Re: Minutes of the Board meeting of October 29th, 2013

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Vincent Untz <vuntz gnome org> wrote:
> > Do we have examples of the guidelines "hurting us"?
>
> I can think of groups simply choosing to not use the GNOME logo anymore
> because they're afraid of not respecting the guidelines.

I'd be interested in the specifics here. Could you send me contact
details for the groups concerned?

> If I was
> completely new to the community, and I'd read the guidelines, I'd simply
> think that it's simpler to not use the logo at all. I'd not even ask...
>
> This hurts because I can imagine local groups not doing stickers,
> flyers, etc. because they'd be afraid of the guidelines. Back in the
> days when we started GNOME-FR, there were no guidelines so we went crazy
> and did many different things; we wouldn't have done all that with the
> current guidelines.

Yeah, so the thing that I think we really miss is some examples of
what is cool to do. Like examples of t-shirts and stickers, and
original designs based on the logo. My understanding is that this
would require some work from the board...

Right now the guidelines are pretty unfriendly (especially the
guidelines for third parties, which is one of the things I don't like
about them) and only really cover what you can't do, rather than what
you can. The new page I wrote makes an effort to do away with as much
unfriendliness as possible, but could be more welcoming and
accessible.

One of the things I've been pushing since this year's marketing
hackfest is a more elaborate set of visual identity guidelines. One of
the goals for this would be to create a set of assets that are easily
re-mixable, so that different groups can easily produce graphics that
look good but also have a common feel. I should really try and get
that wrapped up - it should help to empower groups to make the
branding their own.

> > In the Ubuntu GNOME case, I think it's fair to ask about the logo,
> > irrespective of the trademark guidelines. Their logo [1] is
> > essentially the same as the GNOME logo itself; some differentiation
> > seems beneficial for both them and us. We don't have to be unfriendly
> > about it, but then a dialogue about how they can help to support the
> > GNOME brand doesn't seem like a bad thing.
>
> Of course it's fair, but to be honest, I'm fine with them using our
> logo. Fedora and openSUSE both use our logo too:
>   http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options#desktops
>   http://software.opensuse.org/131/en
>
> Sure, the context is slightly different, because you see all the flavors
> on the same page for Fedora and openSUSE, while it's not the case for
> Ubuntu GNOME. But it feels the same.

The seem like different types of cases to me, to be honest.  Using the
GNOME foot as a logo for an independent project seems of a different
type to indicating that GNOME is featured in a piece of software. (The
latter is stated as fair use by the third party guidelines, fwiw.)

> Note that I've not discussed to the Ubuntu GNOME people, and they might
> be perfectly happy changing the logo (because it'd help them build their
> identity, for instance). But if they like the current logo, then I see
> that as beneficial to GNOME.

Sure, and note that I'm not saying we should be heavy handed about it.
Ideally we'd have a conversation and try and work together to come up
with a good solution for everyone.

Allan