[Clipart] logo contest

[Bryce Harrington]

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004, Tobias Jakobs wrote:
> Bryce Harrington <bryce at bryceharrington.com> schrieb am 18.08.04 23:57:04:
> > On Wed, 18 Aug 2004, Tobias Jakobs wrote:
> > > > I suspect OCAL will be getting logo submissions continuously, so the
> > > > best solution is to work with it, and every N months select a new one
> > > > from the ones submitted so far (never picking the same one twice.)
> > > > Just treat it as an ongoing effort, follow a standard process, and
> > > > plan to have the log change over and over again.  :-)
> > > > 
> > > I think thats a very bad idea. A logo is important for a the project
> > > identity, you can't change it every n weeks. We can make release images
> > > for every release but not change our logo.  
> > 
> > Actually, I believe that was the approach adopted at the outset of the
> > logo project.  I think the cycle selected was 6 months or a year.  
> > 
> Even if it was (Do you have a link?), I don't think it is a good idea to change 
> the logo regularly. 

Browsing through news.gmane.org, it looks like the thread was 18-20 Jul
2004.  This was the same thread that decided on the Aug 15 date.
Alberto was in favor of a six-month lifetime for logos, with all
submitted logos continuing on for the next semester.  Jonadab favored
leaving open the option of sticking with the same logo indefinitely if
we should decide we really like it, but agreed we should promise a
limited timeframe of something like six months.  Niku seconded.

http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.freedesktop.clipart/cutoff=1151
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.freedesktop.clipart/882


There are several reasons why I think this is a good approach.  First
and foremost, it is a high profile, exciting way for new artists to get
involved in the project - some people just dig competitions.  Second,
while we have a good crop of logos so far, I'm certain we're going to
get better ones in the future, as our artists become more and more
skilled, so it would be wonderful to have a process that lets us and
them take advantage of it.  It will demonstrate to our users the
increasing skill and diverse styles of the artists involved in the
project.  Third, I think part of the essence of this project is to help
the open source community gain talent at creating things like logos, so
this is a good learning opportunity.  Fourth, a new logo every so often
would emphasize to our users that "wow, stuff must have changed - if the
logo is changing that often, their clipart must be changing often too!
I'd better go check it out."  And finally, based on my past experience
with logo competitions in other projects, you really can't turn off the
submissions - even if we said tomorrow "this is the logo and we're
sticking to it", my bet is that we're going to get a few new logo
submissions a week, no matter what.  ;-)

It's true that a logo can have importance in identification of the
project, although since we're not a company nor produce a program with
an icon that people will see, I'm not sure how necessary that is.  In
any case, I think if we were able to realize any one of the benefits
listed above, it'd be well worth the sacrifice.  Hopefully we'll get the
full range of benefit.  And besides, getting new logos is fun.  :-)

Anyway, I also suspect that even if the decision is to stick with one
logo permanently, in six months or a year folks will want to change
again anyway for various reasons, so even if we do want to pick a
"permanent" logo at this time I still think we'll end up changing it
periodically and gaining the benefits above, so I'd be ok with that
decision.

Bryce