Re: Logo/image guidelines

[John Williams <jwilliams business otago ac nz>]

> I hope our designers can come up with a fuller brand image. That might
> include our brand colors, fonts, etc.
>
> Or, it would be nice if people provided links to examples of corporate
> brand guidelines.

What I want to say is slightly off-topic and I risk exposing myself as
an ivory-tower acadamic, as well as a marketing suit.  Sigh.  Such is
life.

Companies spend lots of money developing branding materials, but they
spend even more ***testing*** them.  It doesn't matter if the people in
the company like the logo, colours etc., what matters is WHAT IT SAYS TO
CUSTOMERS.  What impressions does it give?  What is the image that forms
in the mind of the customer?

So, let's decide who our customers are (home users, corporates, distros,
ISVs IIRC) and then test our branding materials on some of them, and see
what they think.

I am thinking in particular of (1) distros and (2) potential new users.
Distros can modify how GNOME looks such that the careful matching of
colours etc. on the logo can clash with the look-n-feel of the desktop.

Potential new users are a tricky one.  What impression do they form of
GNOME when they see the logo?  If GNOME was a person, what would they be
like?  Male, female?  Young, old?  Straight, funky?

I'm going to stop now, as I feel a rant building up.  I hope you get the
drift of what I am trying to say.

HTH

John