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NetBSD Announces Logo Design Competition
jschauma writes "The NetBSD Project has announced that it has
launched an international competition for the creation of a new logo. There
is a cash prize of US $100.00 for the winning entry. The successful logo will
also have wide exposure, featuring in all NetBSD material including, but not
limited to; the NetBSD.org web site, software media, apparel, and business
systems. The competition will close on February 29, 2004. The rules of the
competition, submission information and the design brief can be found in the
official
announcement, which has already spawned some discussion on the netbsd-advocacy
and current-users
MailingLists." The announcement notes that the current logo is "too complicated... hard to reproduce... [and] has negative cultural, and religious ramifications."
> too complicated...
for whom? for what?
> hard to reproduce...
== hard to forge...
> [and] has negative cultural, and religious
> ramifications.
No, it doesn't. It's a cartoon devil. It doesn't offend anyone. Really. Unless you're one of those freaks who won't let their kids watch Scoobie-doo because it's got ghosts in it. Trust me. If it were hanging on a cross or wearing a turban, *then* maybe it'd need changing.
Sheesh!
These sigs are more interesting tha
Several people have posted (in the usual /. manner) that they don't see an issue with the devil, it's a cartoon, right wing religious wackos, etc. Well its not the devil, it's what the devils are doing. The devils are in a pose that mimics one that is usually associated with valour and the giving of ones life for "liberty" (whether or not you agree that this particular pose does or not is for another discussion). So now you have a logo that uses characters associated with negative deeds (the devil, cartoon or not) in the place of men associated with honor and self sacrafice. Given the current events, I could see how this logo, while passing under the radar for many years, is now suddenly considered inappropriate.
I can understand how many would find it inappropriate, which is unfortunate because for those who've been around the BSD and the computer scene for a while know exactly what the logo is trying to represent and it's quite accurate in that regard.
I believe this is a good idea, from a branding standpoint.
The loss of the BSD daemon may be unfortunate, but looking at major brands it's pretty clear recognition doesn't require a cool mascot. To name a few: Nike, Adidas, Mercedez-Benz and Nokia all have rather simple comporate symbols.
If the NetBSD project wishes to look more professional in the eyes of marketeers, this is a good move.
.: Max Romantschuk
Wasn't the devil just a corrupted angel anyway?
--
This sig is inoffensive.
Perhaps people should get their heads out of their politically correct backsides and get a life instead of worrying about this sort of thing.
Hmmm, who needs to get a life and stop worrying about this sort of thing? It's THEIR logo, THEY want to change it for whatever reason THEY have, who are YOU to say what is a good reason or not? What next, hyprocrites telling organizations what is and isn't a good reason to change logos?
POT/KETTLE/BLACK
Yes, you're correct. To us "Geeks" and "Techies", it's a deamon. To others, that know nothing of BSD, it's a devil.
I know that the conventional wisdom is:
But, in reality, NetBSD runs on so many platforms as a side effect of their stated policy to implement things the Right Way rather than ever relying on hacks.
NetBSD is one of the cleanest, most logical, and most innovative open source projects out there.
For example, NetBSD takes an insanely good idea (the FreeBSD ports collection) and makes it even better. Pkgsrc (NetBSD's answer to ports) is built in such a way that allows you to run it on Solaris, Linux, and a number of other operating systems. Plus it has a built-in package security auditing tool.
FreeBSD et al are moving toward NetBSD's innovative init system which in my mind combines the power of SysV and the ease of use of *BSD.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe NetBSD was the first OS anywhere to support ipv6.
NetBSD always seems to chug away in relative obscurity, with even BSD folk ignoring and misunderstanding it. Yeah, it's great for embedded work. Yeah, it'll run on almost anything. But it's also a really great workstation. And their uncompromising approach to quality and correct implementation make it a very stable and logical general purpose OS.
So, I for one welcome the new logo, and hope that it helps to bring NetBSD out of the shadows and allows my fellow open source users to enjoy another excellent operating system.
-Peter
. Penguins Surely Ca
Ok, it seems to me most people here don't seem to look at logo design from an ease of use or professionality standpoint, let alone from a design aspect. Everyone seems to be skating around the fact that with exception to the religious or mythical issues and the problem with a off-the-wall politcal cartoon feel, the design itself is quite the opposite of a business/ease of use point-of-view. Sure it's open source but NetBSD is in the "business" of supplying an open source medium for its users to enjoy and interact with. If anything the logo should almost have a conservative corporate fee, with just a wee bit of open-source attitude to the side just to show that open-source is the sort of black sheep child of the WWW network infrastructure not to mention the software world. So keep your minds open guys. This is a world-based community, and there's probably someone out there offended by the spoof of the Iwo Jima memorial and there could also be some "religious stiff" offended by the devil/daemon aspect. Also remember that the general public doesn't know anything about the greek background of language and their english counterparts, let alone would they really want a lecture on it. When designing you have to take the audience seriously but not yourself too seriously. Creativity can come in spades but if you don't know how to apply it properly it won't get you anything but trouble.
It's not just deeply religious people, or computer illiterate people, or people who leap quickly to stupid assumptions that make this logo a problem. First, the name isn't clear or catchy enough to be widely recognized, so the devil image becomes all most people have to go on. Imagine running across the person wearing a Duke Blue Devils sweatshirt, but the First word is "Forxgnarb", you've never heard the term before, there's no thing or place named that anywhere nearby, and when you ask what the blue devil stands for, the first things you hear are all about vaguely political issues, as seen by some small minority organization. How stupid is it really, to jump to the conclusion the sweatshirt wearer is in some cult?
NetBSD isn't going to get brand recognition from the word, just like Adidas didn't build brand recognition just on the word. It sounds too odd for that. Like Adidas, it's competing against words that have more relevance to the area (Microsoft sounded like computer stuff way back when it started, with words like software already paving the way for recognition - Nike is the greek goddess of victory, as most Olympic atheletes know).
If anything, the cuteness of the logo works against it more than an association with evil. It's a Warner Bros toon style devil. That's already saying "fine for home users, but would you trust a business to it?".
Who is John Cabal?
What's so wrong with Pencil? Abstract wierd font logos is very 1980's IMO. ... regarding Net's logo, it isn't the pencil in itself, but the fact that its large, and doesnt resemble the classic beasty, and as someone said in another thread they resemble the noids... The thing is too big /some/ extent pencil art from an actual contributer to the project to me has more value than a formaliac profesional going-rate-per-hour work. To me that kind of abstract type face logo stuff, has been doon so much, so many tools to do just, that its hardly even applied art, but has become a very /safe/ , bland, choice.
EA's (Electronic Arts) Logo was the best of the genre, and I feel that that really thats stuff has become cookie-cutter, mainly complained about by Comerical Artists looking for work... As far the GNU
To
Jack Chick is full of shit in more ways than I can count. A lot of the stuff in that tract is a good exposition of the systems of control that the catholic church uses, but it's ignoring and corrupting the basic premises that support those sacraments. Furthermore, the idea of a vengeful god that rules by fear is somewhat outdated in the catholic roman Church (old testament stuff). Salvation (or the wafer thing) is not to be denied arbitrarily in order to acquire power. Furthermore, what is exposed there amounts to finding an example of a pedophile priest and jumping to the conclusion that all priests are pedophiles.
Check out some more of the site. It's basically a collection of hate speech (particularly against gay people) in disguise of religious teachings.
Overcaffeinated. Angry geeks.
Quick nitpik - it is "Athena Nike" that is the Greek goddess of victory. Athena took a couple other forms too, like "Athena Parthenos".
signatures are for fools with hands
Hmmmm, troll looks HUNGRY.. guess I'll toss a bone.
I, personally, am deeply offended by the insane attempts of far too many otherwise intelligent people in this decade to bury the age-old stereotypes, differences of belief, and general feelings beneath a very thin veneer of political correctness. What's so wrong about being honest?
I'm not against integration, and I cherish diversity. Learning about other cultures is a good thing, but pretending they aren't different when they are is stupid. If wearing a red shirt is offensive to the group of people who were extras on ST:TOS, should everyone stop wearing red shirts because they MIGHT feel bad? I'd suggest that those people who become upset over P.C. issues should ask themselves why they're upset... and maybe grow up a little.
Where are the Satanists to defend their beliefs? Seriously, if Christians can get all bent out of shape at the logo of a devil, why can't Satanists demand that the cross be banned from public display because it offends them? Either it works both ways, or not at all.
The logo in question is being dragged through the mud because a few religious zealots woke up and started looking at free operating systems and saw a devil? What, are they so stupid that they assumed this literally meant "Satan Inside"? Didn't the cute smile tip them off about the concept of caricature?
I checked my calendar... it's not 040401 yet, and 040104 has passed (YYMMDD anyways), so let's repost this when the time is right.