Dear Andrew,
Given recent developments in the community about our branding efforts, it is that I write this email.
The openSUSE Conference gave time to the SUSE team to present new ideas and guidelines about branding. The idea behind this presentation was to aid designers and contributors who use our brand to promote our community and distribution. Many of them have to produce print materials on their own and need help with the design.
Up until now, our branding has decreased in strength and as a result, we might end up looking for ideas every time that we need to create materials for the distribution without having a core that guides our thoughts when creating artwork for events, LUGS, etc. Having to deal with such work is hard and slows down the overall progress of our branding efforts.
I wanted to open the discussion about these branding guidelines proposed by the team here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-r_ML-MnMo
Let me start by asking some question in sequence so we can answer in proper thread style
1. Ken and his team showed a new color palette, graphic elements such as a lightbulb and a geeko to use for posters and other print materials to be used as guidelines for future artwork that requires openSUSE branding. Are these branding guidelines going to be published in our wiki? Will they replace or add to the current guidelines placed in the wiki?
http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Artwork_guidelines#Colors
2. Ken discussed the possibility of changing our current logo to match more closely the work that SUSE did on their logo to build a stronger brand image. Can you explain more about this idea? What conventions, proposals or extensions do you have in mind about the logo changes?
Which also means the font should be changed? As far as I can see, this has already been done for oSC:
http://www.opensuse.cz/files/styles/obrazek_full/public/welcome.png
We have discussed about the logo font in the past, and I already came up with a few proposals. Which font are you using on the above image? Is it a free font?
These fonts are open sans and source sans. Both of them available through google fonts
Ok, fine. Also I am not sure, why this has not been discussed in the relevant thread on this list.
Why does it need to be discussed? I am almost certain that if we had a discussion about the fonts, we would still be discussing it now which wouldn't be very helpful.
This is how community works. Come up with a proposal and let's discuss it. In this concrete case, there has been some discussion in the past, and even some kind of conclusion if I remember correctly.
I like the idea with the light bulb, but the term 'connect' might point ppl to connect.o.o. which is not in a very usable state atm (afair it's even discussed to shut it down completely) - but maybe there are some plans I am not aware of.
I disagree with your connection of 'connect' to connect.o.o, and yes as I believe it will be shutdown once the services that link to it have been fixed.
I guess the 'cartoonish' chameleon is just a joke, isn't it?
Why do you say that? It is most certainly not a joke, and has been exceptionally well received here in Dubrovnik. I personally would like to see it or a variant of it as our new logo!
In the end, it's just a question of taste. To me it looks unprofessional.
I understand why the openSUSE Artwork team may feel as if they have been bypassed, but I can assure you all: *THIS IS NOT THE CASE!!!!!* We needed to get some marketing materials done for the booth boxes, so we managed to get Zvetlana to work on the printed material before Ken got her to do other things. Once Ken and his team have delivered their work items we will see much more from them, and they will be there to provide guidance and advice.
At the moment that's exactly what happens. It seems as SUSE tries to dictate the guidelines. That might of course be an option, but at least it's not the way I want to work with a project in my spare time. Greets Marcus