Hello, everyone,
Georg C. F. Greve wrote on Jan 02, 2001 at 04:31PM +0100:
First of all the stars _are_ being associated with the EU as they are using them as "their" symbol. So I agree with the people thinking that it would be a bad idea to use it.
I agree, too. Let's forget about the stars. Personally, I like them, but as they are not associated with whole Europe and a positive feeling in some countries, we should rather pick something else.
- The more abstract logo itself is pretty good, especially as the frontal view "involves" the viewer. Only the eyes should definitely be left away.
In my opinion the gnu looks too harsh without eyes. But that goes already into detail. We still have to decide on the overall concept of the logo. We can talk about such details later.
- There should definitely be a background as it looks to "flat" otherwise and she the European map more than anything else she could think of.
I agree. I think the background should have a specific colour which would be part of the logo. In high resolution versions (e.g. letterhead), it can be a detailed background (I would like a map best). In low resolution (web page button), the background would be solid colour.
A logo needs colour IMO, and choosing a colour is almost as vital as choosing a logo because it will be part of the FSFE's "corporate design". So ... what colour should be associated with the FSFE? My personal preference is a soft green, but would do others think?
Personally I agree with her assessment (I have come to trust it over the years) and I do believe that the logo with the map in the background will work just fine - scaling it down to 100x98 or something like that is just fine.
It is still visible in button size. But IMO it needs a solid colour background to be easily recognized. Colour and shape jump to the eye more quickly than small lines.
Thinking about small sizes I figure that something with an unusual shape, e.g. a silhouette, might even be better. The Linux penguin both has an unusual shape and a strong set of colours (black / white / yellow). I have been thinking about silhouettes of a gnu and a rider last week. There are a few more logo samples at my page:
http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~anja/gnu/
What logo would I prefer personally?
My favourite is: * Europa & Gnu drawn with lines only: solid colour background for low resolution (e.g. web page buttons), map backdrop for high resolution (e.g. paper mail).
I also like the following idea (*no sample image so far*): * Silhouette of Europa (girl in a greek gown) riding a gnu seen from the side. It should be similar to http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~anja/gnu/bw-side-with-marianne.png but with a different rider.
So could you please do a big high quality version of the GNU & Europa motive without eyes with the map in the background, Anja? I'd love to see that... we can play around with the colors then, too...
You can download the XCF file for the logo with map backdrop from my page. The direct link is http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~anja/gnu/with-map.xcf
It has a higher resolution than the inline image on the web page. For experimenting with colours it should do, I hope. You need Gimp 1.1 or higher for this as the XCF format changed from 1.0 to 1.1.
(Gimp technical note: The layer with the map is set to "keep transparency" and to an opacity level below 100%. The first means that if you "Select --> All" and bucket-fill it, only the map changes color, which is probably what you want. The second means that it looks pastel. If you don't like this, set the opacity level to 100% with the slide bar in the layers dialog.)
I did not upload XCF files for all images as they are so large and I only have a slow connection. If anyone needs XCF files of other images just let me know.
As someone pointed out, the final version should be scalable, i.e. vector graphics. If one of my line art or silhouette logo designs "makes it", I promise to do it in a scalable format (with xfig, sketch or Metafont) that can be converted to PostScript. I don't think my other samples can be re-done in a scalable format within a decent amount of time. They are merely intended as a contribution to brainstorming. ;-)
Best wishes,
Anja