osdf-design team mailing list archive

[Maira Sutton <maira.sutton@xxxxxxxxx>]

Happy New Years everyone!

I'm excited to work with all of you on all the exciting new projects coming
up this year.  I always believe that the best results come out of
collaboration so I will try to make sure that we each get to participate and
have as much input on the process of branding and designing the look for our
various endeavors.  We'll also have small designing tasks which I'll be
letting you know of as they come up, so please don't be shy and speak up if
you're interested and able to be undertaking those.

I first want to address a couple things to hopefully prevent any weird
dynamics.  Since design can be very subjective at times, I know that we'll
have some disagreements about how things should look.  I hope that you all
feel comfortable being critical, as well as your having your work be
criticized.   BUT since we're all volunteers here, its even *more* important
for us to be respectful and to be as clear and constructive with your
criticism as possible.  Personally, I get really frustrated when someone
tells me something just "doesn't work" or "is too (blank)" because it
doesn't give me anything to work with.  More specific things like, "how
about you change that grey to orange" or "I think that font is too blocky,
how about one that is more ___" is much more helpful.  If you truly think
someone's concept is totally off the mark, please explain why and how you
think it can be approached differently.  I just wanna make sure we help each
other out where we can and prevent any passing around of negative vibes.

Also, if for any reason you don't feel like you can participate any more,
please let me know and I can take your name off of the mailing list with no
hard feelings.  Life just happens and you sometimes just gotta reassess
priorities.

I think that's it for the housekeeping stuff.  Now let's get down to
business.


*LOGO BUSINESS*

I met with Eddie, the founder of OSDF, (we happen to live in the same
vicinity) and we discussed several ideas regarding the branding of our
organization.  We still have not found a logo and brand for the
organization, but our deadline is to have one up, ready and lookin spankin
on our website by *the end of January*.   So please please submit more
logos!!

We definitely had a rough start the first time around since the assignment
was indeed a bit open-ended.  Therefore here are some more ideas/specs to
get your creative juices flowing, based on concepts Eddie and I discussed
last week:
*
Concept*
- Themes to keep in mind:  open source, technology, coding, connectivity,
freedom (of information), democracy, cooperation, activism, revolution,
innovation, advancement, collectivity, community, progress, opportunity
- Logo shouldn't look too busy...simpler the better, but should evoke some
of the themes listed above.
- Imagine the logo/title you design to be printed on various paraphernalia,
such as shirts, posters, publications, video, etc.

Reference:  The most popular submission so far has been Option 6 from the
poll we took (
http://www.theundermine.info/wiki/index.php/OSDF_Graphic_Resources#Logo_Proposals
)
--- What made it the best we decided was the subtle color scheme, the
dynamic arrow in the "O" (because it evoked both tech, progression, etc.)

*SUBMIT HERE:  *
http://www.theundermine.info/wiki/index.php/OSDF_Graphic_Resources#Logo_Proposals
Please place under "Round II"
Please make all of your submissions by *Wednesday January 12th*.

*Additional Resources
*Since we all come with various levels and types of design experience, I
just wanted to share a couple links that you may find helpful:
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/06/12-essential-rules-to-follow-when-designing-a-logo/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/25/10-common-mistakes-in-logo-design/

Some logo examples with nice concepts...
http://creattica.com/logos/lewis-guitars-co/42742
http://logofaves.com/2010/02/pink-flamingo-farm/  (cool use of negative
space)
http://logofaves.com/2010/02/optical-strength/  (interesting double imagery)
http://99designs.com/logo-design/store/12702
http://99designs.com/logo-design/store/12218
http://99designs.com/logo-design/store/13421  (silhouette effect is nice but
maybe a similar style in a difference color scheme?)


Logo Galleries
http://logofaves.com/
http://www.logolounge.com/default.asp <goog_2091633350>  (in particular the
2010 logo trends article)
http://creattica.com/logos/latest-designs
http://logopond.com/gallery/
http://logofury.com/

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions.  If you think you
know someone who might be interested in drafting up a logo for us to look
at, we very much welcome their submissions at the above link.  We'd love to
see as many logos up there as possible so we can choose one and refine it by
the end of the month.  So...show us what you got, team!

best,
Maira