Logomark contest

[Charles]

While the new web site is cooking, the PC-BSD team is pleased to announce the logomark contest!

If you have artwork skills and would like to take part in the PC-BSD project, you can set your imagination free to create a logomark for PC-BSD. Please keep in mind that PC-BSD will keep its current logo, and the logomark will be a complement to it. Think of it as what the apple it to Apple, or what the window is to Windows.

Our logomark will be used for for the K Menu ("Start" menu), as well as for hardware, cool gear, and plate logos. Therefore it MUST be as high as wide. The PC-BSD team reserves the right to keep the FreeBSD logo as its logomark if it finds it more suitable.

The PC-BSD project will acquire ownership of the winning logo by assignment of copyright, and the winning designer will disclaim any trademarks and without limitation all other rights related to the design (paperwork will be required). By submitting a logo for entry in the competition, the designer acknowledges that he/she is the person that made the logo and is its rightful owner. The designer also certifies that the logo does not infringe upon the rights of any third party and that it does not violate any copyright.

You can submit your artwork until June 15th to charles_AT_pcbsd_D0T_org. The logomark should be usable in monochrome and color media, including limited colors (say 2 or 3 colors). You can submit more than one entry, but no variant of a particular entry (choose the one you prefer). Each submission MUST include:

- High resolution print-ready scalable vector format such as portable EPS, SVG or Adobe Illustrator AI.
- JPEG or PNG thumbnail with a resolution of 640 x 480.
- Design concept / description.
- Submitter's full name, email address.

May the best win!

[villajo]

I'm a bit new to PCBSD and I'm just starting to get into it. After poking around the site and seeing the tasmainian devil, I really dont think it fits. Dont you all think there are too many "cute" mascots out there? I'm not an artist, but for some reason I think that a Roman Centurian in a battle ready stance would be the most fitting for this OS. I dont know why... Its just the first thing that pops into my head seeing the professional style of the site while keeping in mind the triditional stability of the BSD core.

As for the logo mark, I'm fresh out of Ideas.

[TerryP]

Oh joy, rapture !!

Best of luke guys and gals

[mefisto]

i looked at the http://forums.pcbsd.org/i/pcbsd.png .. and thought for a moment : "we almost have the logomark".

i took me an hour or so to find something close to my idea in deviantart, and here you go : http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/55962854/

i hope you got my idea. its clean. its simple. its easy to remember.
why we need a new wheel if we have one ?



but i will still try to find something better :evil:

[Charles]

I'm not sure a note pad is characteristic of PC-BSD :)

[mefisto]

I wasn't talking about background .. :roll:

[villajo]

well..If you think about it, it has text editors which are almost like notepads. If we called it "notepad" though than that would be copyright infringement. :lol:

[DarkStarAeon]

The FreeBSD logomark, like Apple's apple, and Windows windows all work because they are clean, simple but elegant, and instantly recognizeable.
PC-BSD needs the same thing.

I hope those who enter will keep that in mind.

If anyone is interested, there is a great book called the 22 Immutable Laws of Branding that really helps an artist or a business understand what works and what doesn't.

[antik]

The FreeBSD logomark, like Apple's apple, and Windows windows all work because they are clean, simple but elegant, and instantly recognizeable.
PC-BSD needs the same thing.


And PC-BSD current logo is perfect example of this philosohpy.

[DarkStarAeon]

The FreeBSD logomark, like Apple's apple, and Windows windows all work because they are clean, simple but elegant, and instantly recognizeable.
PC-BSD needs the same thing.


And PC-BSD current logo is perfect example of this philosohpy.

Totally agree.

[putu]

And PC-BSD current logo is perfect example of this philosohpy.

Agree. :wink:

[sblevin]

Properly done and in red - I'm crap at art and I did it in notepad - but the font doesn't line up properly in here : )

.
/ \
. / \ .
/ \ -| |- / \
/ \ | | / \
-| |- | | -| |-
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
\ \__/ \__/ /
\___________ /

A simple trident in red?

[Charles]

Maybe it's a little agressive? :roll:

[TerryP]

Lines up for me xD

[dracheflieger]

Maybe it's a little agressive? :roll:

Only if you land on it ;-)

[TerryP]

Hahahaha !!!

[Charles]

"Never Play Leapfrog with a Unicorn".

[Ian_Robinson]

sblevin:


A simple trident in red?


Wow, a great idea that works for me!



It worked for Maserati too! (The Maserati trident is adopted from the traditional symbol of Bologna, where the cars were originally made.)

http://lieuxdits.free.fr/maserati.jpg


Stop the contest and declare sblevin's idea as the winner.

[Ian_Robinson]

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/5231/tridentpcbsdbu4.png

[nu2bsd]

Oh great!. I will be making a submission. But could the competition be made two stage ?.
First stage wherein a few submissions are selected. And second stage in
which everyone gets to work on refining the selected ones from stage one. I think a two stage competition would throw up better results. Besides there is hardly any time and no one would mind other people poaching their ideas during stage two because it is for the common good of all PC BSD users.

So, how long is this competition again ? I have not had the time between BSDs to sit and accomplish anything yet. :twisted:

[Charles]

June 15th ;)

June 15th ;)
Thank you Sir. :D

[cfrankb]

Ideas for others (I'm not making one): Take the current PC-BSD logo and make it only 3 characters long: a two-tone B can look like a P in addition to B, and a two-tone S can look like a (superscript) C in addition to S (e.g., SUN's logo). The D will be in the same tone as the lower-half of the B and S.

I think the current "PC-BSD" logo needs to decrease the length of the hyphen and extend the red mid-section of the B to make it look less like a 3. And the hyphen will look less like a long dash. Another idea: make the hyphen a gradient between (dark) gray on the left and red on the right.

[sblevin]

Ideas for others (I'm not making one): Take the current PC-BSD logo and make it only 3 characters long: a two-tone B can look like a P in addition to B, and a two-tone S can look like a (superscript) C in addition to S (e.g., SUN's logo). The D will be in the same tone as the lower-half of the B and S.

Well done - I mucked about for ages with that idea, but couldn't come up with anything that looks good - but I'm rubbish at art : ) - I had trouble with the D part particularly : )

[kmoore134]

Hey all! Figured I'd throw my 2cents in here. I'll be curious to see what folks come up with. Think of logos like the Cingular / ATT logo, AMD or even the nVidia logo. It doesn't have to be anything relating to PC-BSD or BSD in general, but rather just something catchy that we can use on our icons, and begin to build some brand identity.

Preferably it would be something so different, that at a glance the user identifies it with "PC-BSD" and not be confused with any other products :)

[gaffer]

Hey all! Figured I'd throw my 2cents in here. I'll be curious to see what folks come up with. Think of logos like the Cingular / ATT logo, AMD or even the nVidia logo. It doesn't have to be anything relating to PC-BSD or BSD in general, but rather just something catchy that we can use on our icons, and begin to build some brand identity.

Preferably it would be something so different, that at a glance the user identifies it with "PC-BSD" and not be confused with any other products :)

Has anyone submitted samples already? (Kinda tight window there for submitting though). When can we see the submissions? I wish I had any art skills....

[Charles]

We haven't received any entry that meets the guidelines yet.

[3nigma]

The entry-window is too short, should make it like a 3-6 month process.

Haste = waste.

Also, it would be good to publicize the contest more. Get it on deviantart, Slashdot, Digg, etc. Get some attention on it, to attract good artists.

Can we consider my logos as "entered," from the other "mascot" thread? I am taking a break from online activity to spend more time with my daughter, so I have less time to get on and re-post the same pics in a new thread.

-3nigma

[TerryP]

To bad I'm not an artist.

[Thulemanden]

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/5231/tridentpcbsdbu4.png


What if you took that trident and merged the left and right fork down to the middle forming a heart? The heart symbolizing the power (engine / power house) from BSD/Unix and the passion of its developers and users.

The logo should probably be rotated then.

[DarkStarAeon]

To bad I'm not an artist.

same here, I'd love to submit something. I can handle making graphics for the web, which I do all time, but making a logomark is a bit beyond my expertise. Maybe I'm just being hyper-picky though, but I've seen the painstaking detail the pros go through, and I know I'm not up to par with that.

I know one guy who makes amazing logos, fonts, 'marks, etc. for a living but I can't get him to do anything for free for ya. :(
One of his regular clients is Microsoft, so I guess it figures he won't work for free, lol.

[richard.a]

I like the plain trident points, because it is an obvious derivative (sp?) of beastie, using which as far as I can see is not a copyright infringement, and which from time immemorial (well, sorta :D ) has represented BSD.

Beastie is still my plug, but if you need it square, the three pronged fork is pretty close. But as you can see from the image below, it isn't far off being square anyway. Beastie, and the plain trident points, both make good favicons too...

http://pc-bsd.homeunix.org/daemon-images/daemon-128x128.jpg

And I still would like to know where to find the file that is the K-Menu image so that I can doctor my installation to use beastie instead :)

[sblevin]

Hi - Does this seperate us more from other peoples tridents and still say it all?


.
/ \
. / \ .
/ \ -| |- / \
/ \ | | / \
-| |- | | -| |-
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |



Maybe pointing to the right as well? Three arrows indicating forward ..... AND a trident as well? : )

Thanks

[kaanta]

Hello!

Just noticed the logomark contest, so here goes:

http://www.kotinet.com/pekka.kaanta/pcbsdlogo/pcbsd.jpg

As you can see (hopefully), there's a red core (FreeBSD)
surrounded by a gear (KDE). Quite simple and yet powerful-
looking ;)

[Nino]

Dear forum members,

I have watched your interesting discussions for some time, and I decided to submit some ideas to you for the logomark contest.

Unfortunately, I never ever used a vector graphics program, so I can only give them to you as ".jpeg"-s with description. My mail is vi0n_vani0n@gmx.net - subsitute 0 with o. That is, if you need any more information.

I herewith allow anyone to use them for the logomark contest and change them as they see fit. (But please only for that. Or for other similar projects concerning FreeBSD/DragonFly BSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD. Use should be for such freely usable systems only.)

These are just scetches that came to my mind - I am not a professional designer, but I would be glad if anyone with more experience can draw any inspiration from them.

The forms should be easy to recreate. The consist only of straight, eliptic or parabolic lines and of cirlces and boxes. Here they are:

http://666kb.com/i/ap6co84agau18leki.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cp648y0w2gjkzm.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cpvmy3j9vqgirm.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cqge4lv2k9z11e.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cr22wyhuckyyv6.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cry13tie1c9fya.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cskcmumf4usohu.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6ctfc7cp8lxlj42.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cu6550lmg48a2q.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cv5ooq6qlca22q.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cvnqiw688242rm.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cwaracbqwda5tu.jpg

http://666kb.com/i/ap6cwstnawj9cozcy.jpg

[kaanta]

That's right!

Just modified that earlier idea I had a bit, and here's
how the update looks like:

http://www.kotinet.com/pekka.kaanta/pcb ... d-logo.jpg (http://www.kotinet.com/pekka.kaanta/pcbsdlogo/pcbsd-logo.jpg)

[philipdru]

No, No, NO! For heaven's sake stick to a recognizable variation on the devil-and-trident figure (Beastie=BSD?). I am new to PC-BSD, and if I had the technical expertise would migrate to FreeBSD for the logo alone, which is funny and sweet and altogether a delight (plus it reminds me of, ahem, my favourite football team....).

I have no wish to offend, not least since I cannot contribute in any practical way myself, but it seems we are the inheritors of a belief, cultivated long ago by opportunists with a pecuniary interest in hoodwinking a gullible public, that what cannot be understood must therefore be profound, that redundant lines on a page or sloshing great swathes of paint across a canvas, unconstrained by considerations of technique, discipline, form, content and certainly talent, must somehow 'symbolize' something, something whose very impenetrability is a yardstick of meaning.

We accept this because we are vain and silly and because we fear appearing unintelligent, although what is actually being given a run out is nothing more elevated than a tendency to self-indulgence, 'modernism' being merely the bastard offspring of discredited Freudian navel-gazing.

Freud's was a consciously contrived attack on popular, christian psychology, and the old rogue freely admitted as much in later years. As for the artists he influenced Picasso damned the ouevre that had made him wealthy as unmitigated charlatanry. Rothko, Pollock, Mondrian and the rest of the pranksters are now 'icons' of 'modern art' of course.

Choose something pleasant to look at therefore - resisting the temptation to dismiss what is recognizable as inferior. You will sell more tee-shirts. Actually I would go further and replace the PC-BSD logo altogether, that 'representation' of the lovable daemon, which unfailingly reminds one of a satellite dish out of an old Sputnik by a lost Second World War naval mine and is both ugly and boring in equal measure.

Computer programmers and code junkies are modernists by inclination but that's my two-pennyworth anyway.