Re: Logos proposal

[Fotios Kasolis]

On Jun 14, 2010, at 8:54 PM, Ben Barrowes wrote:

> On Monday 14 June 2010 14:16:07 Fotios Kasolis wrote:
>> On Jun 14, 2010, at 7:16 PM, Ben Barrowes wrote:
>>> On Thursday 10 June 2010 09:57:10 Fotios Kasolis wrote:
>>>>> I like the idea of some text to identify octave in the logo though the
>>>>> text could perhaps be absent in some forms of the logo. Also the
>>>>> handwritten idea is intriguing. What about using some (handwritten?)
>>>>> greek to identify octave? There are several choices, it could be
>>>>> phonetic: alpha chi tau iota beta, or more literal in spelling to start
>>>>> with an o: omicron kappa tau alpha beta, or use the Greek work for a
>>>>> music octave: omicron kappa tau alpha(accent) beta alpha.
>>>>> 
>>>>> bb
>>>> 
>>>> I m Greek so no problem at all ;D !!! The sequence 8\beta\alpha is
>>>> another solution, or \infty rotated by \pi/4, or 8 rotated by \pi/4 or
>>>> sth similar any other ideas. Unfortunately the greek word oktava is as
>>>> long as the latin one and i believe it will not be as beautiful. It
>>>> could be used for a generic logo for Octave but not as an application
>>>> icon.
>>> 
>>> Could you sketch or draw sth to give an example of what you are thinking
>>> in terms of the text?
>> 
>> For example:
> 
> This is nice and could be flexible. The exact choice for the o-c-t-a-v-e 
> could change under 
> different circumstances while still conveying the same message of Octave. 
> Maybe instead of waves, 
> some interpretation on \infty.
> 
> A few questions on the other icons: Is the tilted \infty meant to be an 
> reference to the numeral 
> eight or to infinity? Most associate the octave => 8 => music, but perhaps it 
> is unavoidable? Why 
> the folded back part of the circle? Any meaning there? Could someone explain 
> icon 1 to me?
> 
> We are either not going to have another shot at a logo/icon or the next shot 
> will be years in the 
> future. How do we get the vision and future of Octave into the logo and make 
> a distinct logo with a 
> compelling story?
> 
> Perhaps we could embrace the 8 part of octave, while not embracing the music 
> part of its etymology. 
> Some way to portray the infinity symbol in a simple yet memorable way could 
> be the icon, while 
> different plots or other things could be put inside the circles in different 
> circumstances for 
> various appropriate logos. In this sense, just the infinity by itself 
> (rotation?) written in an 
> interesting way (the IBM logo comes to mind), or the infinity getting thicker 
> on the rhs or similar 
> could be an idea. I am not an artist or I would send sketches.
> 


1) The rotated 8 or \infty is there to say two things: (a) I m mathematical 
software (\infty) (b) my name is phonetically related to 8.
2) The folded part is just for decoration reasons and to get the shadow on the 
logo which creates this nice fictitious 3d effect.
3) Explanation icon 1: Console + basic Octave symbols placed in a nice 
symmetric (meaningless) way (nothing clever) + glossy effect + 0s and 1s.
4) I do not see why most people associate 8 with music and not with octopus 
(for example!). We can see it as a nice phonetic convention/game.
5) Octopus could be the mascot we were searching for btw (just to make it even 
more confusing)!
6) I think you overestimate the meaning of a logo (and especially that of an 
application icon).

"How do we get the vision and future of Octave...compelling story."

We simply do not. We do not know the future we just hope for the best. The 
vision is strongly supported by Octave itself. After all an application icon 
will give visual identity (since people like that) to Octave and nothing more 
(the way i see it ofc).
6+1/2) It is the same thing like a GUI, you do not need it but it is nice to 
have the choice (Octave will survive without it! it is visual promotion).
7) When talking about application icon you should keep in mind that small scale 
details will be transformed to ugly noise (like icon 7) when you change the 
size. It must be simple, and clean, like 1 or 6.