[Live-demo] Revisiting graphics

[maplabs at light42.com]

Here is what is going on with that desktop image, Tyler

the lower fifth of the desktop area is centered and balanced.. the 
banner uses the full width of the screen real-estate to give maximum 
area to the type. The type is balanced weighting left and right.   
When you use the desktop image on the LiveDVD system, the desktop imag 
eis set to SCALE mode. That mode will STRETCH the image, often a great 
deal horizontally, for the new, common cinema style displays. This 
banner, because of the balance and centering, scales very very well. 

 I strongly suggest you view the desktop image you pointed to *as a 
desktop*.. not in a small thumbnail preview.  Like a good stereo 
system does, the large view will reveal a lot of image quality that you 
may not have seen yet. The fades, glows, edges, underlines are all 
finished, produciton quality. Even the detractors of this image, which 
there have been, have noticed the polish which is visible at the very 
large scale. 

Naturally in any creative work there are variations and options. 
Unfortunately the OSGeo Logo is *green*, not a light green but a dark 
hard green, which clashes spectacularly with the RED chosen by the 
conference designer.  In addition to that, the logo that was used in 
the past for the OSGeo LiveDVD has strong elements of BLUE. not light 
blue, but fully saturated blue. It is common in amateur design to use 
hard, fully saturated colors. The red, green and blue clash even more 
spectacularly. 

You are in effect defending the logo as is for the conference.. without 
change, in all cases.. Do you really think that knot on the banner is a 
successful, balanced element in the design? and in a stretched, 
enlarged version, is this really going to look good?  I retreated away 
from the knot because it strikes me as ungainly. i suspect I am not the 
only one to notice this.. Is it really necessary to scrap a polished 
piece of work, to substitute this logo?

I claim that this desktop design is a good workaround to a problematic 
set of source inputs. And the time to revisit this in detail was at 
least two weeks ago. 

Brian

On Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:59:50 -0700, Tyler Mitchell  wrote:
> As I said earlier today in more detail with Tyler, presentation
> > graphics that are a collection of clashing logos is actually very
> > harmful in this situation. Why ? because it sends the messeges of last
> > minute, collection of disparate components. A garage sale, a flea
> > market, poor craftsmanship, etc..  This is *exactly* what this LiveDVD
> > is not, and is *exactly* what an outside cynic would start off to
> > accuse it of !!
>
> It seems this is your final graphic we should be discussing, right?
> http://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk/desktop-conf/live-dvd-FOSS4G_sm2a.png
>
> I can certainly appreciate the desire to make a top notch product, 
> thank you for your enthusiasm, you certainly aren't the only one 
> worrying about it though.  We went for professional designs for 
> FOSS4G and OSGeo logos for precisely this same purpose.  
> Unfortunately, the above background is an interpretation of the 
> FOSS4G logo, which I'm not in favour of.  As important as the Live 
> project is, it shouldn't really be determining how FOSS4G trademark 
> elements should be modified. 
>
> I don't see how colours of the logos I was showing are really 
> clashing at all.  They are identities in and of themselves, so having 
> them on the same page is not the same as trying to combine them.  For 
> example, you wouldn't expect to tweak all the project icons on the 
> desktop to coordinate with the background.  I'm not exactly proposing 
> a NASCAR wrap :)
>
> I'm not putting down your work but had to bring up my concern because 
> it involved the FOSS4G brand.  You'll get just as much enthusiasm if 
> you did it with the OSGeo logo ;-)
>
> Thanks for listening,
> Tyler
>
>