[boost] Re: Logo design

From: David B. Held (dheld_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-11-22 20:38:10

Miro Jurisic wrote:

> I don't mean to put down anyone's effort, but some of the logo sketches were, 
> well, terrible.

I think that's the nature of brainstorming.  It's very much like a
genetic algorithm.  You sample the space randomly, and hover around
the promising patches.  You will necessarily hit poor spots, but that
is not an indictment of the process.

> I think that a number of people here have had interesting ideas 
> in terms of what the logo might contain (whether it's a rocket or angle 
> brackets), but very few of the resulting images were esthetically pleasing. My 
> proposal is that we take a small set of possible ideas to someone with graphic 
> design skills.

I've seen what marketing/graphic design agencies do with logos, and
frankly, I'm not impressed.  I've seen enough talent here to believe
that the Boost community can produce something as good as your typical
graphic design house.  Besides, there is something appealing about
geeks making the logo, rather than artists that perhaps don't appreciate
the technical value of this enterprise.

> I am not implying we have nobody like that here, I just think this is very 
> quickly degenerating into a shed-painting discussion, and I think we can save 
> everyone a lot of time by picking 1-3 ideas (e.g., "boost rocket") and having 
> someone adept of converting ideas into images work with that.

Well, if it stuck to a few threads, that might be nicer.  There is
definitely a proliferation of threads.  But I certainly don't think
that you can have too many ideas floating around.  Let the ideas compete
on their own merits.  Eventually one will gain critical mass as a
sufficient number of people say: "Hey, that clicks with me."  At this
point, I don't think anybody has a clear enough idea about what the
Boost logo should be or look like to say what is or is not the right
direction to take.  When solving a new problem, a little initial chaos
can be a good thing. ;)

> PS. I think a design which simply reads "boost" and has the letter t be the 
> rocket would work well

And maybe it would.  And if you can convince someone to make such a
design for us to gawk at, more power to you!

Dave