Forum header update

[jza]

The reasoning and visual guideliness still apply. This wasn't just generated by OOo but is an industry standard when doing print design. I find it foolish try to argue against it, which also doesnt mean that having no guideliness is an excuse to avoid being compliant.

[RGB]

IMO, using a non modified logo is the best possible way of being compliant with that logo...

We are trying to reach consensus here. Calling others "foolish" because they do not accept your particular "vision" is not the best way to obtain such consensus. Remember: we are a community, and a healthy communication is the only way to maintain a healthy community. I you want to discuss what can be done with the logo and still consider it as "official", please start a new thread on the dev mailing list: sooner or later AOO will need to discuss that, but such discussion does not belong to this thread.

Also, I think that talking about "Industrial standard" on this context where most people does not belong to any "industry" means nothing for a big part of our readers. But if you insists: AFAIK the "industrial standard" says that logo variations are acceptable only under particular circumstances (a black and white leaflet or a T-shirt, for example) but must be avoided on normal situations... and I cannot think of a more "normal situation" than the header of a web page with really hight traffic like this forum.

Just my 2 ¢.

Regards,
Ricardo

[lgusaas]

The reasoning and visual guideliness still apply. This wasn't just generated by OOo but is an industry standard when doing print design. I find it foolish try to argue against it, which also doesnt mean that having no guideliness is an excuse to avoid being compliant.

Huh? Wrong. Those are the old OOo guidelines for use of the OOo logo.

For the new AOO log, this is from https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/dis ... g+Planning
"All branding using a logo to represent the project must be the official logo which can be downloaded from the attachments on this page."
PS: the link isn't to the updated flat loge.

[RGB]

Several days have passed without new comments, so let's try to restart this thread and come up with a good consensus.

It seems we all agree to update the download logo. Can we move on with that part?

For the headers, we now have

- A white background header proposed by Igusaas. To that, Hagar said that he does not like the white background.

- An unified proposal by jza. To that, I object that the background colour does not match the rest of the site colours. It was also commented that on this proposal the text introducing the forum is missing and that text is an essential feature on our headers.

- A colour inverted logo that easily match the existing forum colours. Igusaas and I object that that logo is too different from the official logo. Logo variations are possibly good for particular situations but the forum header is too prominent.

- Finally, there is my mock-up for the forum header that use the site's colours. Hagar said that he prefers a bit stronger colour, but I cannot find a hue that match the rest of the site.

Obviously, I prefer my proposal but Igusaas' is fine for me too. Any comment?

[acknak]

RGB: Thanks for organizing the proposals--very helpful!

...
- A colour inverted logo that easily match the existing forum colours.

I prefer this one.

I don't agree that there can be only one logo; it's quite common for people to see variations in a logo and I don't think it would be confusing at all.

If anything, it would serve to differentiate us (slightly) from the official project and I still say there's some value in that.

Also, keeping the same background for the forum pages will provide good continuity and less disruption for our users who visit infrequently.

And, it will be easier to implement, right? Not a small point.

If I had any input on the design, thinking of the visual balance, I would consider softening the background of the orb. The pure white is rather stark against the blue banner, giving the orb too much visual weight compared to the text. Something like the color of the lightest gull in the current banner might dial it back just a bit.

[Arineckaig]

FWMOIW, I much prefer the RGB forum header that continues to use the site's colours.

[RGB]

It seems the discussion is locked again. If there is no agreement here, in a few days (now AOO is in "release mode" for 4.0.1) I'll move the discussion again to the ML, reporting the four proposals we have.

[Hagar Delest]

+1 for RGB's proposal. Even if there is no color difference with the area just below (no big deal), it's the layout that is the most likely to be used across all the sites (extensions, ...).

[lgusaas]

+1 for RGB's proposal. Even if there is no color difference with the area just below (no big deal), it's the layout that is the most likely to be used across all the sites (extensions, ...).

+1 for RGB's proposal.

[RoryOF]

+1 for RGB's proposal

[lgusaas]

We haven't had much discussion on the header for the home page for all forums. http://forum.openoffice.org/
I think it would be best to use a white background on that page. See my original proposal viewtopic.php?f=50&t=63523&start=30#p284512

[Hagar Delest]

It seems we are reaching a consensus for the forum header!

For the landing page, perhaps we should make a dedicated topic. Will split the topic if necessary.
Larry's proposal looks good but why not use a similar banner as the forum itself (without the comment about the derivatives)?

[RGB]

Good! During the week end I'll try to put together the proposal to move it to the mailing list, asking for help to implement it.

[pescetti]

This discussion overlapped with a discussion about infrastructure maintenance and had the problem that the agreed design did not have a full implementation.

Good news are that:
1) The discussion about infrastructure maintenance is progressing, the team is forming and we'll probably be able to actually replace the download logo and banner relatively soon.
2) A full implementation of the agreed proposal is now available. I'm attaching a PNG banner that I prepared following RGB's approved mockup. This one is for the English forum, but it can be applied to all forums ("forum" is the domain name here). If somebody wants to see a version where "Forum" is replaced by a word in another language, just ask here.

New forum banner

Note that it may not look so nice since it is already pixel-perfect for the website, where other graphic elements, borders and CSS contribute to the header you see. But once we have the new infrastructure team in place I can take care of adapting CSS and other elements as needed.

[Hagar Delest]

Wonderful!
Thanks Andrea, we are making some progress!

[Hagar Delest]

I just noticed that the forum header was updated, few minutes ago I guess.
Thanks Andrea, I'm pretty sure you're behind it.

[floris v]

I didn't know there was one in the making?

[Jan_J]

Thanks, Andrea.
Compared to the project from January, the balloon has been multiplied -- great idea, it reflects discussion and interchange better than the former sketch.
Both descriptions: OpenOffice and Forum were previously nicely aligned along the baseline. Currently they are unrelated. It is worth to consider alignment, especially that it would also improve relation of the "Forum" text to the balloons logo: their baseline is fortunately close to the suite name baseline.

Besides: do you consider white text in the heading section legible over the new light background?

[Hagar Delest]

+1 for all Jan's comments.
The dark blue color for the font should be fine (the same as in the Extensions site). Should apply to the extended search string too.

[floris v]

I think that the blue is a bit pale, the top bar needs some livening up.

[thomasjk]

The white text is hard to read. The contrast needs to be higher.

[MTP]

Agree the white text is difficult to read.