Re: GNOME Logo Branding Guidelines Concerns

[Máirín Duffy <duffy redhat com>]

Quim Gil wrote:
> PS: reading twice Thilo's email I see he also agrees that "using flags
> for languages is a bad idea"

I kind of think it depends on the language and the context surrounding 
it, though. I think for a language like Japanese or say Irish Gaelic 
where the language really is mostly spoken in the country of origin, you 
could comfortably use that country's flag as part of the design and 
there wouldn't be any potential negative feelings about it. There are 
some languages, however, such as German, Portuguese, Spanish, English, 
etc. where this simply would not be appropriate because the language is 
associated with *many* countries. Or countries such as India or China 
where *many* languages are associated with one country.

This is something that depends on the context, which is why I think it 
should be up to the folks in charge of the project to customize their 
logo and it shouldn't be something we dictate (although we can note 
something like be careful about using a flag, don't offend, blah blah.) 
The folks in charge of a particular language's translation or in charge 
of a particular country's group know best, I think, the mindfields to 
avoid and know the proper symbols to go with in their design.

So I guess in a nutshell I don't think we should dictate whether or not 
flags must be used. I wouldn't completely ban them completely, however.

~m