[Freedombox-discuss] "Promotion and Visual Identity"

[J David Eisenberg]

[snip]
>
> If this is an example of the quality of your work, thank you for
> joining the project.  You just raised the value of the brand.
>
> A small nit on page 10:
> "Remeber there are special variants for different backgrounds."
> s/Remeber/Remember/
>

There are a few other missing apostrophes and commas. I won't post
them here, but will send you a text file with the changes if you wish.

>> opinions?
>
> The butterfly does convey freedom to a larger audience than a Gnu
> reference does.  Thank you for that suggestion.
> The butterfly does carry a notion of fragility which people should
> recognize is an intrinsic feature of Freedom.  Again, thank you.
>
> The manual seems to me a bit didactic.  I've seen other brand identity
> manuals and that appears to be the standard approach, so I'm not
> surprised.  I do wish there was some way to make the tone more
> encouraging the adoption of the identity rather than demanding
> conformance.  I, a volunteer, don't respond well to dictators, even if
> they know what they are talking about.  When programmers have flame
> wars about style, they still understand that each is dealing with an
> intelligent opponent with potentially well founded arguments, even if
> their chosen words don't always reflect that.  I'm not an excellent
> writer, but I think ir would be good if the manual reflected a similar
> attitude.
>

Can this be solved by having an introductory section that explains why
an identity guide is necessary? People are much more likely to comply
if they know the reason for it. You touch on the subject, especially
on page 10, but making it more explicit might be useful. (Giving an
example of how a mis-used logo can "cheapen" a product would
definitely bring the point across.)

[snip]