New idea for Plasma's logo

[Ken Vermette]

I'll be honest bout this, because this is the intersection of a few things
which have bothered me lately;

Our current logo for Plasma Desktop is bad. It's unbalanced, awkward, and
as far as I can tell follows no guides or definable 'shape'. I've tried on
several occasions to see how things were supposed to "line up", I can't. I
personally never liked it. Our logo for Plasma Mobile isn't any better.

I also side with Thomas; While the proposed logo has more thought to it,
there are just as many pitfalls. If it's not coloured yellow it's obviously
just the gear, and if we were to put it as the launcher icon (which I feel
should be the plasma logotype - not the KDE logo) it would be confused as
settings, and it could not be coloured yellow without breaking the dynamic
colouration.

I'm also not a fan of making the Plasma logo fall in-line with the
Frameworks logo. While the projects are certainly tight, there's projects
like LXQT which would be dis-serviced by us so intimately connecting the
branding. It goes back to the whole "Plasma is just one Frameworks desktop,
of many desktops" thing, like we had with Neon. People still get confused
about KDE, Plasma, Apps, and Frameworks being different things.

On a side note, like Thomas, I'm a little leery of the fact that you've
seemingly bypassed the VDG main channel. I've done stupid things like that
too (much more publicly) and I've learned that consulting with peers is
important before moving up the chain with an idea.

Either way, neither logo is good enough. It's why we still use the KDE logo
in the default panel, which is terrible because it continues confusing the
branding.

I think the best solution might be to re-visit the existing logo we have
and see how we can iterate on it; if we maybe line up or arrange the
elements in it, the logo could be less awkward. Alternatively, if we go for
something completely different we need to create several unique samples
with desktop and mobile variants, also request the community creates some
logos, then run a poll. The Plasma logo is the logo of our largest flagship
product - the wider contributor community deserves a say.

Finally... We also need tor remember the VDG is a community group, and as
much as the core VDG has become a talented bunch we've forgotten that we
have very talented people outside the core. We've started becoming very
closed. Things like this are the perfect opportunity to attract new talent,
invigorate community interaction, and give us more options for a better
final result. Fact is it's almost entirely because the VDG constantly
polled the community that we have the talent-base we enjoy today, and we're
just letting talented individuals disappear unnoticed because we've stopped
doing that. The fact that we have a terrible logo for Plasma is a great
opportunity to bring fresh blood into the frey, and who wouldn't want to
take a stab at making the next official Plasma logo?

On Thu, Jun 2, 2016 at 9:06 AM, Dirk Hohndel <dirk at hohndel.org> wrote:

> On June 2, 2016 4:03:06 AM PDT, Thomas Pfeiffer <thomas.pfeiffer at kde.org>
> wrote:
> >
> >On 02.06.2016 12:39, Alessandro Longo wrote:
> >> Il 23-05-2016 22:52 Alessandro Longo ha scritto:
> >>> (resent because apparently mailman rejected it)
> >>> Hi,
> >>> after a lot of iterations I found a simple idea for Plasma's logo
> >that
> >>> imho works well. This is the link to view it in PDF and to the
> >source
> >>> in SVG to experiment with it:
> >>>
> >>> https://share.kde.org/index.php/s/OC3TGlHAba20QWv
> >>>
> >>> I hope you like it,
> >>
> >> ping
> >>
> >I must say that I do not really like it. I know it's supposed to remind
> >people
> >of sun = plasma, but in reality it looks mostly like a yellow gear.
> >
> >I would also have appreciated if you had talked to the VDG about your
> >idea
> >before presenting it to the Plasma team, as that would have avoided
> >confusion.
> >
> >To clear up any potential confusion: This is _not_ the VDG's
> >suggestion. The
> >VDG's suggested logo is still this one:
> >http://uriherrera.com/images/portfolio/portfolio_branding_plasma_logo.png
>
> The VDG's suggestion continues to be strange and imho ugly. I like the
> yellow gear without the K a lot better.
>
> Have you considered that the fact that no one seems to use the "three dots
> greater nothing" logo may be because people don't like it?
>
> /D
>
>
> --
> Sent from my phone
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