[Marketing] OSGeo Branding ...end of the road?

Marketing:

I have been pushing to improve the use of the OSGeo branding on the
organization website - and have gotten little response. I have had the
geotools website done up according to what I could figure out:
- http://www.geotools.org/

That experiment is now at an end (feedback was that the crop circle
background was too crazy for a website; and that there was no sense
using the branding if OSGeo was not into the game). As such we are
going to move over to the following work in progress:
- http://test.geotools.org/

In the course of this I have identified several items needing attention:
- we need to update the OSGeo Logo usage pdf (to reflect font and Color choices)
- the branding materials should follow the usage pdf; we should hunt
down the name of the fonts actually used etc

I think all my design process emails were sent to this list; if anyone
has any questions let me know.

Jody

Thanks for ping on this Jody,

Just a quick note regarding the branding.. yes, still open. I have some emails from designer that I have to deal with as well. Part of that is a guideline doc and overview. I'm behind on this for sure.

After wrapping up the marketing materials I'd like to turn our sites to the other design ideas, etc. - in particular the website ideas that have been kicked around for a while in a few places and ways. As part of that I hope we'll have more discussion and comparison of mock-ups, samples, ideas, etc. We had a great meeting a few months back (January??) on some of this.

Daniele did you get much feedback on your questions back then? Jody, do you have any specific questions you'd like feedback on? I did like your current layout :slight_smile: But I'm sure the "new" one will be great too. Though I see what you were trying to accomplish, maybe we're putting cart before horse - talking about overall project site branding when our own 'main' one isn't solidified?

Anyway, this is quick braindump before bed - hope I can follow up further in the morning.

Tyler

Jody Garnett wrote:

Marketing:

I have been pushing to improve the use of the OSGeo branding on the
organization website - and have gotten little response. I have had the
geotools website done up according to what I could figure out:
- http://www.geotools.org/

That experiment is now at an end (feedback was that the crop circle
background was too crazy for a website; and that there was no sense
using the branding if OSGeo was not into the game). As such we are
going to move over to the following work in progress:
- http://test.geotools.org/

In the course of this I have identified several items needing attention:
- we need to update the OSGeo Logo usage pdf (to reflect font and Color choices)
- the branding materials should follow the usage pdf; we should hunt
down the name of the fonts actually used etc

I think all my design process emails were sent to this list; if anyone
has any questions let me know.

Jody
_______________________________________________
Marketing mailing list
Marketing@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing

Just a quick note regarding the branding.. yes, still open. I have some
emails from designer that I have to deal with as well. Part of that is a
guideline doc and overview. I'm behind on this for sure.

That would be great. Tyler I can try and field some of those questions
if you like based on trying to use them :slight_smile: I did notice the recent
osgeo report that has gone out - would that be available as a
template?

After wrapping up the marketing materials I'd like to turn our sites to the
other design ideas, etc. - in particular the website ideas that have been
kicked around for a while in a few places and ways. As part of that I hope
we'll have more discussion and comparison of mock-ups, samples, ideas, etc.
We had a great meeting a few months back (January??) on some of this.

Correct - that is what caused me to take an interest in this again.

Daniele did you get much feedback on your questions back then? Jody, do you
have any specific questions you'd like feedback on?

I have sent the questions out previously; it was more noticing the
gaps - and I was never able to use the presentation slides as
provided. The design idea for the content slides did not leave enough
room for actual content; the area for text on the title page did not
really work out with enough space for an author name and organization
etc...

I did like your current layout :slight_smile: But I'm sure the "new" one will be great too. Though I
see what you were trying to accomplish, maybe we're putting cart before
horse - talking about overall project site branding when our own 'main' one
isn't solidified?

Correct; that is the difficulty. I cannot ask any member project to
take on OSGeo branding elements - when they are not established; or
used by the OSGeo website. I really like the idea of having the OSGeo
logo in the same location for each member project; and would like to
ask for an about link etc.

Anyway, this is quick braindump before bed - hope I can follow up further in the morning.

Cheers,
Jody

Hi all,
Jody and Wolf, I'm not sure if you are on the marketing, list hence the CC.
The work on an OSGeo web branding was mentioned below. Wolf also this week made a new theme for the OSGeo main site that he proposed as a new default theme. I think that before we change Drupal theme, it should be held against what Tyler has been working on for the OSGeo branding. I like the new theme, but at the same time I would hate to see a change of theme now while we didn't consider the overall branding that Marketing, and especially Tyler, has been working on.
My 2 cents. Greetings from Uruguay,
Ciao,
Jeroen

On Jul 17, 2009, at 5:05 AM, Jody Garnett wrote:

I did like your current layout :slight_smile: But I'm sure the "new" one will be great too. Though I
see what you were trying to accomplish, maybe we're putting cart before
horse - talking about overall project site branding when our own 'main' one
isn't solidified?

Correct; that is the difficulty. I cannot ask any member project to
take on OSGeo branding elements - when they are not established; or
used by the OSGeo website. I really like the idea of having the OSGeo
logo in the same location for each member project; and would like to
ask for an about link etc.

I joined the marketing list to work on the website branding story.
Both to help the foundation to establish some kind of visual identity
and provide some guidance for projects that join. I had earlier joined
the website committee to work on the self same subject.

Wolf you are working on a new theme for Drupal? I started looking at
something called Sphinx - hoping to share some theme elements with
mapserver.org which uses the same setup.

This is really a subject that falls between the two committee's to
sort out. The stuff coming back from the graphic designer is of uneven
quality; you can see earlier in this thread a couple of tries to make
sense out of it.
- http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Material_Samples
- http://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/marketing/present/
- http://how2map.blogspot.com/2009/05/osgeo-branding.html
- http://www.geotools.org/

I would also like to upload the open office workbook template sorted
out in that blog post; and I confess I am stuck on the slide idea as
provided (and I feel some pressure with the presentation process for
FOSS4G settling down this week - I would like the OSGeo slide template
in the hands of each osgeo project as they start to write.

I understand I am trying to use the OSGeo brand in a strong fashion
here; both to have an impact as a foundation; and present a consistent
face to the public.

Jody

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 8:52 PM, Jeroen
Ticheler<Jeroen.Ticheler@geocat.net> wrote:

Hi all,
Jody and Wolf, I'm not sure if you are on the marketing, list hence the CC.
The work on an OSGeo web branding was mentioned below. Wolf also this week
made a new theme for the OSGeo main site that he proposed as a new default
theme. I think that before we change Drupal theme, it should be held against
what Tyler has been working on for the OSGeo branding. I like the new theme,
but at the same time I would hate to see a change of theme now while we
didn't consider the overall branding that Marketing, and especially Tyler,
has been working on.
My 2 cents. Greetings from Uruguay,
Ciao,
Jeroen

On Jul 17, 2009, at 5:05 AM, Jody Garnett wrote:

I did like your current layout :slight_smile: But I'm sure the "new" one will be
great too. Though I
see what you were trying to accomplish, maybe we're putting cart before
horse - talking about overall project site branding when our own 'main'
one
isn't solidified?

Correct; that is the difficulty. I cannot ask any member project to
take on OSGeo branding elements - when they are not established; or
used by the OSGeo website. I really like the idea of having the OSGeo
logo in the same location for each member project; and would like to
ask for an about link etc.