[ocaml-biz] big O logos

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Olivier Grisel wrote:
> Brandon J. Van Every a ?crit :
>
> Ok, I have added a new black and white version. It's not exactly what
> you requested, but it's a first draft:
>
>    http://champi.champiland.homelinux.org/~olivier/ocaml-logos.html
>
> I will try the white camel in the next version.

I think the two-toned versions show that the direction is decent.

> > Another comment, about your font treatment.  The yellow letters and
> > their shapes are awfully reminiscent of R.J.Reynolds Tobacco's
> > marketing.  That's a negative.  We need a brand identity
> > that doesn't resemble a cigarette.
>
> Yes, but that's because yellow/orange is the natural color for camels
> and sandy deserts.

A graphic designer simply makes choices.  She isn't limited to rules
like, "It's natural."  If that were true, all trees ever used in
marketing would be green and brown.

> I can't hardly imagine a pink nor a blue camel :o)

It's actually pretty easy.  If you have trouble, you might try the trick
of staring at a normal colored camel for a long time, then turning to
face a white wall.  Let us know your results.  ;-)

> Although I have seen the cowparade in Stockholm last month and it was
> very nice: http://stockholm.cowparade.com/
> We need a camelparade. :o)

I think a march of camels, or of cams, or both, would be a good 3D demo.
Now it makes me think of camels balancing on cams, the way seals do on
balls.

> Organising a contest and community driven vote like the
> mozilla sunbird did[1] might be a good way to get great results,
> although the OCaml community is probably much smaller than
> the Mozilla's community.

I'd prefer to leave the design of a business logo in the hands of
semi-decent graphic designers with some business sense.  I don't think
democracy will yield anything good in this case.  I also don't see why
INRIA would agree to abide by some contest with a bunch of random
submissions.  It's far more important to define our message, come up
with logos, then develop a good relationship with INRIA so that they
swallow the product and become partners instead of adversaries.

I think a contest would be a great way to come up with a *mascott*.
That's how Tux came to be, if you recall.  Techies are geeks, geeks like
contests, it doesn't matter too much what the results are, so long as
the winner doesn't suck.  Tux didn't suck, the rest is history.  I still
remember the seagull versions of Linux.  Are those around anymore?

Will look forwards to your other logo ideas.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

Taking risk where others will not.