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Debian Logo Continues
weink writes
"Debian is in the process of getting their logo in order.
The vote will take place in about a week. After the logo
contest at GIMP, here are
the options. "
I am so happy that I have my Debian box running again. apt is
so good for lazy sysadmins. Oh, and I vote for Raul's design.
Super smooth.
The only logo that even comes close to being professional is Raul's. Even then, his logo is very similar looking to Lucent technologies. The process of coming up with a logo is a lot more complicated than just running a contest. Not every artist is going to hit 'the magic one' on the first try. In fact it would be quite rare for that to happen (especially in a dominant programmer user base).
What needs to happen is collaberation. Debian needs to let the artists know what kind of image they want to project. Then the artist will come up with several ideas and sketches. Debian should then look at what it likes out of the entries and thow out what it doesn't. The artist then goes back an comes up with more sketches that expand on the ideas that Debian has liked and maybe coming up with some ideas that Debian might like.
Once all the entries have been distilled down you should have a simple logo that can be printed in both color and b&w without compromising image. The logo should also be able to be printed at different sizes with out compromising quality. This logo needs to be unique so that when people look at it they automatically know 'Debian.'
One of the biggest thing in corporate America is image. I applaud Debian for realizing that they need to improve their image in order to become more mainstream. However I serious hope they turn all of these designs away because none of them are mature, simple, or unique enough to capture a good image of Debian.
At this point I would like to bring up Red Hat. Look at their logo. It is very simple. It can be printed very easily in b&w as well as color. It can be easily scalable. This logo also has the effect of distilling what Red Hat is down into a simple image. This is the type of thing that Debian needs to strive for.
As an artist I would also like to bring up my concern about the limited tool set that Debian was allowing to be used. While I think that The GIMP is a very useful tool, I think that it is not the right tool for this job. Like I said before, corporate logos need to be simple, clean, catchy and scalable. The GIMP is most useful at making complex effects and designs. And while yes it could be used to make simple designs it has one major flaw. It deals with raster based images. Raster based images are absolutely horrible when trying to scale to various different sizes. I believe that a vector based program at least needs to be allowed in to the mix...especially for corporate logo design.
I look forward to any comments people might have...