I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

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NormandC
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by NormandC »

Almost every year we get such a topic.

Seriously, can't you guys spend your time on something that would actually be useful to the FreeCAD project?

FreeCAD is already missing quite a few toolbar icons, it's not difficult to find where if you take the time to familiarize yourself with FreeCAD.

And let's not talk about UX/UI work that would be of much help.

But no, everyone wants to remake the FreeCAD logo! :roll: I can't help but think this is fuelled by vanity rather than by desire to help the FreeCAD project.

Reality check: logo design is hard. It takes skill and talent. None of the icon attempts I've seen here are better than the existing FC logo.
Mika38 wrote:in direction of the open source hardware logo. Do not get to close, FreeCAD should not be confused with it.
+1 it's a straight up copy rotated 90 degrees.
triplus wrote:In the previous big logo challenge (when the logo actually changed) i participated
There was never a logo challenge. One graphics designer dropped in with his unsolicited proposal, someone else replied with his, and you made it a challenge.
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Mika38
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by Mika38 »

I think that the image of the project is important. The logo will probably be the first contact with FreeCAD, thinking about it does not seems to be a waste of time.
I made a quick benchmark of the different logo of the software around FreeCAD, image and slide source attached. The "open cascade technology" is so kitch.
In my opinion, a good logo should have only one color (here, red or blue), or a combination which make sense. For example right now, I don't understand why the 'F' is red and the gear blue. Any link to the flag of Paris? Also, in FreeCAD there is a Raytracing benchwork, why not make a logo using those tools? By the way, the logo in cube from the beginning of this post is really really close to Solidworks one :lol:
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FreeCAD logo Benchmark v2.png
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FreeCAD logo Benchmark presentation v2.odp
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Last edited by Mika38 on Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
;) Le chemin est long, mais la voie est libre :D The journey is long but the way is free 8-)
triplus
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by triplus »

NormandC wrote:
triplus wrote:In the previous big logo challenge (when the logo actually changed) i participated
There was never a logo challenge. One graphics designer dropped in with his unsolicited proposal, someone else replied with his, and you made it a challenge.
You give me way too much credit. But OK as things like that happen as often as FreeCAD logo changes i will take it. Yes. I said it was rewarding experience and i am happy i participated in it.

P.S. And if i do a bit of math. In average we have one logo challenge per year. One articulated proposal is usually the outcome per year. We could likely salvage around 5 of such proposals from the past challenges. Therefore in five years time we will likely have 10 of such proposals. And then i guess we can start thinking about a proper voting approach. I guess nothing new to see here. It's done when it is done.
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pablogil
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by pablogil »

NormandC wrote:Almost every year we get such a topic.

Seriously, can't you guys spend your time on something that would actually be useful to the FreeCAD project?

FreeCAD is already missing quite a few toolbar icons, it's not difficult to find where if you take the time to familiarize yourself with FreeCAD.

And let's not talk about UX/UI work that would be of much help.

But no, everyone wants to remake the FreeCAD logo! :roll: I can't help but think this is fuelled by vanity rather than by desire to help the FreeCAD project.

Reality check: logo design is hard. It takes skill and talent. None of the icon attempts I've seen here are better than the existing FC logo.
Mika38 wrote:in direction of the open source hardware logo. Do not get to close, FreeCAD should not be confused with it.
+1 it's a straight up copy rotated 90 degrees.
triplus wrote:In the previous big logo challenge (when the logo actually changed) i participated
There was never a logo challenge. One graphics designer dropped in with his unsolicited proposal, someone else replied with his, and you made it a challenge.
Hi @NormandC,

I really think your post is out place and tone, we all try to help FreeCAD as we are able to, someones with code, other with design, others with suggestions, others with bug reporting, etc. Everything sums.

If we here are talking about the logo, is because we love FreeCAD and feel like it can be much better (as always, it's just a single opinion) so that's the main reason we are debating about it... it doesn't mean we are forcing the change, we just talk and propose alternative logos. We used our time to think about it, sketch and design so it's not vanity, it's a full desire to make FreeCAD a better thing.

As I can't tell you how to spend your time, you cannot tell us how to spend (and enjoy) ours, so if we feel like designing and sharing alternative FreeCAD icons it should fine, if we feel like designing a full icon replacement for FreeCAD it should be fine, if we feel like creating a full theme stylesheet for FreeCAD it should be fine, if we feel like designing the icons you refer to it should be fine:
partdesign_part.png
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coordinates.png
coordinates.png (12.43 KiB) Viewed 2055 times
(I just need some indications on how to name and place them inside /src/ folder and I would "pull request" them... if you like them, of course)
...

Well, I think you have the idea, I don't want to argue, but you should pay attention to the tone of your words because someone could feel bad about them and somehow he could decide not to continue helping the FreeCAD community anymore (it's not my case...)

Cheers
Dark and Light stylesheets v2.0 to theme your FreeCAD UI, more information here
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easyw-fc
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by easyw-fc »

pablogil wrote:I had a some spare time to polish the logo proposal I showed you yesterday (which was an old design) and now I have a much more balanced idea, even the colors has been equalized to "triad coloring"... it's still a sketch but now I'm happy on how it looks:
freecad2.png

About not using the original colors, I think they are too bright and "basic", I have toned them to a much more nice looking combination (keeping the triad color wheel scheme) but, as always, it could be improved or dismissed if you don't like it, hehehe
may you share the svg files? I would like to try those on my pc! ;)
I like to have different icons for different releases of FC I have on my pc... and I like the circle one! ;)
Thx
Maurice
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pablogil
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by pablogil »

easyw-fc wrote: may you share the svg files? I would like to try those on my pc! ;)
I like to have different icons for different releases of FC I have on my pc... and I like the circle one! ;)
Thx
Maurice
Of course!
I have included two new experiments to the outer "circle":
freecad_logos.png
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Find them all attached to this post.
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easyw-fc
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by easyw-fc »

pablogil wrote: I have included two new experiments to the outer "circle":
freecad_logos.png

Find them all attached to this post.
Thx ;)
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triplus
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by triplus »

I think Pablo nailed it. Logo isn't changed often and changes are usually small. But like everything else logo is evolving over time. And the logo challenge became an annual event anyway.

For 2017 logo challenge and FreeCAD 0.17 logo if i calculate the constructive criticism in and leave everything else out. There is always a chance something big could happen. Such suggestion are welcomed. Realistically if @pablogil would take the existing logo and evolve the geometry slightly and after @agryson would align it. That likely could be perceived as giving proper attribution and for FreeCAD community to be OK with it.
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nemesis
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by nemesis »

pablogil wrote: I have included two new experiments to the outer "circle":
I would vote for the first one, IMHO it has a better looking in task bar, or in OSX panel.
triplus
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Re: I think the icons of freecad need to be redesigned

Post by triplus »

Pablo i evaluated some of your past proposals. From geometry point of view you did a small but interesting change here:

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=18063

If you could provide corresponding SVG file i will open a feature request for alignment here:

https://github.com/agryson/FreeCAD/issues

Alexander hopefully will take the job.

P.S. After all that happens we can evaluate if we meet the requirements of FreeCAD logo challenge 2017 given the requirements and boundaries as outlined in this thread.
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