On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 08:30:05AM -0700, Andy Ruhl wrote:
 [...]
> Ugh. I agree. I suppose this might get the thing onto more
> letterheads, but I was expecting something a little more exciting
> myself, as well.

Something that is slickly professional or quirky would, IMHO,
suit NetBSD better.  The new logo is neither, IMHO.  Oh well.


Fernando: I like your idea, from the sound of it, but I doubt that
a radical redesign of the logo is going to happen again anytime
soon.  (Might I also suggest that the dots be solid-filled circles
with the letters 'N', 'e', 't', 'B', 'S', and 'D' cut out?)  But
I think that it's too late for that.  For better or for worse, I
don't expect to see the new logo completely redone anytime soon.


Christian: (I read on the web, too; in this case I happen to be
replying to an off-list CC: though; (^&  I'm adding you to the reply
chain of this so that you will have it in your mailbox.)

It's not that the logo has to be politically incorrect.  Rather it
is that it doesn't have to be politically correct.  Recall that
political correctness was one of the motivators and was so strong
a motivator that it forced some rules into the contest so that the
new logo would be PC.  It doesn't matter how good a new logo would
have been, if it wasn't PC it wouldn't even fit the basic requirements
of the contest as I recall them (certainly certain non-PC possibilities
were ruled out)---it probably wouldn't be submitted, much less allowed
to win.

To take one of your examples, the Coca Cola logo (the "wave", right?)
evokes a large body of liquid if you spend anytime pondering it.
Not a bad symbol for a soft-drink company.  Aside from that, it
has some "modern art" appeal.  The new NetBSD logo's pennant does
not seem to suggest anything but the echo of the flag in the old
much-maligned non-PC image.

Re. simplicity: I don't think that anyone has said in as many
words, "The new logo is too simple," rather that it is pretty
ugly.  That, at least, is my view.  *Simple* is good in a logo.
In fact, I'd think that a further simplification would be worth
considering: Drop the flag.  In addition to being simpler, I
think that it would improve the aesthetics.  And, it would
be more satisfactorily renderable on an ASCII console.  (That
last is something that NetBSD, of all operating systems,
should not neglect.)

(For the record, the new logo actually looks okay when it is
shrunk to the size of a postage stamp.  Given that simple
direct scalings of fonts can change their aesthetics, this
suggests that the logo might be adjusted in relatively minor
ways at larger scales...though I'm still a fan of just
killing the pennant.)


Sean: I'd love to see the other contestants, just out of
curiosity.  Maybe if the NetBSD site won't host a gallery
of alternates, someone else can host such.  (I'd be willing
to, but I'd rather see them hosted at netbsd.org...)  As long
as the submitter gives permission for such display, it should
be fine.  And I suspect that most would give such permission,
since they aren't likely to get anything from anyone else,
if the logo is truly NetBSD-specific.


-- 
  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about."  http://www.olib.org/~rkr/