[ocaml-biz] basics of Branding

[William D. Neumann]

On Fri, 27 Aug 2004, Brian Hurt wrote:

> If we're going to be stealing the style of an artist, I vote for M.C.
> Escher.  In addition to being stylistic, it's also geek cool and
> represented the fundamentally recursive/reflective/mathematical nature of
> Ocaml.
> http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/back-bmp/LW389.jpg

While I wouldn't be against an Escher-esque logo, let me offer these 
caveats.
   1) Yeah, he's got geek cred, especially when you have stuff like this
      <http://escherdroste.math.leidenuniv.nl/> going on.  However, I
      personally am kind of tired of his work.  As a geek, I've just seen
      so much of it.  I'm just wondering how many others feel the same way.
   2) Remember, the target demographic is primarily suits -- they might not
      cotton to Escher as much as your average Joe.  I don't really know.
   3) One of the problems with Escher-esque works is that they don't scale
      down very well -- there's an awful lot of detail to get lost.
   4) It seems to me that it might be harder to come up with something in
      this style, but that's a completely uninformed guess.
   5) It's rather lacking in color, isn't it?  That's not to say colorized
      Escher-esque scenes could be done, but that may just add to the
      difficulty of coming up with something.

Of course having said that, I'd really like to see what can be done along 
those lines.

> I thought the "who uses sex to sell things" comments to be saracasm.  Who
> doesn't use sex to sell things?  Cigarettes.  Alcohol.  Cars.  Toothpaste.
> Chewing Gum.

Sure, in their ads, but not in their logos.  Outside of the reputed 
subliminal effect in the Camel cigarettes logo (and I suppose the Land O' 
Lakes lady, if you're into that sort of thing) it's hard to think of a 
(common) "sexy" logo.  St. Pauli Girl is all I've been able to come up 
with so far...  Hell, even Hooters uses an owl.

William D. Neumann

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