Fedora.next Branding Update


So we’ve gone through a lot of iterations of the Fedora.next logo design based on your feedback; here’s the full list of designs and mockups that Ryan, Sarup, and myself have posted:

That’s a lot of work, a lot of feedback, and a lot of iteration. The dust has settled over the past 2 weeks and I think from the feedback we’ve gotten that there is a pretty clear winner that we should move forward with:

Let’s walk through some points about this here:

  • F/G and H I think should both be valid logo treatments. I think that F/G is good for contexts in which it’s clear we’re talking about Fedora (e.g., a Fedora website with a big Fedora logo in the corner), and H is good for contexts in which we need to promote Fedora as well (e.g., a conference T-shirt with other distro logos on it.)
  • Single-color versions of F/G & H are of course completely fine to use as well.
  • F/G are exactly the same except the texture underneath is shifted and scaled a bit. I think it should be okay to play with the texture and change it up. We can talk about this, though.
  • Feedback seemed a bit divided about the cloud mark – it was about 50/50, folks liking it full height on all three bars vs. liking it with some of the bars shorter so it looked like a stylized cloud. I think we should go with the full-height version since it’s a stronger mark (it’s bolder and stands out more) and these are clearly all abstract marks, anyway.
  • Several folks suggested trying to replace the circles in version H with the Fedora speech bubble. I did play around with this, and Ryan and I both agreed that the speech bubble shape complicates things – it makes the marks inside look off-center when they are centered, and it also creates some awkward situations when the entire logo has to interact with other elements on a page or screen, so we thought it’d be better to keep things simple and stick with a simpler shape like a circle.
  • We’ll definitely build some official textures using the pattern in F/G and make them available so you can use them! Ryan has a very cool Inkscape technique for creating these so I’m still hoping to make a screencast showing how to do it.
  • Did I forget a particular point you brought up and would like some more discussion about? Let me know.

We’ll definitely need some logo usage guidelines written up and we’ll have to create a supplemental logo pack that can be dispensed via the logo at fedoraproject.org logo queue. Those things aren’t quite ready yet – if you want to help with that, let us know at the Fedora design team list or here in the comments.
Anyway, thanks for watching and participating in this process. It’s always a lot of fun to work on designs in the open with everyone like this 🙂

16 Comments

  1. Davis says:

    These look great!
    What if you changed the cloud logo so that you lowered the bars on the left and the right unevenly so that it looked like a cloud?
    Here’s my three-minute Inkscape mockup to show what I mean:
    http://i.imgur.com/6uxwpyE.png

    1. mairin says:

      Hi Davis, we did try that, you can see here: http://blog.linuxgrrl.com/2014/06/05/son-of-more-fedora-next-logos/ (A2-E2) but I don’t think it’s as strong a mark and it’s ok to be abstract here.

  2. Andreas Nilsson says:

    Good progress!
    Even though they look nice, one drawback of the circles (ver H) is that Ubuntu, one of Fedora’s main competitors is heavy on very simple on stylished shapes in orange colored circles (sans the pattern though).
    See http://www.ubuntu.com/download
    There also seems to be a greater harmony in versions text part of versions F and G.

    1. mairin says:

      I’m not too concerned about the Ubuntu designs – simple icons in circles is pretty common, and it doesn’t appear they are using them as logomarks, but instead as accent graphics for the website. If you go on the actual product pages – eg http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server – the mark is not there. I also don’t think the color orange is verboten – the color used is a different hue and we’ve been using it in Fedora materials for years at this point.
      I don’t understand your last comment – is the issue the text is not the same color as the mark in H?

  3. Mike Simms says:

    Nice work. I like these designs, they look fresh and clean. I don’t see the buntu problem either really.
    H text needs to stand out more like it does and keep the corporate colours (for want of a better phrase) for the intended usage. F&G scenarios are fine like that.

  4. Really great job. 😉
    Already any plan to sale stickers with these new logos?

  5. Love the designs, and the fact that you guys did it in such an open and transparent way (as usual).

  6. Andreas Nilsson says:

    No, the issue is not so much the text color, but rather on top of SERVER there is this little fedora sticking up, and on top of that it’s the tiniest little fedora logo sticking up. I understand why you put it there, it’s how the fedora logo is and works, but it feels a bit too busy in this situation.

  7. Eduard Gotwig says:

    WHERE AND HOW CAN I GET STICKERS?!
    I have to put them above my old Ubuntu stickers… I was once Ubuntu Member, but a workstation does what it promises ;P

  8. @Eduard Gotwig: It would be great if we can have a Fedora Domed Stickers like the Ubuntu version: http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=718

  9. Noel Casimiro says:

    Thanks for the detailed explanation. Kudos to the design team.

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