[Ocaml-biz] Irish OCaml mascot

[Brandon J. Van Every]

Tony Edgin wrote:
>
> I had an idea for an OCaml logo.
>
> Start with Olivier Grisel's logo with the camel head inside
> the O of OCaml.
> If we change the spelling to O'Caml, the name looks Irish.
> Instead of the
> camel head having sun glasses and chewing on wheat, give the
> camel a mop of
> red hair.  This red-haired camel could them become the
> mascot.  We could even
> give it an Irish name like Bartley O'Caml or Caitlin O'Caml.

I think it is a perfectly valid *mascot* idea.

Earlier we discussed - and I can't now remember the participants - that
a logo is *not* a mascot.  Logos need to serve as responsible,
respectable business identities.  A Fortune 500 company is never gonna
glom onto Bartley O'Caml for B2B transactions.  Mascots are good for
marketing to techies, sports fans, and children.  Brian rightly pointed
out that a mascot = selling a plush toy.  I'd add, perhaps, a lunchbox
or keychain dangler.  We're talking schwag here.

It should be remembered that the Linux penguin wasn't really a marketing
effort.  It was the winner of a mascot contest started by techies.  In
the eyes of more stolid businesses, the penguin is either neutral or has
hurt Linux's brand identity.  Techies love it, they like cute squishy
stuff and Nerf rockets, but it is very bad business marketing.

RedHat used good business marketing.  We owe most of the 'stolid and
responsible' progress in Linux marketing to RedHat.  They picked a
clean, slick, graphical identity for their product.  Also I doubt that
'RedHat' = 'Sharp Dresser' is an accidental connotation, when addressing
a business audience.  We do call them 'suits'.  These people are
conscious of dress.  Personal dress, trade dress.

Dismissing Bartley O'Caml as a logo, but considering it seriously as a
mascot, here is a further issue.  INRIA is French.  Do you think they
will ever put their weight behind an Irish national identity?  I doubt
it.  I think if INRIA has distaste for the mascot, if at some level they
do not also find it 'kewl', then we are digging ourselves into a hole.
It would lessen the amount of cooperation we would hope to get out of
them someday.

The only clue I have about INRIA's sensibilities is the following photo
of "The Caml attitude."
http://caml.inria.fr/attitude-eng.html  At least at some level they do
not take themselves too seriously.

It would be nice if someone knew Xavier well enough to pick his brain
about what he likes or doesn't like.  Thus, not having to involve him in
any discussions, but somehow 'scouting' to get the information from him.
I would like to read his mind.  :-)  I'd like to know if he liked,
hated, or was indifferent to Joe Caml.  Would he prefer the cogs and
gears approach, ala Categorical Abstract Machine Language?  Is he not a
literal thinker and instead has some personal whim about what OCaml has
meant to him?

Guido, by way of example, did not pick the name 'Python' to represent
snakes.  He picked it as homage to 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'.  He
made a poor choice, he is forever vexed by people's willingness to talk
about snakes.

If the mascot is to have a national identity, it should be French.  I
would like to know how Xavier feels about logos with obvious French
stereotypes, like camels or cogs wearing berets and black-and-white
striped shirts, like 50's beatniks.  Maybe that's an American image of
the French.  I'd rather have a French image of the French, if that is
deemed important.  For all I know, Xavier might not view himself or
OCaml as 'French', but part of an international academic research
community.  Also, we previously noted that a 'French' technical identity
might be wholly negative as far as the rest of the world is concerned.
Of course I suppose OCaml could change that.


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

Taking risk where others will not.