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Hello Florian,

It is the main LO icon I'm talking about; it's not so much what's wrong with it, so much as what it lacks - as I stated in my original message:

> I am writing to you today to plead with you to change the main program
> icon currently in use for LibreOffice as I believe it is seriously
> underwhelming!
> As an icon for the Document Foundation it says it all to me - clear, > simple, document. However, considering it as the "flag" or
> "packaging" for LibreOffice, it is (IMHO) far too bland:
>
> • It is not easy to pick out among hordes of other icons
> • It lacks colour and warmth, is not striking or eye-catching
> • It says nothing about the elegance and sophistication of LibreOffice
> • It doesn't inspire confidence.

I must admit I am only used to seeing it on Windows systems - even the "blank" default icon in Windows (any version) has more character to it than the current LibreOffice icon!

I appreciate that the individual programs within LO have more colourful icons, with embellishments particular to that app, but when installing on Windows systems the option to have a desktop icon is only the main icon, the Document Foundation icon. As I said before, I think this icon is fine for the Document Foundation, but LO I think needs much more. In terms of marketing, it is almost as if the wrapper for the product were blank! Imagine if this were a magazine on a table in a waiting room - would you pick up a blank sheet of paper, or one of the more recognisable covers, e.g. National Geographic, Time, or Reader's Digest?

Take as examples of other programs, Firefox and Thunderbird - easily recognisable icons to a wide audience, but the organisation behind it, Mozilla, has a completely different icon, and probably also much more obscure to most people.

As a mainstream user, and one who wishes only the best for LO, I am concerned that LO has a difficult uphill struggle ahead of it in order to gain the recognition from the general public (and therefore the survivability) that it deserves. It is really unfortunate that in the split from Oracle, they retained the recognition (and even kudos) gained over all the previous years of work on OOo. As I see it, LO has, in the eyes of the general populous, been "divorced" from its heritage, and to all intents and purposes (to the uninitiated) looks like a newcomer on the scene! I believe that LO needs and deserves a beautiful icon for the main program, which says something about the elegance and sophistication which lies within. This would also serve to foster the "brand image" of LO in the eyes of the general public (as opposed to the brand of the Document Foundation).

I can appreciate too, that to many of you guys and girls within the Document Foundation community it may be difficult to understand what I'm getting at; maybe being so close and intimately involved in the whole project means it is not easy to step back and see it in the same way an outsider does. I think it is fair to say that Linux (in many of its flavours) suffers from a "club members only" sort of image, which has probably done a lot to stifle its uptake by the general public, and I fear that LO may slip into a similar category. That would be a great pity indeed. I hope that perhaps my perspective may be of use to you in this regard, and give an "outsider" view that you may otherwise find difficult to attain.


Best Regards,
        Alistair Bain
Kingswells Computercraft
Aberdeen, Scotland


On 31/10/2012 15:06, Florian Monfort wrote:
I actually think the logo is pretty good.

- The absence of vivid colors makes it easy to adapt to any platform design
standard.
- Simple shape makes it easy to recognize.

What problem is it that you identify with the current logo ?

Cheers


On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 3:56 PM, Kingswells Computercraft <
support@kingswellscomputercraft.co.uk> wrote:

Dear LibreOffice teams,

My apologies if you have already got my message (below) - I tried sending
it a few days ago, but only seem to have succeeded in subscribing to
mailing lists!

 From my message below, you can see I believe it is essential that the
LibreOffice main icon be replaced by one that aids in the recognition and
identity of LibreOffice, which I believe the current one icon fails to do.
 From some of the messages I've seen since subscribing (especially
marketing), it now seems to me that it is crucial that the icon is replaced.
I would suggest that the following are essential requirements of the main
icon for LibreOffice:

   a) colourful and eye-catching, i.e. an attractive "wrapper".
   b) equals (or at least hints at) the sophistication of the program.
   c) something that aids with  "brand" recognition.

I'm sure it is (and will continue to be) an uphill struggle to achieve the
recognition that Apache OpenOffice has automatically inherited from its
predecessor.  Without an icon that helps to achieve this, I could see a day
when LibreOffice disappears into obscurity, and that would be a great pity.
  It wouldn't be the first time a great product has failed, not because it
was unworthy, but it didn't have the recognition (and therefore the
following) necessary to carry it forward.

Best regards,
      Alistair Bain
Kingswells Computercraft
Aberdeen, Scotland


-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Re: LibreOffice Icon
Date:           Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:50:31 +0200
From:           Florian Effenberger <floeff@documentfoundation.org**>
Organisation:   The Document Foundation
To:     Kingswells Computercraft 
<support@**kingswellscomputercraft.co.uk<support@kingswellscomputercraft.co.uk>

CC:     info@documentfoundation.org

Hello,

thank you very much for your feedback and interest in LibreOffice! The
topic you raise fits very well for our design team, and I strongly
propose you get in touch with them directly.

All information as well as the official mailing list is available at
http://www.libreoffice.org/**get-involved/ux-visual-**designers/<http://www.libreoffice.org/get-involved/ux-visual-designers/>

Thanks again,
Florian

Kingswells Computercraft wrote on 2012-10-11 10:41:

Dear Document Foundation,

First, thank you so much for LibreOffice!  I have been a user since
OpenOffice.org version 1.1.2, and I have recommended it to many friends
and customers over the years.  I recognise LibreOffice to be the
legitimate successor to the earlier OpenOffice.org, and believe it to be
a better suite than the Oracle/Apache's version (I used both until
recently).

I am writing to you today to plead with you to change the main program
icon currently in use for LibreOffice as I believe it is seriously
underwhelming!  As an icon for the Document Foundation it says it all to
me - clear, simple, document.  However, considering it as the "flag" or
"packaging" for LibreOffice, it is far too bland:

   • It is not easy to pick out among hordes of other icons
   • It lacks colour and warmth, is not striking or eye-catching
   • It says nothing about the elegance and sophistication of LibreOffice
   • It doesn't inspire confidence.

In my experience I often introduce LibreOffice as an alternative to
Microsoft Office to people who have never heard of it before.  To these
new users, the desktop icon is the "shop window" for the application,
and it is frankly uninspiring!  I have considered replacing the desktop
icon with another (third party) icon, but I am aware that this breaches
your guidelines about branding & icon usage, so I don't want to do that.

Please, please change the icon for something that does the application
justice.


Best Regards,
      Alistair Bain
Kingswells Computercraft
Aberdeen, Scotland


--
Florian Effenberger, Chairman of the Board (Vorstandsvorsitzender)
Tel: +49 8341 99660880 | Mobile: +49 151 14424108
The Document Foundation, Zimmerstr. 69, 10117 Berlin, Germany
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