[Ilugc] Re: FossConf new logo suggestion by Niyam
- From: linuxlingam@xxxxxxxxx (Linux Lingam)
- Date: Sat Nov 10 18:00:36 2007
niyam says:
a new logo suggestion for fossconf:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40299872@N00/1938577522/
kenneth says:
looks good - but, given the state of politics in TN, it may not be
wise to use it
[snip + concatenate]
black and red - dravidian party colours
rising sun - dmk symbol
hand - congress symbol
left hand - yuck
too risky, in my opinion
[snip + concatenate]
but it is real good - so if we leave out the explanation, no one will
make the connection. If we mention rising sun in the explanation ...
hahahahahahhaah! kenneth, you are such a delight! must remember to hug
you when i meet you!
your thinking startles me and makes me ponder on how color and
symbolism are interpreted further. inspired by you will add another 2
or 3 pages to my book 'the art of logo design' once the creativedot
site is up.
meanwhile, to address each point:
black & red is also used by airtel, and not just thousands, but
millions of brands. this because red creates a high neuro-cognitive
response in the human eye, when in contrast with black. so no, that
combination cannot be owned by any one political party, or corporate
brand, or spiritual movement, or whatever. it is universal and
popular.
for instance, it is the color combination of goddess kali, and revered
in west bengal especially.
in some countries, using the same color combination for a
*directly-competing brand* in the *same market* may be a violation.
but lemme see, so far, no other foss event in chennai or india uses
red, black, white. so we're ok. in fact, splendid!
o'reilly uses black red white for their branding, but it is distinctly
different from ours.
their event, which is oscon, uses blue and white.
again, we're distinct and different. no overlaps.
heck, both linuxasia and freed.in use black, orange, and white, and
there are no legal, moral, ethical, or any other issues about it. the
two are still very distinct. EFY also supported the event.
therefore, we can use it, as we are not trying in anyway to evoke any
other party or individual that may use that combination, directly or
indirectly in our symbolism.
then, the hand. congress? blimey! no way! the hand belongs to, well, humans!
i just found 12,300,000 results from the image-search of google for 'hand logo'
please take a look here:
http://images.google.co.in/images?hl=en&q=hand+logo&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
please note how the hand is also a universal symbol. again, i can only
think of the mudras depicted on buddha's statues, when i think of the
hand as a symbol.
puting the red-dot on the open hand is exactly for the reasons i
mention in the description: bharatanatyam allusion for tamil nadu's
cultural sharing with the world + openness expressed in an open hand.
incidentally, while researching on bharatanatyam for this logo design,
i learnt with joy that bharatanatyam takes multiple mudras and
gestures, combining or adapting them, to further express more ideas.
so the open hand with a red dot is just to express the ideas mentioned above.
rising sun:
japan, tibet, holiday resorts from around the world, diverse business
brands, creative movements . . .
kenneth, i urge you to click on the link below. this is my google
search for image-results, for the key word 'rising sun logo'. i found
168,000 results
http://images.google.co.in/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&q=rising+sun+logo&btnG=Search+Images
please note quite a few of them are also using red and black in their
color combinations.
so again, our logo is not politically-charged, but culturally,
symbolically, to capture the essence of the foss movement in tamil
nadu. in a sub-continent blessed with abundant sunshine.
left-hand:
bharatanatyam uses both hands, for a sacred and creative purpose. i
allude to that in my logo.
the logo initially had a right-hand, then i flipped it to smile at the
visual pun on 'copy-left'
again, everything goes with out ideas and values of foss.
copy-left is not yuck, but awesome! :-)
i can give a whole researched talk on the importance and understanding
of the left-hand, off-topic, over a nice cup of south indian filter
coffee, some sunny day.
s krishna das wrote:
Open hand idea is good.
The perfect circle was itching me
I made it ellipse.
http://www.geocities.com/srikrishna_innovations/fossconf.in_ellipse.jpg
hmmm ok, looks good too, but i'd like to stick to a perfect circle for
the following reasons:
a) bharatanatyam uses a perfect circle, though hand-drawn. here is my reference:
http://www.noopur.com/students.html
b) in bharatanatyam they also paint the finger tips red. i tried that
with the logo, but it looked too garish and harsh as the logo is well,
a logo, and not a photograph. so dropped it to just fingers/digits,
and the perfect circle.
c) the perfect circle also evokes the CD, DVD, and disc media.
d) works for the rising sun imagery.
e) contrast visually, of the perfection of the circle to the rough
organic brush strokes of the fingers/digits.
even then, i am okay with the use of an ellipse circle if all of you
strongly prefer an ellipse.
finally, use of other colors:
have noted in events, a lot of the collateral is screen-printed, such
as teeshirts, some banners, etc. every color adds to the cost. so i
decided to stick to one color (red) plus black. the typical background
color for the use of this logo would be black, white, grey, or even
any other color. it adapts perfectly well for that.
as kenneth notes, the red is not exactly pure-red, but a slightly orangish-red.
i could also change it to another tone of red, the hex values are: ff334cff
this is the tone i find that matches the tone of red used in bharatanatyam.
just tried it in the logo, looks good. my only worry is that getting
it to match in digital prints, teeshirt prints, etc will take some
effort at your end. but hey! we can live with that. :-)
here's the logo with the new red tone:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40299872@N00/1946471801/
i must share with all of you that i spent a considerable number of
hours trying to find a unique mudra to draw as the logo. however, at
low-resolutions, at small sizes, the mudra becomes quite squished.
plus, each mudra in bharatanatyam conveys a variety of meanings. i
found the 'mukula' mudra the most suitable as it signifies 'bud'.
further research showed this mudra combines or adapts to form several
other meanings as well.
the open-hand mudra just conveys everything, and most importantly,
scales to form a distinct favicon in your browser. a logo that can
scale to such a small size is a pearl in an oyster. :-)
over to you guys!
hope you finalize in a day or two,
then will find time and create the banner for the websites.
please share: what is the slogan of the event?
i remember taking part in this discussion a week ago, but do not know
if this got resolved.
had recommended a slogan as well.
finally, will later add the details of the typography of the logotype as well.
:-)
niyam bhushan
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