MX Linux Forum

Perhaps it is just me but I find the new MX + Mepis logo cringe-worthy. YMMVG.

I think the plain MX logo is already rather busy with the mountains and the X but I thought the implied contrast between the X in the MX logo with the circle in the Mepis logo was very witty. The Mepis logo by itself is wonderful with the moon and mountains doubling as the arc of a circle with arrow points at the ends. When the logos are combined, the dominant theme is the circle with an X over it and the mountains are nearly lost. A circle with an X over it is so universal and so strong, it simply takes over.

I'm not sure what to do in order to fix it. My first stab would be to replace the circular ring with a filled circle, maybe some shade of blue that is dominant in the color scheme here. It might help to use color to differentiate the mountains from the X. Another direction would be to make it more abstract. Keep the mountains and the circular ring from Mepis and add a pie slice at the top of the ring pointing downward. The cut edges of the pie slice would pick up the diagonals from the mountains, implying the X without really showing it. This would help defuse the strong X.

A third idea would be to make the circle look like a globe by adding the shape of a continent. Still have the mountains in the foreground. So instead of a moon-rise, it become earth-rise. There are probably not enough pixels to do this right but antiX uses a globe as a symbol. See the attached bootloader background image. Simplifying this and putting the Mepis mountains in front of it might be very interesting. It could be a good symbol for the combination of Mepis and antiX.

I was thinking about asking Unix stickers to make stickers for antiX and MX but TBH I did not feel comfortable proposing any of our existing logos to them. The antiX logo at the top of their forums is good but at the very least it would need to have much greater resolution. I think the existing Mepis logo is terrific as-is (assuming it has enough resolution).

BitJam wrote:Perhaps it is just me but I find the new MX + Mepis logo cringe-worthy.

Agreed. I hate to be critical of other people's work when I myself couldn't do any better, but since you broke the ice...

Personally, I think it would be fine to come up with something unique for MX that doesn't incorporate the old MEPIS logo. The "M" in MX already pays homage to MEPIS, but it's time to move on. MEPIS is dead, long live MX.

uncle mark wrote:

BitJam wrote:Perhaps it is just me but I find the new MX + Mepis logo cringe-worthy.

Agreed. I hate to be critical of other people's work when I myself couldn't do any better, but since you broke the ice...

Personally, I think it would be fine to come up with something unique for MX that doesn't incorporate the old MEPIS logo. The "M" in MX already pays homage to MEPIS, but it's time to move on. MEPIS is dead, long live MX.

By that logic Mepis should be removed from the forum title. Since the forum still supports Mepis that is a non starter as far as I am concerned, hence a combined logo of some sort.

MEPIS is dead, long live MX.

Then that logo would be perfect, it looked like MEPIS logo died and it was crossed over :D

I agree with richb but you (Adrian) made me LoL.

There are at least two issues here:

1. The MX logo or logos
2. Combined Mepis + MX logo or logos

The mountains are actually supposed to represent Egyptian pyramids; something to do with "Mepis" being a mispronounced Memphis, Tenn, which was named after the Egyptian city.

Maybe we can have something else symbolize ancient Egypt, but I do agree the new logo is busy, and cramming too much symbolism in a small space has that effect.

The mountains are actually supposed to represent Egyptian pyramids; something to do with "Mepis" being a mispronounced Memphis, Tenn, which was named after the Egyptian city.

That's a kind of tortured explanation that Warren came up with... not sure if we need to follow the tradition.

Adrian wrote:

The mountains are actually supposed to represent Egyptian pyramids; something to do with "Mepis" being a mispronounced Memphis, Tenn, which was named after the Egyptian city.

That's a kind of tortured explanation that Warren came up with... not sure if we need to follow the tradition.

But with Mepis in stalled, perhaps forever development, to change that tradition now would be odd. That is drastically new Mepis Logo, drastically old Mepis.

I think we need to keep MEPIS logo for the MEPIS section of the forum, it doesn't mean that we need to re-design it and try to keep the same tortured symbolism if we design a new logo for the entire forum.

Adrian wrote:I think we need to keep MEPIS logo for the MEPIS section of the forum, it doesn't mean that we need to re-design it and try to keep the same tortured symbolism if we design a new logo for the entire forum.

But sections do not have logos, the forum does in the title Page. I do not see how, within the phpBB structure, individual forums can show logos.

It was the technical restrictions that forced us to use of an ugly logo. We can't have both of them and any combination looks odd or worse. My own suggestion is to use the MX logo as it is and skip Mepis.
Here's another one, but it doesn't look any better.
Henry

Utopia wrote:It was the technical restrictions that forced us to use of an ugly logo. We can't have both of them and any combination looks odd or worse. My own suggestion is to use the MX logo as it is and skip Mepis.
Here's another one, but it doesn't look any better.
Henry

Actually that is the one I like. I am opposed to skipping the Mepis logo.

Maybe rounding the front one's corners will make it more uniform, but I am with Rich on this one.

I like that one too better, I agree with Eadwine, we need to make them look similar, round the corners, drop border on MEPIS one, maybe even change the color to match each other and the forum scheme.

Or we could have both logos complete, side by side. This corresponds to the wording "MX & Mepis [...]"

BitJam wrote:Or we could have both logos complete, side by side. This corresponds to the wording "MX & Mepis [...]"

Peregrine would have to answer that within the limitations of the software..

Yup, we looked at that possibility.

I can make some new suggestions. Can start working on it tomorrow, it's midnight here.
There's only room for one icon, combining them in a rectangular shape wasn't very popular. And I can understand that.
Henry

Or
The white areas would blend with the white background of the Title bar. It would be square but smaller logos. Pardon my lame attempt at graphics.

Click the lower image to see what it would look like in the header.

richb wrote:Or
The white areas would blend with the white background of the Title bar. It would be square but smaller logos. Click the lower image to see what it would look like in the header. Pardon my lame attempt at graphics.

That was sort of what I had in mind (except I failed at my lame attempt of doing something graphics related)

Confession: that was my original proposal, but overlapping as Utopia posted.

We said at the time that we would revisit any choice, but that the short-term goal was to get the restructuring done.

What would be the favicon? A combination of logos might be too small for a favicon.

Adrian wrote:What would be the favicon? A combination of logos might be too small for a favicon.

Good point. We may have to compromise on that and use only the MX logo in that case. Assuming they can be separate. I do not know hoe the favicon is generated.

I like the rectangular logo with the two logos side by side but without the plus sign between them.

BTW: great work on getting all the restructuring done quickly and without any noticeable bugs or disasters.

BitJam wrote:I like the rectangular logo with the two logos side by side but without the plus sign between them.

BTW: great work on getting all the restructuring done quickly and without any noticeable bugs or disasters.

Yes, an option. I was responding to the concern about "not square" with the smaller on a diagonal design. I am sure Henry will come up with some interesting options.

Thanks re forum restructure.

Started on the logo instead of sleeping. Some very simple sketches.
Henry

Utopia wrote:Started on the logo instead of sleeping. Some very simple sketches.
Henry

Prefer the color matched. Same idea floated earlier.

Get some sleep. No urgency on this.

Here is a rough draft of the idea I mentioned earlier of combining the antiX globe with the Mepis mountains/pyramids to create an earth-rise logo for MX. I think this is more appealing than the current logo with an X; it follows the idea of combining the best of both. It is a personal choice. I'm not too excited about using the current MX logo for a case sticker or a tee shirt but I think something like this has potential.

Edit: I added two earlier versions.

There is a way to have the text "MX & MEPIS Community Forum" with a logo on each side. Everything can be integrated in one image file instead of using a font. That way we can return to the original idea that was scrapped because of technical problems. And don't have to hack the logos, which haven't been very successful.
Henry

I'm thinking about something like this, prefer the version with both icons as buttons. Size and position of the icons can of course be changed. The image file has transparency, which is easily lost when downloading or opened in viewing apps.
Can we use only a centered image file?
Henry

If we use a lighter text, the icons can be in the background. They don't stand out against the old Mepis blue.
Henry

Now that last one is a nono. The earlier one is a good one IMHO

Now that last one is a nono

Maybe, but we're not bound by the Mepis blue color scheme and can do whatever we want. Any ideas about other variations? The more choices we have, good or bad, the better the end result.
Henry

The forum uses phpBB, the community site uses Drupal. Both sites need to use the same logo. Both expect the logo to be a single image and located to the left. Each element of the header has a designated spot - the logo, then the website title.
In Drupal, the larger you make the logo, the more space the whole header takes up vertically and that moves the website content down.

I begin to see a number of questions interwoven here: an official logo for MX, a logo for the revised forum, and a logo for a T-shirt/sticker. The first is constrained by branding, the second by Forum software/space/purpose, and the third by subjective esthetics.

This leads me to 3 current reactions as I watch this thread:

1) I myself am reluctant to ditch the official logo after only 8 months of use. Maybe for the release of MX-15, not sure yet.
2) For the Forum, I think the logo needs to tell the story without getting in the way. Not wedded to what we have ... but it is concise and respects its role on the screen.
3) For a T, BJ's suggestions are very handsome, and certainly other colorful variants could be created.

I see no reason why these could not differ from each other, I guess, as long as a "family resemblance" were maintained.

Utopia wrote:

Now that last one is a nono

Maybe, but we're not bound by the Mepis blue color scheme and can do whatever we want. Any ideas about other variations? The more choices we have, good or bad, the better the end result.
Henry

No, nothing on the color. I mean more: images through text aren't a good thing

Jerry3904 wrote:I begin to see a number of questions interwoven here: an official logo for MX, a logo for the revised forum, and a logo for a T-shirt/sticker. The first is constrained by branding, the second by Forum software/space/purpose, and the third by subjective esthetics.

This leads me to 3 current reactions as I watch this thread:

1) I myself am reluctant to ditch the official logo after only 8 months of use. Maybe for the release of MX-15, not sure yet.
2) For the Forum, I think the logo needs to tell the story without getting in the way. Not wedded to what we have ... but it is concise and respects its role on the screen.
3) For a T, BJ's suggestions are very handsome, and certainly other colorful variants could be created.

I see no reason why these could not differ from each other, I guess, as long as a "family resemblance" were maintained.

In total agreement with this. I think the current focus should be the Forum logo if users would like to see a change. Getting into T's at this point loses our focus, and ditching the official logo at such an early stage is not a good idea.

Both expect the logo to be a single image and located to the left.

What about switching to the MX logo? It will solve all problems, no need to redesign anything and it has some elements derived from the Mepis logo. It can be used as it is or in the start button version.
Henry

I have no trouble with that.

I have resisted that, but will go along. The pyramids do have a remnant of Mepis which still serves for a forum devoted to both.

Utopia wrote:

Both expect the logo to be a single image and located to the left.

What about switching to the MX logo? It will solve all problems, no need to redesign anything and it has some elements derived from the Mepis logo. It can be used as it is or in the start button version.
Henry

That's what I was getting at way back early in this thread.

MEPIS is dead. Long live MX.

uncle mark wrote:

Utopia wrote:

Both expect the logo to be a single image and located to the left.

What about switching to the MX logo? It will solve all problems, no need to redesign anything and it has some elements derived from the Mepis logo. It can be used as it is or in the start button version.
Henry

That's what I was getting at way back early in this thread.

MEPIS is dead. Long live MX.

Not my motivation for agreeing to the MX logo. As I said earlier we still support Mepis.

As far as I am concerned there is no need for a logo change. The title changed so I think it's clear enough.

But if the majority wants one, also fine with me. The looks of the site don't matter much to me, that people get assisted does, and that is what makes this forum great, not a logo

The forum is still called mepiscommunity.org so I'm fine with keeping the MEPIS logo.

We do have mxlinux.org domain and it redirects to this forum, so in the future depending of what the developers and user want we might switch to that and then it would make sense to use MX logo.

MEPIS is dead

Not as long as it's being used.
The only reason for switching to the MX logo is that we can't have both the Mepis and the MX logo. The experiments mixing them didn't turn out good enough.
Keeping the Mepis logo is the only other realistic alternative. I'm positive to both of them.
Henry

I still think this is acceptable(or Henry's variation), but as I said would go along with the MX logo.

I still think this is acceptable

As a third alternative? Yes, can be used if the details aren't too small to be visible.
The logo we're using now is ugly.
Henry

Utopia wrote:

I still think this is acceptable

As a third alternative? Yes, can be used if the details aren't too small to be visible.
The logo we're using now is ugly.
Henry

So three options?

1. MX logo
2. Leave as is
3. Two diagonal logos

So three options?

Yes, in my opinion. Does anyone have something to add to the list?
Henry

"Leave as is" does that mean continue using the Mepis logo? Not the mix we have now?
It was made to show that you can't mix two logos.
Henry

Utopia wrote:"Leave as is" does that mean continue using the Mepis logo? Not the mix we have now?
It was made to show that you can't mix two logos.
Henry

I meant by that the one showing on the forum now. We are talking about the forum logo only.

Henry I cropped the two logos side by side out of the image you uploaded. I wanted to see what that would look like. It is on the test forum. http://www.peregrinewebdesign.com/forum
I see you added a gradient and rounded the corners on the MX logo, I think that those are good additions.

peregrine wrote:Henry I cropped the two logos side by side out of the image you uploaded. I wanted to see what that would look like. It is on the test forum. http://www.peregrinewebdesign.com/forum
I see you added a gradient and rounded the corners on the MX logo, I think that those are good additions.

Looks OK except the blue S Communi overlaying it.

Karen, I think you have found the best solution. What size do you need? I can give you some without the blue text for testing. They go together much better with the round corners.
Henry

As many of you know, I am running KDE on top of MX-14. So, to keep visual consistency (with my flat/bland desktop) I made a blue variant of MX 14 logo to use in the start button. It looks great on my panel bar. Here is a small (32x32px) sample:

I sized it to 180px X 80px
The original theme logo I am replacing on phpBB is a jpg.

BitJam wrote:Here is a rough draft of the idea I mentioned earlier of combining the antiX globe with the Mepis mountains/pyramids to create an earth-rise logo for MX. I think this is more appealing than the current logo with an X; it follows the idea of combining the best of both. It is a personal choice. I'm not too excited about using the current MX logo for a case sticker or a tee shirt but I think something like this has potential.

Edit: I added two earlier versions.

Wow. Especially like the 3rd. The earth rise.

Here is the pair as 173.8 x 80.0. It's a png file to keep transparency and quality.
Henry

Utopia wrote:Here is the pair as 173.8 x 80.0. It's a png file to keep transparency and quality.
Henry

Yes!!!

richb wrote:

Utopia wrote:Here is the pair as 173.8 x 80.0. It's a png file to keep transparency and quality.
Henry

Yes!!!

Perfect.

Utopia wrote:Here is the pair as 173.8 x 80.0. It's a png file to keep transparency and quality.
Henry

I like this one too. Perhaps the MX logo could be in blue? Anyway, dark blue is also the original background of MX-14 (Turbulence).

The same set "blueished". Sorry, it needs some tweaking/profiling, I am not proficient enough with Gimp.

The same set "blueished".

Looks good, but can be mixed up. They are very similar, can use a slight difference in color.
Henry

Utopia wrote:"Leave as is" does that mean continue using the Mepis logo? Not the mix we have now?
It was made to show that you can't mix two logos.
Henry

All rules can be broken, Henry. In the 1970s a major civil contractor (Bovis) took over a smaller contractor (AE Farr). Farr's logo was an elipse with the word FARR in it, Bovis's was a hummingbird. The Farr office draughtsman produced a combined logo, with the elipse broken in half and the hummingbird emerging. Everyone agreed it was better than all the official logos produced for Bovis (Farr Division).

I can't do the graphics, but the original logos clipped from photos give the idea.

I like the two logos side by side. *thumbs up*

eselma wrote:The same set "blueished".

Funny, you don't look Bluish.

I like this one (two blue logos side by side). I like that the colors are the same. I prefer having both logos in one larger blue rectangle (without a plus sign) but that seems to be unpopular. The reason I like the rectangle is because it is less visually busy and it demonstrates unity. This design by eselma is my second choice if the rectangle is a no-go.

I can go with the two logos side-by-side in the same order as the title; I prefer keeping the orginal colors because those are both brands, not simply images; and I like BJ's suggestion of some be-it-ever-so-thin border to unite them inside a rectangle (with rounded corners).

I also think we have beaten this into the ground for now, and propose that we make this change for the forum and let it sit for a while.

propose that we make this change for the forum and let it sit for a while.

Agree, let's use it and see if we like it.
Henry

Utopia wrote:

propose that we make this change for the forum and let it sit for a while.

Agree, let's use it and see if we like it.
Henry

OK with me. Do it.

Jerry3904

and I like BJ's suggestion of some be-it-ever-so-thin border to unite them inside a rectangle (with rounded corners).

Henry do you want to make a version with the rounded corner border so we can see how that will look?

OK, I'll see what I can do.
Henry

Here's a rectangular logo with rounded corners.
Henry

Utopia wrote:Here's a rectangular logo with rounded corners.
Henry

Let's not beat this any more to death and go with it.

Just for comparison, could somebody do one up with the icons sligltly separated and a set off border, looking something like a horizontal Egyptian cartouche?

Henry's latest version is here http://www.peregrinewebdesign.com/forum/

Brilliant Utopia! The gradient across both icons is a very nice touch. I agree with Jerry that a little more separation might be good. I also like his idea of more of a border around the rectangle. Maybe like the border around the Mepis logo in this post. I'm not certain that's what Jerry meant.

Jerry3904 wrote:Just for comparison, could somebody do one up with the icons sligltly separated and a set off border, looking something like a horizontal Egyptian cartouche?

You mean like this. Henry will have to clean up the corners, etc.

That first one is sort of what I was thinking.

Jerry3904 wrote:That first one is sort of what I was thinking.

I like that one too.it would nice to see the pro version of that and that version on the test site.

Love this one up now: http://www.peregrinewebdesign.com/forum/

Here is a version with a border. This shows how conservative we are. Everything must be like before, but more and better.
Henry

Utopia wrote:Here is a version with a border. This shows how conservative we are. Everything must be like before, but more and better.
Henry

Now that is the one we should go with.

Agreed :D

Newest version is on http://www.peregrinewebdesign.com/forum/
Looks good.

peregrine wrote:Newest version is on http://www.peregrinewebdesign.com/forum/
Looks good.

It does. We should proceed with the change.

Make it so, please.

Utopia wrote:Here is a version with a border. This shows how conservative we are. Everything must be like before, but more and better.
Henry

+1
Really nice. Brilliant brotherhood (of logos, community and designers). Everybody should be happy

made it so here and on mepiscommunity.org
you may need to refresh the page to see the change

I see it on the Community page, but not here after multiple refresh. Will chill. ..

Jerry3904 wrote:I see it on the Community page, but not here after multiple refresh. Will chill. ..

cache?

Hate to make this thread even longer, but I suggest "Debian Stable" is not really accurate - should be just "Debian".
I still have working versions from M7 onwards and this forum still supports all of them.

Won't be longer. ; -)

MX and Mepis before it are based on Stable, not Testing. End of story.

MX and Mepis before it are based on Stable, not Testing. End of story.

Some old versions of Mepis were debian-testing based, not debian-stable based.....

ko wrote:

MX and Mepis before it are based on Stable, not Testing. End of story.

Some old versions of Mepis were debian-testing based, not debian-stable based.....

My be true, but the text as it is represents the majority of Mepis releases at the time of release. With all due respect I think this is a nitpick.

The text is fine as it stands.
The last MEPIS version based on testing was 3.4-3. MEPIS 7 used the same debian version as 3.4-3 after it became stable.
Since the mepislovers.org site didn't yet exist at that time, it's definitely a nitpick.

And we probably don't want to open the 'can of worms' that mentioning Mepis 6.0 and 6.5 (based on ubuntu) would bring forth. Mepis and MX are based on Stable by and large. antiX can be based on Stable or Testing. Stable should be the face we put forward.

Just one more thought on the icons:
the rectangle is more legible in the
menu icon box, since the border
makes the image smaller. IMHO.
Especially at 1024x600. :)

I love it!

And ... it opens up the door for adopting a Beyoncé hit as our theme song. Just kidding.

I had to do ctrl+refresh for it to show up. Looking good!!