Re: [libreoffice-design] Design Team Kick-Off Step 4: What We Need - Review, Please (With Links)

Hi Jay, all,

Jay Lozier (planas) schrieb:
> [...] What I was thinking about is what are the mandatory branding
> elements for LO worldwide and how would a localization team (Spanish,
> French, etc) get approval for their design.

I think you are totally right:

We have to provide international branding elements that can/should be
used by everybody in their design - irrespective of the language or the
different teams.

These elements are:

- logo

- icons

- motif

- color theme

- general visual language (containing light, reflexion, shading etc)

For different teams we should provide a consistent design describing the
team - in a way that all the official teams look similar:

Therefore a team logo is necessary.

In addition to that we need some kind of design container, where each
team can include their own design elements or identification artwork
allowing the general impression to stay consistent.

Can you or somebody else add these points to the WWN wiki page [1]?
(I'm still short in time and have to work on my Internet access...)

> For example if we had worldwide brand template that had the required
> elements already included, the localization teams could concentrate
> on local needs and issues.

Yes - such templates need to be created, approved and presented in the wiki.

> The approval process could be informal or formal as we decide, I
> prefer a semi-formal process. Designs would be posted for comments
> from interested parties and revised if necessary.

If the teams use pre-existent templates in the way they are intended to 
be used, I don't think that any approval will be necessary.

But it would be great to have them listed on the wiki (probably on the 
Existing_Designs page [2]).

For new introduced graphical elements a more formal process should be 
followed: Presenting the work here on the list, approval on the elements 
and perhaps implementing them in the official design repository would be 
the way to go.

Other work just including official branding elements in a larger design 
depend on the way they are presented to the public:

While using a logo or the LibO icons in a marketing folder is not 
necessary to be posted here, I'd like to see a link to new graphical 
artwork like DVD labels, web buttons or posters that should represent 
LibreOffice in an official way (link to our website, community DVD, 
representing the community on a fair).

If there is no official artwork in this category of our gallery [3], we 
should use this new artwork as basic for an official resource (or use it 
as it is).

If the category already contains an other design already approved as 
official, the new design should improve the existing one, so it can 
replace it after approval.

I think it is important to be presented in public by consistent 
graphical material. Adding an alternative design to the official 
branding can be positive for the community's recognition in public if we 
restrict the alternative artwork to two or three design themes - 
different enough to be used in different situations.

But if visual design becomes arbitrary, our branding will lose power and 
strength.

> After the redesign is approved by consensus of the interested parties
> it is released.

As mentioned above - such consensus should be only needed for new 
official material.

> For example, my Spanish is miserable and my French is
> slightly better, so I would not comment on purely local items for
> those teams.

I don't think so: As design is basically a visual area, language 
dependency is less important.

Slogans, text lines and similar elements are necessarily bound to the 
language teams. But the general visual impression is design - quite 
independent to the language.

Best regards

Bernhard

[1]: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Kick-Off/WhatWeNeed

[2]: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Existing_Designs

[3]: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Visual_Elements (very early stage)


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