maemo.org - Talk - What's in a name?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benson (Post 194836)

People are too stuck on the current logo, I guess... so far few logos don't do something with the e (or make a ligature of the ae and do something with that).

I remember reading Karoliina's original description about the "e" and that influenced my first approach.

But then I got to thinking about what the focal point of "maemo.org" is, and to me that's where the "maemo" meets the "org" — or where the existing Maemo activity/software/platform gets handed off to the new org that is the Maemo community. And that's why there's a box centered on the dot in my newer version: When you describe M/maemo's evolution, the "e" doesn't mean anything, but the dot does.

That's also why I think the designs that shrink ".org" are communicating the wrong message (that we, the .org component, are less important than the maemo contribution of Nokia). Is that explicit in the design? Well, if Nokia reserves "Maemo" uses for itself, then any time Nokia's Maemo logo gets placed next to the community's maemo.org logo, it will be there for everyone to see: Maemo counts, not .org. If, on the other hand, we were designing the logo of a new company Maemo, Inc., then I could see shrinking the "Inc." part as being "part of the name but not the important part."

Does that mean ".org" should be emphasized by being bigger or brightly colored (and "maemo" either black or gray)? Not if we're not trying to send some opposite message of relative importance. In the design I submitted, I combined characters from a font with the same characters from the outline version of the font. That was a conscious decision, trying to express the idea of different voices and different views of the same ideal. But the serendipitous aspect was that the dot was identical in both fonts. So the two parts of the name combine with two linking/overlapped circle-dots, same size, different colors: equals.

Lest this rumination be misunderstood, I'm not saying "Choose the design I submitted because I have the best conception of the subtext of the logo." What I'm trying to say is, The best design will not only look the best/coolest — it also won't subconsciously contradict the goals of this entire effort. So we have to be sure to read what's in front of us when we look at these submissions.