Freecad Logo design suggestion

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Mikeo
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Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by Mikeo »

Hello everyone,

I started learning freecad recently and was impressed with the functionality and flexibility of this open source software.
Thank you very much for all the work done!

I'm particularly interested in using it for parametric design. While working with parametric graphics i had a play with a Freecad logo trying to open up the idea of parametric design in the gears symbol used for Freecad logo.

I'm a professional graphic and you designer based in London, that would like to contribute to open source software by improving it's design. I run this projects http://opendesignschool.co.uk/

I'm not sure where to post this and where is the best place to make design suggestions, so I'll just post some design drafts of the logo design here, and will wait for your feedback!
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suggestions for logo design that would reflect more parametric nature of the software
suggestions for logo design that would reflect more parametric nature of the software
freecad_logo_versions.png (124.61 KiB) Viewed 5020 times
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r-frank
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by r-frank »

Hello mikeo.

Welcome to FreeCAD and its community.

Thanks for your efforts and your intersting suggestions for a FreeCAD Logo.

I have to admit that i am a person with not-so-much artistic skills (that's one of the reasons
i became a mechanical engineer).

For me the gear should look like a gear.
From top to bottom the gear looks more and more like a snowflake :mrgreen:
So IMHO in the first row we have a look of the gear symbol i find quite realistic (and i like most).

But i am also quite fond of (= I like) the basic style of the two Logo's in the 5th row (except of the look of the gear symbol).

Did you have a look at this thread in the User Showcase-Subsection ?

And i also thought of the T-Shirt-Thread.

But nontheless, by looking at your suggestions, i wonder how your proposal for a splash screen for 0.16 would
look like ? :D

Roland
Last edited by r-frank on Sun Jan 25, 2015 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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quick61
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by quick61 »

I had never seen the T'shirt thread before. Very cool!

Maybe Yorik can revive it with a design for the 0.15 release. :mrgreen: It would be nice to have something more up to date to scurry off downtown with to get a shirt made. There is a custom T'shirt shop just over the hill, (literly) from me.

Mark
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bejant
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by bejant »

Greetings Mikeo, I don't have much in the way of artistic ability, but here's another forum thread showing some other proposed changes to the FreeCAD logo:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4700
Mikeo
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by Mikeo »

thanks a lot for feedback and links to other topics related to logo design. I couldn't find them myself for some reason.

What would be the right step to proceed with it further? Is there a need to?
I'd like to do some more options taking into account all feedback for this and previously suggested logos.

I've seen there were a lot of good versions made already like the ones here
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4700&start=10#p37137
there is some very valuable feedback as well, but all posts are from 2013 and it's hard to see now if it's taking any direction or there are no plans for changes.

My questions are:
1. Is it worth doing more versions and collecting feedback?
2. Should I continue to post things here, or is there a better place to where all logo related discussions can be moved?

Thanks again!
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bejant
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by bejant »

Mikeo wrote:My questions are:
1. Is it worth doing more versions and collecting feedback?
2. Should I continue to post things here, or is there a better place to where all logo related discussions can be moved?
I'd suggest waiting a little bit to see how the developers feel..
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DeepSOIC
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by DeepSOIC »

I'm not a main developer (just a small contributor :) ), but here's my opinion anyway.

The first row is quite good. The rightmost one looks especially appealing to me because I'm a Windows8 guy :P

The first one from the 5th row should go straight to all drawing sheets :lol: .

Overall, the icons are good, I think there's something professional in their look. Maybe it's because of a modern trend towards everything flat... However, I feel like your icons are not in sync with the overall look and feel of FreeCAD, which is quite a bit of a problem.
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yorik
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by yorik »

Hi all,

Yeah, we need a new 0.15 t-shirt! Definitely! :)

About Mikeo's proposal:

I kind of like your ideas and your proposals are very welcome. Just keep in mind that you are not the first one to propose a new logo, and usually all the others ended up in much frustration because nobody got very interested in changing our current logo for one of the proposed ones. So you must absolutely be prepared for that to happen ok? There are many people here giving opinion, and it will be extremely hard to come to a consensus.

Basically what I'd recommend is this:

1) Our icon appears in many, many places at 16x16 pixels, and even smaller when it's used as a "decoration" (forgot the exact term) on another icon. One of the advantages of the current bicolor icon is that even at 4x4pixels you can recognize it. That's an important thing to keep in mind.

2) There have been many discussions already about the "gear". A gear is used very widely in computing to mean "settings", or "configuration". My opinion is that we must take care to "deviate" from that meaning somehow.

3) We have a kind of our own, specific color palette in FreeCAD. It's something that started with the tango theme, but that evolved with time to something more vivid, bright that (for me) has become a kind of visual identity. We also use those colors meaningfully (each color means a specific area of action). Your current proposal use softer colors and therefore deviates a bit from that. That might require some thinking (to change or to confirm, I don't know).

4) I liked much the work you did with the fonts. That's definitely something badly needed... Keep in mind everything needs to stay open-source, ok?
Mikeo
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by Mikeo »

hi all,

thanks a lot for a very constructive feedback.

Yorik, I totally agree that it's hard to come to the consensus with so many opinions from the community, but that's why it's it interesting for me to design something for open source product when there is not just one client to approve the final design, but the whole community to collaborate and contribute.

I'll try to read as much as possible about feedback on other logos, perhaps even put them in one screenshot to make sure I'm not missing anything. I obviously don't expect my versions to be approved and won't get frustrated if there is no feedback but thanks for pointing it out! :)

Regarding other points:

1) Will bare in mind super small sized when working on next version.
2) Do you mean to suggest other symbols other then gear? or just make sure it's not confused with the settings icon when it's used on it's own?
3) Do you mean bright blue and Red in the logo? is the requirement to keep them?
4) I've used free and open source font http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Montserrat which due to it's geometrical shapes works very well next to CAD blueprints and the gear symbol. It's also web optimised font so will be easy to use on your site.

Do you have any specs for t-shirt? can try to work on that as well.
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yorik
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Re: Freecad Logo design suggestion

Post by yorik »

Mikeo wrote:2) Do you mean to suggest other symbols other then gear? or just make sure it's not confused with the settings icon when it's used on it's own?
I have no clear idea. I just think that it shouldn't look like a settings application in an applications menu :)
Mikeo wrote:3) Do you mean bright blue and Red in the logo? is the requirement to keep them?
Not necessarily. But have a look at the current icons, for example the PartGui icons, which I think resume well the overall "FreeCAD style". I think the logo should dialogue with them somehow... http://www.freecadweb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Artwork
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