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The seek for a visual identity for Unity Linux has been an important issue since the start of the project, and it led to the creation of this group. Most of the work takes place on the mailing list.

Since this is a project with an “open source”-type development model, we may not be all professional and we don’t all share the same views on objectives and missions. This is usually the main reason for a project to stall.  People keep arguing and don’t act, or one person forces their views on the rest and the group either abides or violently reacts.  The development team quickly loses members, and the remaining people lose enthusiasm.

The Unity Linux Graphic Team has two key elements that prevent such a nightmare scenario from happening.  First, there is no executive leader and all members are admin for the project. This means there is no hierarchy and no dominant person. Every action is lead by good will. Freedom of speech is a standard and despite the raw and tough arguments we have, the outcome is always positive. Nothing gets stopped, pulled down or hidden, CLARIFY: unless the ones committing personally prevent themselves from doing so for their work to the group’s eyes.  Next, we don’t have the same level of expertise in all the domains endeavored by the project. Thus we need to explain things a lot … we even need to explain how to explain. We need to prevent ourselves from turning out as a doodle team or a commercial department.

That being said, if you want to know what is going on in the project… here is a timeline with quotes and doodles.

1. Leadership

04/22/2009 / Spiral of Hope : If we agree on being leaderless, maybe we should just make this entire mailing list the “contact person”? 04/22/2009 / Pierre-Henri RAMBOZ : It is yet the case as far as we are all list owners ! 04/23/2009 / Gemini : I am fine with the current set-up. But, should a leadership role become necessary, my opinion is that it should be one with the most diverse experience and know-how [...] Either way, it is far too soon to think on a leader role in this area. 04/23/2009 / Custom Processing Unlimited : as far as support (questions) is concerned, we could make a “Unity Graphics Q&A” ml that anyone could join to ask questions. [...] . As far as leadership goes, I think the socialism approach for the time being is best… [...] Also, chances are, a leader could surface on it’s own just by said person proving to posses leadership skills and the rest of the group would naturally follow… [...] 04/23/2009 / Spiral of Hope : ok, so basically this issue isn’t so important, and it will automatically reappear whenever it needs to.

2. Circled logo discussion

04/24/2009 / Spiral of Hope : [... ] There’s something different between: - a bunch of people who are united, in a room. - a bunch of people who are united, on a lawn. The logo with the rounded box feels like a room to me.When it’s in the open, the whitespace feels a lot more comfortable. [...] It is still an issue to do something like that if the place the logo goes has colours which don’t look good next to the logo. 04/24/2009 / Custom Processing Unlimited : [...] I do admit that there are a lot of icons and logos that are enclosed. But it does have a more defined feel to me. enclosure has a certain kind of feeling that says “finished” to me. But that could be a blessing and a curse. Let’s see what develops… 04/24/2009 / Pierre-Henri RAMBOZ : i would just ask … why putting something around ? [...] does unity aims to give the feeling of something finished ? is unity an end user product ?

3. Badges

04/25/2009 / Spiral of Hope : We have enough people-classifications [...] It also becomes messy to show all that classification [...] I’ve always had an idea in mind [...] A small image [...] Different images represent different teams or skills. [...] This would also apply for branch association. [...] These badges would simplify and beautify the list of team members, and they could be appended together to form forum badges or in each user’s signature. The style of these badges should be dependent on the Unity Linux branding, but I figured that it could be done in some simple way for now. 04/25/2009 / Pierre-Henri RAMBOZ : You have a yet prety clean idea of what you want… There is no real room for creation… Why not doing it youtself? You have the skill to, don’t you? 04/25/2009 / Spiral of Hope : No. =( 04/25/2009 / Pierre-Henri RAMBOZ : So ok please make a 3 line sinopsis of your request and it will be more easily carryable by the team than the complex yet precise proposal you made 04/25/2009 / ruel24 : The idea is great, but until we get a logo, it’s difficult to proceed with something like this. We have no idea about the Unity colors, font, or symbol. But, as I said, I like the idea. Once we get the logo straightened out and get what Unity’s color/colors will be, we can proceed.

4. Design VS Art VS Doodle

04/23/2009 / Gemini : [...] The most simplistic design will work best in this situation. I fear getting too fancy with the design, enhances the loss of it’s functionality. This is truest, when down-sizing the image. Just the most basic, visual element to project the meaning of Unity is needed. That is a rather difficult task, I agree… but that is what is needed. Do I have the solution? Of course not haha… just the theory. I have racked my brain on it, and it is tough, especially to come up with a completely unique way to communicate Unity on a visual level as simplistic as possible. I fully agree on two parts of this discussion. #1 – color is not a factor here… color is the final dressing stage (we are not even close to that point yet) #2 – simplicity…. try not to get too caught up in how artistic / fancy you can make it. Fancy = reduced functionality this is not a contest on who is the most artistically skilled or talented. It is rather the first step in producing a functional / visual communication of one meaning If I cannot come up with anything, that portrays what I just said.. I will not show anything, but rather watch, and only step in when the dressing stage comes into play. As DidouPH mentions… to do such will only lead to going completely off the targeted goal here. But, if I can interject a thought i have… I have privately exhausted my mind trying to come up with something… And then, when I did a quick favicon to use as a temp for now… it hit me. Why could not the logo, be simply.. the letter “U”? Enhance the U, give it some amount of unique style… to emphasize it “as the logo”? DidouPH has done some work creating an entirely unique font… Why then, could that very U in his font not become the visual concentration to brand this project? It is only a thought I had, but would love to hear other’s thoughts on it. 04/24/2009 / ruel24 : [...] Absolutely. I’m just trying to put some ideas out there. Everything is up for rework, modifications, or whatever. Important thing is to get a good logo. 04/24/2009 / Custom Processing Unlimited : what about just the leaf? 04/24/2009 / Pierre-Henri RAMBOZ : what is the relation to unity ? why not a skull ? 04/24/2009 / Custom Processing Unlimited : well, we were going with a nature feel for the whole idea, but super simplistic… you could also ask what a star has to do with mandriva, or a swirl has to do with debian, or that pacman looking thing that gentoo uses. I can understand the desire to have something that kind of ties into the idea of unity, but my mind always comes up with something that is enclosed with circles, since unity is togetherness (if ubuntu didn’t have their logo, I could see variations of that working)… but I figure, as simplistic as possible, and still has the U that we like utilizing so much. … 04/24/2009 / Pierre-Henri RAMBOZ : [...] here its not a matter of design but culture [...] what we gained lately in simplicity … we lost it in “individuality” … it must not look like anything else … ok so if we make it simple …lets make it unique [...] is it really the good path … providing one answer is never enoug … we need to massively produce then reduce the choices to the core … atm we are not making anything but argument on a design without real direction for our investigation … ruel and devnet added a bit to the concept but it sounds like we are sticking to the vegetal concept … lets not be carricatural with it and add a bit of inovation [...] the leaf in itself is a pretty common logo … its not a mater of leaf its a matter of immediate relation between the picture and distro … is it unique or not … does it looks unique or not … atm …it doesn’t can it do so ? … maybe 04/25/2009 / Custom Processing Unlimited : how about the “U”, the “leaf” and the “clover” wrapped up in one? or am I getting too elaborate? 04/25/2009 / Spiral of Hope : Yes. Too many meanings dilute the influence of a symbol. [...] I think this leaf is way too similar to other leaf symbols, especially those used in.. I can’t remember which distribution. The leaf itself may signify growth and life, but I’m not sure it signifies unity / togetherness / community. 04/25/2009 / ruel24 : I’m sure leaves are used as symbols everywhere… I just tried to simplify the “vine” thing and the simplest I could make it was to do just a leaf. Symbols don’t have to symbolize anything. What does Tux have to do with Linux? What does that sliced up sphere have to to with AT&T? They just have to be identifiable with the product’s image. 04/25/2009 / Pierre-Henri RAMBOZ : A logo needs to be eye catching and simple to remember… Its meaning follows and is dependent on the brand it represents… At&t logo would have had a different meaning for an ice cream seller!

5. All Designs

First thing we have to answer before starting is… WHAT IS a Great Logo? Or even, what IS a Logo? This is a question that has become extremely important to answer recently in the Unity Graphics team, as we work on our very own Logo.

Is it a pretty picture for catching attention? Does it have meaning? Is it just a pointless piece of art to look good next to a name? Well, probably yes to all of these. But let’s first start by answering what it is NOT. A Logo is NOT simply ANY of these. It is much more than a pretty picture. It may or may not have some deeper, symbolic meaning. It might even be a pointless piece of art that looks good next to a name.

Let’s look at some definitions of Logo:

• Wikipedia says:

  A logo is a graphical element (ideogram, symbol, emblem, icon, sign) that, together with its logotype (a uniquely set and arranged typeface) form a trademark or commercial brand. Typically, a logo’s design is for immediate recognition.^[1] The logo is one aspect of a company’s commercial brand, or economic or academic entity, and its shapes, colors, fonts, and images usually are different from others in a similar market. Logos are also used to identify organizations and other non-commercial entities.

• American Heritage Dictionary says:

  A name, symbol, or trademark designed for easy and definite recognition, especially one borne on a single printing plate or piece of type.

Those are rather textbook meanings of a Logo. However, they tell us a lot. A Logo is a symbol or graphical element that creates a brand. So, we’ve verified a Logo is not simply a pretty picture slapped next to text that looks good, it is much more.

The logofactory.com has some very nice information I’d like to refer to. They have an article “What Makes a Great Logo?”. Please, read it before continuing. Don’t worry, I’ll still be here, so take your time.

Done? Ok, now we should all have an understanding of what a Logo is, and further, a reference point for what makes a Logo “great.” Logo Design, I have learned, is very arduous. As our own DidouPH said to me not long ago: (Slightly Paraphrased to fix his Franglish

Logo Design is one of the most interesting parts of design but it’s freaking tedious. It requires a loooooot of patience and talent.

Talent is plentiful. Take our team for instance. We have an EXTREMELY talented Graphics Design team. This is evident just spending a moment reading through the Unity-Graphics Mailing List. However, Patience is almost never plentiful.

To put it in perspective, in an Interview, a Bavarian designer, Pache David, was asked the question “How long does the Logo Design Process take?” to which he answered:

The logo design process takes anywhere from a week to several months. Anything is possible when it comes to creativity. It depends on the project, the expectations of the client and my inspiration.

Yes, sometimes it takes MONTHS. Why? In that same interview, he was also asked “How important is a Logo?” to which he answered:

Very. It is the first point of contact for a company, in that it is often what attracts their clientele. A ‘look’ tells you about a company in the blink of an eye and the impression of on how professional they are and if they are trust worthy.

You might be wondering “But why does it take so long? Drawing a picture is easy!” Why? To answer this, I feel it is best to demonstrate a typical design process, and this is not specific to Logo Design, it is just that Logos are by nature far more difficult because they tend to be the foundation of other designs.

A typical design process goes as such:

1. Brainstorming – In this phase you gather ideas and concepts. For instance, in Unity Linux, you might ask questions like “What does Unity mean?”, “What does it mean to us?”, “How are we different from everyone else?” Often times, however, this phase of the process is blurred with the second phase.
2. Thumbnails – In this phase, everyone throws out simple, undetailed ideas. How we are doing that is through the mailing list. You can see what has been done so far by reading here. Generally, Thumbnails are simple black and white images. Color is secondary to shape in a Logo, so in this phase, color is also generally frowned upon. Other than that, this is a time to throw anything on the table.
3. Rough Sketch – After a plethora of Thumbnails have been conceived, now is time for details. Using inspirations from the images in the previous phase, the Rough Sketch phase is when more detailed, yet unrefined, submissions are made. This is a much more serious phase than the previous, and generally results in much fewer submissions, as well as much more scrutiny. Color is still usually absent in this phase.
4. Coloring – This isn’t a standard design phase, but I felt it appropriate to separate it from Final Draft. After choosing a number of Rough Sketches, usually 4 or 5, sometimes more, sometimes less, it would probably be best to render all sketches in a variety of color palettes and choose favorites from those.
5. Final draft – In this phase, we go all out on logo designs. This phase may not produce the Final Logo, but it is where art skills are flexed the most. From these, probably about 3 will be chosen to submit to the public,where, in our case, we will hold a competition to create a logo based on those as templates.

These steps help immensely in a professional design atmosphere. One starts with many unrefined options and ends up with 2 or 3 well polished Logos to choose from.

So what makes a Great Logo? A unique, recognizable symbol that can be used in a variety of ways and defines the brand it represents; a symbol that outstandingly represent what it stands for. How do you make a Great Logo? Long, tedious work following a well structured process, with many, good eyes evaluating progress throughout the process.

Hey everyone…you may have noticed that SVN moved recently. We hit our limit for size at sourceforge and we were hard pressed to move. Therefore, we setup a temporary SVN right here at unity-linux.org.

You can browse our SVN repository at http://svn.unity-linux.org

We’ll be looking to get our twitter commits rolling again eventually…but our websvn has RSS feeds if you’d like to stay up to date on what we’re committing and when