From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Dec 24 05:20:24 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0947616A4CE for ; Fri, 24 Dec 2004 05:20:24 +0000 (GMT) Received: from out007.verizon.net (out007pub.verizon.net [206.46.170.107]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5EE5F43D1D for ; Fri, 24 Dec 2004 05:20:23 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from reso3w83@verizon.net) Received: from ringworm.mechee.com ([4.26.84.7]) by out007.verizon.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.06 201-253-122-130-106-20030910) with ESMTP id <20041224052022.UDZQ27681.out007.verizon.net@ringworm.mechee.com> for ; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 23:20:22 -0600 Received: by ringworm.mechee.com (Postfix, from userid 1001) id E90992CE740; Thu, 23 Dec 2004 21:17:33 -0800 (PST) From: "Michael C. Shultz" To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 21:17:26 -0800 User-Agent: KMail/1.7.2 References: <20041223112731.GA32750@ninja.terrabionic.com> <20041223133440.GC786@myrddin.originative.co.uk> <41CB9F16.1010405@nbritton.org> In-Reply-To: <41CB9F16.1010405@nbritton.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200412232117.30199.reso3w83@verizon.net> X-Authentication-Info: Submitted using SMTP AUTH at out007.verizon.net from [4.26.84.7] at Thu, 23 Dec 2004 23:20:22 -0600 Subject: Re: FreeBSD's Visual Identity: Outdated? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 05:20:24 -0000 On Thursday 23 December 2004 08:46 pm, Nikolas Britton wrote: > >>From a business perspective we look amateurish. > > I REALLY REALLY agree with this point, from the prospective of an > outsider the website and "Image" conveys a real lack of > professionalism, which is not true. > > I'm looking at the start page for FreeBSD right now and here are the > things I do not like about it (please don't be offended if I step on > toe's and ego's, I am only trying to better FreeBSD): > > 1. The "FreeBSD" logo is crap, not beastie (he's a keeper!!!, I'll > hunt you down and do bad things to you if you take him away!), Just > the black wannabe (and badly done) 3D effect "FreeBSD" part, really, > I hate it. Redo the whole logo in photoshop with a bold, antialiased > modern web font: (Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Century Gothic, etc.) > and forget the whole 3D effect as that is so 90s. Generally all of > your logo designs are unprofessional (the logos at the bottom of the > page: FreeBSD MALL, UseNix, Daemon News, and Powered by FreeBSD for > example) > > 2. I cringe when I see Times New Roman, again redo the whole site > with a modern web font: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Etc. (ever here of > Cascading Style Sheets?) > > 3. The color scheme is not "complementary" anyone who has been to art > school or taken design classes will know what I talking about, read > up about basic color theory here: > http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-theory-basics.html (again, ever > here of Cascading Style Sheets??) > > 4. I like the Beastie logo on the boot loader screen but ASCII art is > unprofessional... It would be better if you made the color ASCII > beastie the default. > > I have no real issues with the layout of the site and it would be > nice if the installer was more user friendly but I am content with > the way it is, maybe you should change the color scheme of the > installer to match the website? > > Here are some example sites: > http://m0n0.ch/wall/screens/system.png > http://www.mozilla.org/ > http://www.horde.org/logos/ > http://www.xfce.org/ > http://www.gnome.org/ > http://www.gimp.org/ > http://www.php.net/ > http://freebsd.kde.org/ > http://www.google.com/ > http://www.apache.org/ > http://www.adobe.com/ > http://www.openoffice.org/ > http://www.sun.com/ > http://www.suse.com/ > http://www.novell.com/ > http://www.ibm.com/ > http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/ > http://www.mysql.com/ > http://cocoon.apache.org/ > http://www.w3.org/ > http://www.penguincomputing.com/ > > FreeBSD is badly in need of a PR/Design/Marketing department. I hate to see FreeBSD to something like my once favorite news site (www.antiwar.com) did. Early on they had a website that wasn't at all artistic, but they always had links to great news stories and updated those several time a day. A while back they re-did the site into a politically correct artsie fashion as you are suggestion FreeBSD do. Ever since that so called upgrade many of there links remain for days at a time and none are updated more than once a day, my guess is the site with all of its wonderful graphics is a real pain in the butt to update now. I seldom visit the site because it is no longer usefull. So for me it seems it is not the artwork that brings me to a site, rather it is the quality of content and FreeBSD's content quality is good right now, I hope no one messes it up. -Mike