Graphic designers, FreeBSD needs you
There's been a push in the BSD world lately to make over the logos. NetBSD is a good example of this -- if you check out their logo page you can see the old logo, and the result of their competition.
You can kind of see the problem -- the old logo had its charm but isn't something that would reduce down well, let alone slapping it on a box somewhere.
Other projects have decided to do the same thing, most recently FreeBSD, who announced their logo competition awhile ago and raised a bit of a storm, mostly because people seem to hate the idea of Beastie, the daemon mascot, going away, and wonder what the big deal is.
I've mentioned why the BSDs have a special place in my heart before, but even I will admit there is a certain feeling of 'struggling for relevancy' that's surrounded them for awhile. To many, the idea of "What we've been missing is a good logo!" coming up now just strikes them as a bit off and if they're going to choose to use a niche OS they want one with the charm and appeal that initially made them swoon.
However, good logos and such are actually really important. Hell, I know that if I didn't already love the Fink project for OS X and I saw their site I'd probably back away slowly and look for something that seemed a little more polished. It's not so much about what the technical guys think, it's what the managers think when the technical guys bring it to them.
Judging from the contest rules, Beastie can stay in or out, but whatever logo is chosen needs to work well with him when he's slapped next to it. If I had my druthers, I'd hope he'd still be in it in some form because I'm one of those people who just associate the two together and think he's cool.
Don't forget, OS X users have a bit of a stake in FreeBSD too -- much of the technology underlying what you're using comes from the project, and the *nix underpinnings of OS X (Darwin) even have their own daemon logo: Hexley.
Well, sort of. Hexley is a bit of a black sheep -- he's not an 'officially-sanctioned' mascot of Apple's Darwin, but it doesn't mean he's not cool as hell and his rep for drinking other mascots under the table is unmatched.
At the end of the night, Hexley is always the mascot leaving the table with the cash in my book, even versus The Penguin. I'm told it has something to do with the tail...
Anyways, FreeBSD needs a new logo, and what's good for FreeBSD is good for OS X. The problem is, they haven't gotten any entries so far -- it was announced awhile ago, and opened up on February 22nd, but there just hasn't been much coming in, and it closes on May 31st.
If you've got some skills in the graphic design area, and think its something you could take some time to take a crack at, there are worse things than having your work representing an entire OS effort, especially one that OS X feeds off of.
- Link to the original announcement. Included guidelines, history, and rules.
- Link to the official logo competition page. Includes the status of the project, and the original logo that's being replaced.
And if your design is chosen, you get $500.
Posted by drunkenbatmanMarch 03, 2005, at 04:25 PM
Comments (10)
Posted by: padawan at March 3, 2005 05:10 PM
the BSD systems are sliding towards not being relevant. one or two may survive in very niche marks, like openbsd, but why put all your efforts there when you can just harden linux. it is where the research is, the developrs are, the users are, and the money is...
fink is cool though. darwinports is promising but not where it should be. will it even be included in 10.4??
Posted by: at March 3, 2005 05:17 PM
It is well known Hexley is a flaming homosexual and has his hand behind his back so you can't see his rude gestures. Any surprise apple didnt use it?
Posted by: Roger Wong at March 3, 2005 07:55 PM
Oh boy. Open source project logos are usually misses (with the occassional hit) I think because of a few factors:
(1) The OSS project manager(s) approves them. Do they have experience in marketing or design? Most likely not. Most likely they are engineers and marketing and design are foreign languages.
(2) The OSS devloper/user community votes for them. Again, the community might not have the eye or even instinct as to what is a good logo. They want something cute or cool.
(3) Good designers aren't necessarily technically oriented and therefore would not hear of such projects, nor would the be interested in them. Therefore, the ones submitting the logos for these projects are design students, enthusiasts, or junior-level professionals. I'm not saying that there aren't good designers contributing, but logo/identity design is not an easy task.
Oh, and I remember when Fink was running a competition for their logo. I must say that the final logo kind of sucks. The NetBSD one isn't bad actually.
On a personal note, I might try to do something if I have time, but probably not.
Posted by: craig at March 3, 2005 09:36 PM
hexley is the coolest mascot ever. I really hope freebsd doesn't get rid of beastie though..they just need SOMETHING better.
well if they've gotten NO entries I suppose I might as well play my hand at typography in photoshop
Posted by: Anonymous coward at March 4, 2005 01:33 AM
Can someone point me to some sort of family tree which explains where the BSDs are in relation to Linux and Solaris and AIX and all the other UNIXes out there?
Posted by: MacCanada at March 4, 2005 07:54 AM
here's a quick Googled "Unix Time line" URL
http://www.levenez.com/unix/
or the Google search Results:
http://www.google.com/search?q=unix+timeline
Hope this Helps
Matt A
MacCanada
-30-
Posted by: Jason at March 4, 2005 10:10 PM
http://developer.apple.com/darwin/news/qa20011004.html#misc
Q: Can we expect to see Hexley as the Official Mascot or is that not a possibility?
A: We love Hexley, and thank Jon Hooper for creating the little tyke. For people who have not yet met him, check out http://www.hexley.com/ We invite the community to use him in association with the Darwin project. Darwin web badges are also now available.
Posted by: James Katt at March 5, 2005 07:58 PM
I don't like Hexley because of the Satan symbolism. Perhaps he should have a different theme for the helmet and spear - such as angel wings and a regular spear, or a bow and arrow, etc. This would make Hexley more palatable - more comparible to the tuxedoed penguin
Posted by: matthew at March 7, 2005 06:48 PM
How is Hexley satanic? Howd you figure that?
Oh the horns?
Oh OK, burn him! burn him!
Hes clearly corrupting the children with his evil little platypus beak.
Somebody think of the children!
Fink? Bah, I used to use that, until I discovered DarwinPorts (http://darwinports.opendarwin.org)