FreeCAD Logo Design

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chrisb
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by chrisb »

michacassola wrote: Sat Feb 18, 2023 8:47 pm Hi, I'm new here,
Hi and welcome to the forum. I like your approach which goes beyond just doing another proposal.

There is currently a process for finding a logo for the FreeCAD Project Association.
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michacassola
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by michacassola »

@MisterMaker
Yes, step by step, a logo is always the visual corner stone of any brand.
Principles/brand personality -> Logo -> Everyhing else

Growing into it sounds good, that's what step by step is I guess.
Yes, there has to be a design team made up of (graphics) designers.

My time is spent building a hosting script (in BASH) and it's website at the moment and learning FreeCAD on my dayjob. I would like to be part of the team, but can only offer: If I have the time and will.

But organisation first, call me lazy, or efficient, but I don't design unless one suggestion is going to be used somewhere in some form in its finished form. And the most annoying thing is always when the client doesn't know what they want (I mean not even a little bit, i can do a lot with a little bit).
So the step by step could be:
FPA forms a design team -> design team works on visual principles fitting to software principles -> design team redesigns logo -> design team redesigns everything step by step

@chrisb
Thanks for the Welcome! :D And for the link, from which I can see something is going on.
I have been watching FreeCAD for some years now but never had the time and need to learn 3D, which has recently changed and I was wondering if it will ever go anywhere with the logo, so I am happy to see that something is moving forward!

Might have to break my Lazy Design Rule mentioned above for the contest. :D
Last edited by michacassola on Mon Feb 27, 2023 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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adrianinsaval
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by adrianinsaval »

note however that the FPA logo is not going to be used as the software logo.
For the software logo I think what we is generally wanted (or at least my perception of it) is something that is still recognizable from the current logo, that is retain the basic colors (red and blue), it would be best if the logo somehow evokes 3D, the gear is optional, the F is strongly desired but not mandatory.
Another requirement that was brought up by sliptonic and that IMO is a good requirement is that the logo should be reproducible inside FreeCAD (meaning the shape, feel free to go wild with color gradients, etc)
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yorik
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by yorik »

I'm reposting here what I just wrote on my blog: https://yorik.uncreated.net/blog/2023-0 ... eecad-logo and it's basically the last thing I'll say about the logo

The FreeCAD logo has created a lot of heated discussion over the past months/years. There is an enormous forum thread spanning over years of people explaining why they think the logo should change and proposing all kinds of new logos.

I am personally opposed to changing the logo. I said it many times and am tired of being called names every time I do it, so I will state my arguments one last time and then let others decide on the subject and abide to whatever the community ends up deciding.

There is also the fact that I designed the current logo (although it is itself an evolution of the former one, and it was slightly modified later on by Alexander Gryson too), and I don't want to give the impression that I am defending "my" design.

Why I think the logo should not change:
  • We took years to make FreeCAD known. This logo is now everywhere: On Google and other search engines, social platforms, in most of the Linux distributions, on Youtube videos, there are even icon themes that have it now. All this would take years to rebuild.
  • We are always trying to "solidify" the FreeCAD image. Make everything more unified, solid, harmonized. Transmit the message: "This is FreeCAD". FreeCAD is not merely a product. It's all of us, it's one big thing. It's a community, who has come to, pardon the cheap metaphor, recognize itself behind a same banner.
  • The GIMP logo is from 1996. The GNU logo is from 1986 (Both have been redrawn and slightly modified once or twice). The Debian logo is from 1999. The only Linux distribution logo that has changed a lot over time is Mint. Can you remember what the Mint logo looks like? All these projects built their brand recognition over time. By word of the mouth. It is a slow process.
  • Commercial products do change their logo. Many times. But they pay an awful lot for marketing. In many companies, marketing is the number one expense. They simply pay massive campaigns to compensate the loss in brand recognition. Changing the logo is probably in most cases just a particular CEO wanting to print their mark on the product.
  • There are many "fake" FreeCAD packages being sold everywhere, like on the Microsoft store. There will be more. Who will look fake, if we change the logo, but they keep the old one? How can we say "this is the real FreeCAD" when we change its identity ourselves?
  • Even more difficult, how would we go about changing it. Voting? One would be silly to think that will end the question for good. The day after the vote, many dissatisfied community members will probably start pushing again for another logo change and pushing their favorite forward. And, like many controversies in a community-driven project, if we were to poll the entire community, the result would most probably be a status quo, no change because no consensus has been reached. And even with a vote, someone will have to judge and say the final word. Who will that be?
  • The alternative would be doing it professionally. Paying for an artist to design a new logo for FreeCAD. Do we want that? Is that what people who have proposed a new logo want? We do everything ourselves within FreeCAD. Would it make any sense to buy a logo? Why would we want to do that?
Now, keeping the current logo does not mean it cannot evolve. There are many details I don't like either in our logo. The way the cog intersects the F. The highlight contour line. The not-totally-black color of the dark border. Its thickness. The Blender logo, or the Firefox logo, for example, did not change. They evolved (the former with more success than the latter, IMHO).

We definitely should make our logo evolve. But I think changing it would be a huge mistake.
chrisb
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by chrisb »

Very well said. Let me add something to some points:
yorik wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 12:38 pm The alternative would be doing it professionally.
That wouldn't really change anything to the better. We have proposals out there which look to me highly professional and we have have professionals in the community. But all points above would remain.
yorik wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 12:38 pm And even with a vote, someone will have to judge and say the final word. Who will that be?
That one is easy to answer: You are the artist among the founders, so in the end you have to decide :D . And everyone will be happy with it.

For a FreeCAD version 1.0 I can very well imagine to evolve the logo, signaling that it is still the good old FreeCAD, but also that it is a brand new good old FreeCAD.
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adrianinsaval
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by adrianinsaval »

yorik wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 12:38 pm We definitely should make our logo evolve. But I think changing it would be a huge mistake.
agreed
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by ragohix769 »

The problem, IMHO, it's not the logo, but the "brand name" itself.

I like a lot FreeCAD name, believe me, but Blender, Firefox, Gimp, or even Linux... Name it. Nothing of these FLOSS aggregations have the direct word "free" in it for the brand, because that it's good if you know that "free" is intendend as in speech and not as in beer, but *nobody* know the real difference, especially professionals, companies, etc etc.
So I propose => FCAD :-) An acronym that's even shorter. Just my 2 cents, of course.
yorik wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 12:38 pm I'm reposting here what I just wrote on my blog: https://yorik.uncreated.net/blog/2023-0 ... eecad-logo and it's basically the last thing I'll say about the logo
I totally agree, that's good to "evolve" and not to simply change, that's the key.
After #ElonMuskBuyTwitter I'm no more on Twitter, that's really enough :-(
=> Now you can find me here on #Mastodon: https://mastodon.uno/@opensoul - I hope more people do the same :-)
chrisb
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by chrisb »

ragohix769 wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 4:03 pm The problem, IMHO, it's not the logo, but the "brand name" itself.
I don't see any problem in either of them. Concerning the name, most of Yorik's arguments are valid as well. Following the naming scheme of Linux we could get something like "Wernyoritia" :lol: , where I admit to prefer FreeCAD.
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by MisterMaker »

The problem with FREEcad name is that people assume everything is free. But if you want some full-time devs........
Also in cooperate world Free=expensive since all costs are hidden and nothing is free.

OpenCAD or just something more generic would be way better in my opinion.

But I just bought 2 T-shirts so lets not change anything for a while...... :mrgreen:
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Shalmeneser
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Re: FreeCAD Logo Design

Post by Shalmeneser »

MisterMaker wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 9:13 pm But I just bought 2 T-shirts ...
Where ?
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