[gobolinux-users] Improved Logo

[molfar]

On 5/6/07, hisham.hm at gmail.com <hisham.hm at gmail.com> wrote:
> The bad side effect, to my eyes, is that it ended up being a bit too generic.
I hoped you would put something like "corporate", not "generic" ))
Well, that's was mostly the main idea behind the improvement effort -
to make the distro more mainstream and attractive for newcomers. And I
see nothing wrong that it may to some small extent resemble some other
highly popular distros out there. Actually - it's an advantage.
Nowadays, if you want to recruit more followers you won't really
succeed by simply improving quality of your product. You need to
provide good marketing for it. Take a look at distrowatch rating and
Gobo's relative place in it. Do you really think it's because of low
quality of your product and highly experimental ideas? I doubt it. And
why such generic and unimpressive systems like openSuSe and Ubuntu
have risen up to the top in almost no time? Because of their
usability? Partly yes, but mostly due to rather aggressive marketing
campaigns on part of their creators and subsequent corporate backing.
Don't get me wrong - I like the idea of providing some kind of
uniqueness for a distro, that cozy "home-developed" feeling, but it is
also a question of globalization - if you want your ideas to succeed -
you need a strong followers' support. Thus you need to get those
followers. And let's be honest - it's a rather difficult thing to
achieve if you don't go mainstream )).

> What I didn't like: the "all-lowercase" name is a bit of a cliché
> nowadays; especially with the blue colorscheme it reminded me of the
> Fedora logo. The font+lettering+color also reminded me of the Intel
> logo.
Again - this cliche is an example of modern trend that is part of Web
2.0 world. I see nothing particularly wrong with it. It's mostly the
question of design harmony. The logo looks more "polished" and
"streamlined" this way. It has the feeling of softness and natural
order of things.
About the coloring - I have already mentioned that it was only a draft
scheme to represent basic designs on that picture. I tend to agree,
that blue scheme is very reminiscent of fedora and intel, however -
the color range is not that diverse to choose the most pleasant
looking colors from)) One way or another - there would always be
someone who used it before you :)
One of the solutions might be to use the purple, violet or magenta
scheme - the old gobo logo had a tint of it and there are almost no
rivals in that niche - the only distro I know that puts this color to
an effective use is EnGarde -
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=engarde

And to the last one - the typeface. It was not an easy choice, since
one of the predominant criteria I put before combining it in final
logo was that it had to be FREE, not proprietary. I am not that
experienced a designer, so drawing my own font from scratch was not an
option. And among all the quality and (I want to stress it)
professional free typefaces the one chosen was the best. Just go to
that foundry's site and see it for yourself. That typeface is rather
new - so the uniqueness of the brand might be preserved.
What also needs mentioning - it is very complimentary to gobo's mascot
- since it not only has got round sans-serif outlines (like Quack's
dressing) but also some "pointy" or sharp parts that have a bit in
common with Quack's sharp beak.
Bearing all that in mind I made such a choice and I think it is not that bad)

> Actually, I've been thinking for a while now that we could
> use a new logo other than the mascot.
Not a bad idea at all, should we put up a new contest for that one too? ;)))

Regards,
molfar