wall, would have been a great icon too, symbolizing the assembly of the bricks (TxP components) that make up a solid finished wall/product (Textpattern site). A healthy woman doing brick and mortar work — yeah, baby, YEAH! (read with your best Austin Powers impersonation)

ian_ep · 2005-10-12 10:30:38

Although I quite like the wee digging guy – it is certainly the best of the logos submitted – I don’t see any reason to ‘style’ it closer to Dean’s original Texpattern logo. Nor do I think it necessary impose some pseudo-corporate ‘brand’ gudelines on the various Textpattern resource sites. On the contrary, I find the idea quite antithetical to the spirit of Texpattern.

Destry · 2005-10-12 12:15:43

Being that I used a lot of <em>I think</em>‘s and <em>I would</em>‘s, in that last post of mine, I would hope people realize it was all just my opinion on things, which means absolutely nothing by itself. In the same respect, I should also clarify that I like Rayben’s logo for what it is (good job, man) and meant no disrespect there, I just think it could me morphed a bit to serve purposes better (again, my opinion).

That said, I don’t see where anyone (me or whomever) is trying to “impose” anything, that would certainly not be in the spirit of the community.
Referencing the word “corporate” is an easy use of the stigma it brings, and the word “brand” has almost the same negative connotations anymore, especially when used in the same breath as corporate. In any case, it’s not even relevent. Some of us are simply talking about making it visually clear to new users of this product what the official — no, reliable — resources are for Textpattern, and one excellent way of doing that is by using a consistent theme (with some clever variations, of course). How specific you want to get with the styling is up for community debate, which is what’s going on here.

In the end, it’s probably insignificant; it’s very unlikely that any of the logo submissions would confuse potential Textpattern users, and it’s especially insignificant if site buttons were adopted (e.g., in footers), which would be clear indicators (and easy links) for users to know about other site’s in the family.

Last edited by Destry (2005-10-12 12:16:23)

thebombsite · 2005-10-12 13:57:48

I know that those of us “in the know” make the connection between TextGarden and Zen Garden but oddly the vast majority of surfers have never heard of Zen Garden and I suspect the same could be said for new users of TXP who have not done much or any styling before. That said, and even if everybody had heard of Zen Garden, I still think that the name needs to be connected to the content in some visual manner within the banner. I just think that is good design at the end of the day.

I do like the idea of having “corporate” (sorry Destry) link logos that can be used in the footer or sidebar so that people know that they are linking to an “approved” site.

Destry · 2005-10-12 14:12:58

thebombsite wrote: I do like the idea of having “corporate” (sorry Destry) link logos that can be used in the footer or sidebar so that people know that they are linking to an “approved” site.

Exactly, whether it’s logos or a set of standard size buttons (which I think could be utilized in sites easier), provide some consistant identifiers in all the sites Dean has endorsed in one way or another and you make it immediately more clear what the official resources are, as well as facilitate the ability of moving between them.

jdueck · 2005-10-12 14:33:01

> bizartist wrote:

I think that the positive associations with the original TXP logo come from a general reverence of Ancient Greece.

I thought it was more ancient than that – maybe almost Sumerian. The digger fits right in.

The chiseler denotes a time when you had to really consider your words because it was a big deal to put them down on pap….er marble, a time when there was a great respect for writing and thinking but only a select few could afford to have chiselers or scribes to record their work for all to see. The conclusion I draw from the chiseler logo is that we can now each have our own personal chiseler (TXP), who frees us up to record our thoughts and ideas on a whim for the world to view, ushering in a modern renaissance of ideas. This is a very positive conclusion, and when looking at the logo in the admin section, I get the sense that the chiseler is always there and “working for me”.

Well said. The digger fits right in.

Why not just have a globe with a heart on it? Well, remember, don’t try to do too much with a logo. It doesn’t need to be a social statement of things we probably (hopefully) all agree on anyway.

(Just so you know: I had a VERY caustic sentence in there. I am so glad I deleted it before posting. You all probably would have taken out contracts on me. That was a close one. You ought to be proud of me for my restraint. It was clever, really clever. But it had the power to destroy the Textpattern community as we know it, so I had to get rid of it. Excuse me while I go lie down a bit.)

bizartist · 2005-10-12 18:46:00

You should release a hardcopy, U.S. Gov’t style, with that sentence, plus anything about hippies or global warming, marked over in thick black ink ;)

zero · 2005-10-12 19:27:11

I just thought the carver was from olden times but the ancient greek ideas are very interesting, Bizartist. I go along with Destry and ‘working’ although in my words I would say the logos should show energy and activity and not passivity. Hence the reading person would be better if she was making notes at the same time. That sort of thing. Greyscale would definitely not go well with TXG, I just thought colour could be added later but perhaps that’s a bit stupid. Some good ideas coming through.

ian_ep · 2005-10-13 06:42:39

Some of us are simply talking about making it visually clear to new users of this product what the official — no, reliable — resources are for Textpattern, and one excellent way of doing that is by using a consistent theme …

Yes, one way is to use a consistent theme. And that way is what I would call traditional branding (corporate or otherwise).

Let me try and clarify my position: A man may be described variously as a ‘husband’, ‘father’, ‘son’, ‘colleague’, ‘boss’ or ‘friend’ depending on who is doing the describing. The same man may also be described as ‘reticent’, ‘witty’, ‘tiresome’, ‘kind’, ‘boorish’ or ‘magnanimous’ again depending on who is doing the describing and their relationship to the man. Many of the possible descriptions are quite irreconcilable with each other, but such is the nature of human relationships.

One of the consequences of traditional branding is that, for it to work at all, only one point of view can be allowed to dominate: ‘Kind Father’ for example. This undoubtedly simplifies communication and accelerates recognition and identification, but at a cost — the loss of diversity and nuance.

To get back to Texpattern: If each of the different resource sites has its own personality and style that exudes Quality, intelligence, integrity, imagination, originality etc., then there is no need for them to have any visual or stylistic similarity to each other whatsoever. In fact the more diverse the better! As long as the name ‘Textpattern’ appears somewhere on these various sites — which obviously it will — there will be no doubt as to what one is dealing with.

By using a ‘consistent visual theme’ we only present one point of view. The received wisdom. The authorised version. Why limit the possibilities when the possibilities are limitless? …

thebombsite · 2005-10-13 11:42:17

Well I don’t like the idea of having some kind of common theme for the site styles either. What I do like is the idea of having little link logos for each site which have a similar style which can go in the footer or sidebar.

Destry · 2005-10-13 11:43:07

alicson wrote: “side thought: if there’s coordination between the main txp sites, we could make it into sort of a family. Besides the Chiseling and Digging persons, could have a Reading Gal, Kid holding flowers, etc.”

I think it’s pretty clear I’m not opposed to this idea, <strike>and am quite willing to open up logo submissions for TextBook with this idea in mind. I like the reading guy/gal idea so the only criteria (besides size limits) would be that it’s a person with a textbook somehow. I don’t care if it’s in the same style as chisel guy or not, since that’s not likely anyway. I would expect at least three entries for the effort to be worthwhile,</strike> otherwise I’ll probably seek permission to use entry U from this contest, which I think would work just fine too. I’m going to adopt the button idea for TextBook regardless, I’ll make my own buttons from the existing logos of other family sites and will happily change them if a more standardized set of buttons is adopted by the family later. So, should I start a new thread?

EDIT: Actually, as a matter of practicality (and previous opinions) I think it best to just seek permission to use entry U, which is great. If the designer of that logo would be willing to add the word “TextBook” to the logo somehow (spine of the book? front cover?), I’ll use it in TextBook when I upgrade the wiki. Email me. I’m still sticking to the button idea.

Last edited by Destry (2005-10-13 11:56:08)

thebombsite · 2005-10-13 11:51:01

Well I think we have gone off the original subject a bit although we are now getting back to logos.

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#76 2005-10-11 23:00:48

Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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Re: Textpattern Resources Logo & Icons Design Contest

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