Develop Juju logo (juju.ubuntu.com)

[Paul Sladen]

Ensemble needs a logo and Abi has started working on some pencil/pastel sketches, and posted them to the Ensemble list:

  https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/juju/2011-June/000199.html
  https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/juju/2011-July/000202.html (split across the month end)

  http://i55.tinypic.com/2r79af9.jpg (laptop fairy, colour)
  http://i52.tinypic.com/34gaplh.jpg (power cube, colour)
  http://i55.tinypic.com/ety2w7.jpg (power cube, colour, open sides)
  http://i55.tinypic.com/zj8nl3.jpg (flying carpets, b/w)
  http://i52.tinypic.com/33coqv7.jpg (Ubuntu UFO clouds, b/w)

[Gustavo Niemeyer (niemeyer)]

Please see the relevant conversation at:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ensemble/2011-June/000199.html

[Gustavo Niemeyer (niemeyer)]

Actually, this is likely the most relevant part of it:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ensemble/2011-July/000202.html

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Emailed Abi and Ahmed (2011-07-08 09:36).

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Email back from Abi with lots of background about inspiration, which can hopefully be added here. In addition, had another idea sent by Robbie Williamson:

  http://ubuntuone.com/p/13yI/

who introduced it:

  "Here's something I just pulled together. It's a bit rough (used
  LibreOffice Draw), but trying to incorporate Ubuntu, Canonical, the
  complexities of service orchestration, and the core (or elemental)
  function ensemble serves in this orchestration. It's also by no
  coincidence that this logo resembles the atomic layout of oxygen, a
  critical element to sustaining humanity (i.e. Ubuntu) and to creating
  water vapor (i.e. clouds) ;). Anyway, just thought it would spark some
  more creativity around the logo we finally end up with."

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Sketch exploring Robbie's Oxygen concept.

A big question I'd like to know is how closely is this going to be tied to the Ubuntu or Canonical brands, or is it intended to be stand-alone? Eg. will it always be "Ubuntu Ensemble", or "Canonical Ensemble", or just "Ensemble".

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Here's Abi's write-up about the inspiration for the cubes and clouds shown at the top of the bug-report:

  For the cube concept, I wanted to go with simplicity for the design and not clobber it with too many details. Like the letter E it just was based on ensemble and nothing more.

  The other logo where I've drawn the relaxed man with a netbook sitting on an E with wings was to symbolize " cloud" and how networking can be easily done, of course using the ensemble product wherein the E with the wings suggests there's always something that you can rely on even up in the clouds. and the relaxed posture of the man was to show how easily things can be done.

  As for the ubuntu logo looking like a flying saucer amidst the clouds was just a random concept. Keeping atuned with ubuntu and it's cloud prospects. infact I wanted to interconnect each ubuntu logo there but since it was rough i let it slide for now.

  Overall, what i thinkwould be best for the key elements for this logo would be clouds, something to represent E, and a human touch of some kind so it's not all mechanical and maybe if we can not clutter it and keep it a little abstract.

  Let me know if you have any ideas

[Abi R (mellgoth29)]

Thanks sladen helping me get by around the technicalities and for the
introduction.

So here's a few more concept ideas. I am hoping someone can look into it and
maybe digitize it to bring it to life. I don't paerticularly know digital
art well enough to color it right but I could still help you along the way
if anyone begins to color it.

http://i54.tinypic.com/2yn00b6.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/sq34fs.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/28jguvt.jpg

Critique/comments please.

[Robbie Williamson (robbiew)]

Link to an SVG of a less cluttered version of my submission: http://ubuntuone.com/p/148u/

[Robbie Williamson (robbiew)]

I think we should be pushing "Ensemble"....not "Ubuntu Ensemble" or "Canonical Ensemble" as the overall message...but just my .02.

[Mauricio Pretto (pretto)]

Not sure I should say something here but I'm very interested in the ensemble project, so I've been reading this thread also.

from the dictionary :
1. all the parts of a thing taken together, so that each part is considered only in relation to the whole.
I can't do anything in the graphics field, but I have an idea I would like to share

Why not get the circle of friend logo, take just the round circle without the friends part, getting connected or ensembled as the circle of friends, that mean all the parts of the logo getting connected by the ensemble project.

Just an idea

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Mauricio: trying to visualise what you're describing? Do any of these in the PDF match? If not, perhaps you could make some rough marks on a piece of paper to try and show what you're thinking of.

[Mauricio Pretto (pretto)]

Attached hand made marks
the idea is something like a puzzle been putted together by ensemble
the pieces would we each of the friends on the circle of friends
so we would need some movement .
Like one is there and the other are been moved/connected/configured to endup as the circle of friends

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Abi: perhaps take the third one ('2yn00b6') and see if you can develop something in the direction of what Robbie has been thinking of around his Atomic/Oxygen ideas.

Robbie: one this I'm curious about (somewhat of a juxtaposition); if you're thinking of this as a noticeably separate brand to Ubuntu/Canonical, do the small Ubuntu CoFs and Canonical Roundel being incorporated to that degree make sense?

[Abi R (mellgoth29)]

Sladen, honestly the oxygen/atomic idea is kinda weird in so many ways. To incorporate the one i did into the oxygen/atomic idea which looks pretty much like some reactor logo would be weird. I'll be happy to work on something different if you wish than incorporating robbie's idea into mine. But since there's a time factor you guys should prolly go with robbie's idea, not that this would take months but since you guys don't wish to drga it on. But personally ensemble could definitely use a different logo to an oxygen/atomic idea. Think about it. let me know. I even asked folks in from the ubuntu artwork and some thought it was too weird to use a reactor like logo for ensemble. Even pretto's idea doesn't seem too bad, it's alteast a lil more original, no offence robbie.

[Robbie Williamson (robbiew)]

So after some thought, I've decided that given the high profile of the project, that it makes the most sense to have the Canonical Design team drive the logo creation effort, with welcomed input from the community, of course.

FTR, I DO NOT CARE if my submission is used in anyway...I have no emotional attachment to it. All I care is that the Ensemble developers have some say, as the logo will represent them and their project, and that we have this settled before Ubuntu Server 11.10 is released.

-Robbie

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Thanks for that clarity Robbie. Marcus is away at the moment; but for those who are following along, we've got a meeting scheduled for 3 August 2011 to try and put together a background brief and put this through the design team channels.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

It's been a long gap, but lots of things have overtaken events in the mean time.

  (1) Ensemble has been renamed Juju
  (2) Marcus Haslam, the design lead, wrote a piece asking for ideas on the Design blog:

   * https://design.canonical.com/2011/09/juju/ "juju"

  (3) Two people suggested ideas from that:
    * Martin Owens draw a sun/tribal shield, around a yellow tonal colour:
      http://divajutta.com/doctormo/art/juju.png
    * "Birdy" suggested using a bird in flight

These have all been added into the mix.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Several of the above links broke with the renaming from 'ensemble' to 'juju'; Robbie's "atomic" concept is at:

  http://ubuntuone.com/p/13yI/ (large JPEG)

and as originally mentioned in:

  https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/juju/2011-July/000216.html