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NetBSD Chooses New Logo
jschauma writes "Live from EuroBSDCon 2004: The NetBSD Project announces its new logo. The logo was selected out of over 400 submissions in an albeit lengthy process, where the developers considered various important aspects of a new identifying logo. See the official logo contest announcement (to refresh your memory) and the official press release."
The new logo certainly has more corporate appeal, and its simplicity also allows different colors to be used, which means easier to place on different color background.
Coupled with a trademark, this might enough for people to push it to PHB.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Maybe a headstone would be a more appropriate logo, no?
Try "in a lengthy process".
If you don't know how to use big words, please don't bother trying.
I like it. Clean and attractive. Maybe someone can get that guy to design a new logo/mascot for linux, something other than that annoying-looking penguin.
So they dropped the BSD devils? I wonder what happened? Did somebody send a few planes full of Southern Baptists and Jehova's Witnesses over to Europe to have a little chat with the NetBSD team?
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
A month ago this item appeared in the NetBSD Quarterly Status Report:
Netcraft confirms! The old NetBSD logo is dead!
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Personally I am very disapointed ... ...
The logo is not cool, not artistic, not insipiring, not anything
I really like what OpenBSD did, they know how to play with their logo, I believe this speaks a lot about the attitude of the people behind the project.
And it says, that they like and want to have fun!
NetBSD have made a terrible statement by this logo, this logo declares in my opinion that the NetBSD is not about fun anymore!
I seriously can't imagine a worst logo
Finally, proof that the OSS community can produce something as generic, uninspired, and forgettable as even the best corporate marketroids. I can't wait for the upcoming Apache Mission Statement contest. ("embiggens a dynamic paradigm in scalable infotecture")
Seriously, is this the best that was submitted? Not trying to flame, but the best feature of a logo is a unique image that's easily remembered. Looking at the NetBSD logo I'm not sure if I'm installing an OS or playing in a CTF clan.
Note to the judges, If the text in your logo needs to be readable to identify your product, it's not a good logo.
The Revolution. Now available as a convienent six tape series from PBS.
I don't know, it just seems a little ... bland and generic. Looking at it, if you removed "NetBSD" and substituted virtually any short word or phrase it could just as easily be the logo of a political party, or a company that makes ... well, practically anything, really. It seems ... personality free.
Still, YMMV and all that.
I'm sorry, but it's really hard to get excited about that logo. Seems to me they wanted to be so neutral, so inoffensive to everyone in the entire world that they picked a logo that means nothing.
That sound you hear is millions of geeks the world over saying "meh".
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
Not that the logo makes a difference when it comes to the OS (which I absolutely love. NetBSD is one of my favorite OSs) - but I think the new logo sucks.
.. flag .. and nothing more. It doesn't tell me anything. It's got no feelings, no 'struggle', no cooperation .. and no _daemons_.
.. but .. I really don't care about that.
I loved the look of the old one. The BSD daemons scrambling to raise their banner. It gave me a nice feel.
Now we've got this
But sure.. it's clean looking
Bad choice, imho.
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
As a member of the US Air National Guard I don't like the devils raising the NetBSD flag in the likeness of World War II soldiers raising the Unites States flag over Iwo Jima.
;-)
Some Soldier you are! If you were better educated, you would know those "World War II Soldiers" were infact U.S. Marines.
err...your only a guardsman, sorry to hold you to higher standards
I was going to moderate you as flambait, but I felt compelled to set you straight; as my Grandfather was *ON* that island.
Anyways, the previous logo was meant to convey the fact that NetBSD has "conquered" almost all hardware; nothing more. Don't be an idiot.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Ridiculous! Who could have a bigger ego than Theo??
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
A little plain?? Logos are supposed to be plain. Take a moment and look at some memorable logos. They're generally very, very, simple. This makes them easy to associate with the product. It helps build the brand.
If only more Free Software projects would follow the lead of NetBSD. There are a lot of decent logos out there too but by and large Free Software logos constitute strong evidence that Graphic Design is indeed a valuable skill. Not as valuable as coding, but still valuable.
Specifically, it's not about technical prowess in using your favourite graphics program, it's about being able to come up with strong ideas and express them strikingly, visually.
Not that I'm any good at it...
Yours Sincerely, Michael.
Whilst it's good that the NetBSD people have recognised the need for a proper logo, my impressions are...
It looks slightly dated, like something from the late 80s/early 90s when corporate types were going for 'flowing' logos with gentle curves. The typeface and colours also contribute to this impression.
It's also fairly boring. If they decide to have a mascot as well, this won't such a problem though; logo for corporate stuff, mascot for the fans and developers.
In fact, I wish someone would design a proper (generic) Linux logo. Specifically, one that incorporates the word 'Linux' and could be used without fear of looking unprofessional. Tux seems to have become logo (as well as mascot) by default, but is not really suitable for more serious use.
Of course, Tux would remain as the mascot (although personally disliking Tux, I appreciate that I'm probably in the minority). 'Serious' literature would use the Linux logo, everyone else could use either- or both- as they pleased.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
This is about marketing - pure and simple. The people behind NetBSD have every right to make the OS more accessible to as wide a range of users as possible, and part of doing that involves making it look more professional and less like something thrown together by a bunch of gamers in their parents' basement.
The new logo is clean, elegant, shows motion, uses bold colors, and is readily distinguishable from any other OS-related logo. Having a professional logo doesn't make you evil, and it doesn't mean you've sold out. But for better or worse it does mean that people (and not just management types) will tend to take you more seriously.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
I can say this, given the tone of the responses to my message coupled with the fact that my comment was rated "Funny" has caused me to loose a great deal of respect for the slashdot community.
To those of you out there who are tolerant of other people's positions, I apologize that you find yourself associated with a group such as this.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. --Albert Einstein
Hardly. FreeBSD is the only BSD, now, that has stuck to its original logos, at least in content.
:)
"Corporate" was the first word that hit me when I saw the new NetBSD logo, and judging by this thread I'm not the only one that thinks this way. I hated it for the first few minutes (unfamiliarity more than anything - I'd more hate some glossy kitsch like Gentoo's logo, which, to anyone who didn't know Gentoo, could just as well be a breakfast cereal logo) but now I've grown a liking to it. It constitutes my MSN 'display pic' (Microsoft = long names for simple things, just so people don't have to remember new words like 'avatar') and still is getting appreciated.
Simple is good, but I still think they dropped too much of their proud BSD culture when they 'distilled' the original (I say 'they' because it is now 'their' intellectual property, at least in as much as they chose it over other images which were probably better anyway).
I mean, OpenBSD dropped the BSD Daemon in favor of an icon largely relevant to their cause (for those that don't know, blowfish is a symmetric encryption algorithm, a darn good one at that), and that's fair enough - it's flexible and 'fun'. NetBSD's is dry now, completely unlike the dated but awesome old logo, which had relevance to their cause and the old BSD culture. The new one has some very loose relevance, at least if people recognize the flag, but where's the BSD in it? (not counting the NetBSD text)
We'll note that BSD is still generalised on Slashdot with the classic daemon, even though it now only applies to FreeBSD and (if they keep the older icons, at least) NetBSD.
DragonFly has a good icon, IMHO. It is colourful, which reduces its use on monochrome media and all, and I can't for the life of me remember the whole thing all at once - but it is instantly recognizable as 'dragonfly' even if you've never heard of the project, it's simple and professional enough to appeal to business, while still being interesting enough to appeal to geeks. 'Course I don't run DragonFly since it still has too much of FreeBSD's brokeness (remove kbdcontrol and moused necessity, then I'll go back) to be made up for by the amazing technical merit, most of which NetBSD offers anyway without any of the brokeness - plus it runs as well on my x86s as my Indy
Sam ty sig.
I have to say that I like the logo. It meets my one requirement for a good logo, and in spades:
A good logo can be recognizably spraypainted with one template.
In other words, the logo is simple enough that it doesn't require any serious work to put it on things, it can be read from close up or afar, its not overly complicated and it looks unique. And this logo fits that requirement quite nicely.
I also like the placement of the flag, the diag it makes with the text really gives the logo some oomph.
The dream reveals the reality which conception lags behind. That is the horror of life- the terror of art. -Franz Kafka