Re: If glibc had a logo what would it be?

[Chris Leonard <cjlhomeaddress at gmail dot com>]

On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 4:18 PM, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
> On 12/08/2012 06:55 AM, Carlos O'Donell wrote:
>> What logo would you choose for the project?
>
> I suggest using the glossy ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
> as our mascot, since GLossy IBiS is close enough to GLIBC.
> (Try saying "glossy ibis" quickly three times....)
>
> There's a gorgeous free image of a glossy ibis at
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plegadis_falcinellus_%28aka%29_background_blurred.jpg
> that we could use or adapt.  Or perhaps someone with artistic
> skills could draw a cartoon logo, either from that image
> or the lots of other free images that are available, e.g.,
> http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Plegadis_falcinellus
>

While there is no denying the beauty of the Glossy Ibis as a creature
in it's own right, I am not sure that it conveys a sense of glibc in a
totemic fashion.  Besides, it might promote confusion with the GPL'ed
Ibis project:

http://www.cs.vu.nl/ibis/

Having commissioned logo development before in a commercial setting
and knowing a number of very talented graphic artists who have won
awards for their logo design work, I would like to mention that, in
practice, there are  certain "rules" about what makes a logo "great",
which range from the obvious (visually evoking the entity / concept
that they represent) to the obscure, e.g. design elements having to do
with facilitating re-rendering to meet multiple end uses (b/w for
letterhead, multi-color for print media, cleanly scalable from
business card to billboard sizes,  easily adapted to modern "swag" /
promotional item generation technologies like stitching onto shirts
and ball caps without incurring extra up-charges for difficulty and so
on.  I am by no means a master of these skills myself, but I wanted to
point out that there is a lot more involved in branding with a logo
than booting up Inkscape and it is advisable to seek input from
professional graphic artists, particularly those with a sub-specialty
in the art and science of logo design and branding.

My own whimsical suggestion for a mascot would be a stylized, but
playful "bridge troll" (re: the 3 billy goats gruff fable), which
invokes the gatekeeper function played by glibc as well as a playful
acknowledgment of glibc's occasionally contentious history with
stakeholders, with what one would hope is an implied wish to build on
the more recent trend to more open and courteous discussions about
such issues than had occurred in the past.

Just my two kroner.

cjl