[OSM-talk] new logo

[Matt Amos]

as a preface, some thoughts i had a while ago on the OSM logo
http://www.asklater.com/matt/wordpress/2006/05/infamy/

On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 6:14 PM, Robert Martinez <mail at mray.de> wrote:
> having a real map as part of the logo offers some nice opportunities indeed!
> But there is a number of inherent problems with actual map data inside the
> logo, which is why I discarded any of my designs containing it:

indeed, but i'm of the opinion that a logo should try to represent
what the project is about. maps are surely the most commonly
recognised output of geodata, although they do have problems.

> - as Steve said already - there is too much going on inside there.

which (and i've pointed this out several times to steve, but he seems
to have forgotten) can be elided at lower levels of detail.

> - then there is the issue with recognition, almost nobody would recognize
> certain elements clearly (as well as a certain outline)
> - scaling makes it impossible to retain the nice details you want to apply
> to the logo

this is a problem for any logo and, as above, it's easy to remove the
fine details and enhance the large-scale details when down-scaling.
it's also easy to reduce the colour depth and introduce colour themes
while keeping the recognisable source elements intact. e.g:
http://www.asklater.com/matt/mag_map_unbusy_reallylowcolour.png

in my opinion OSM doesn't need a new logo, so much as it needs an
improved logo! :-)

cheers,

matt