# Thoughts on graphic design, and a logo



## Firehazard (Nov 2, 2008)

I was thinking back to what Eevee said during the Ferrox design discussion, about needing some kind of motif that gives us a consistent identity throughout the site.  And I realized, finally, that we don't actually have a logo of any kind.  Maybe that's part of the problem.  While user-created banner images are certainly fine, and break up the monotony of having to see the same image year in and year out, there's nothing consistent between them.

For a while this was abated by having Fender appear in every one; he was sort of unofficially our logo.  But now there's a move towards having group pictures of a bunch of random nameless characters, symbolizing the community aspect of the site.  I'm betting this will come into play more when we go to Eevee's new site design, with the new, wider banner size.

So I figure it this way: We should get a logo that we can put on every banner, in the same position, to keep our identity consistent from month to month.  But, it would help if said logo could also be modified slightly in certain months to fit the season.  Now, coming up with a logo for any furry site is no easy task: there's the standard grossly-overused pawprint, and then... what?  What else can you do that says "furry"?  Or "art" for that matter, besides maybe a palette and paintbrush?

That's when it hit me:  I can just combine the two.







Now, this is just a preliminary thing I whipped up in Flash in like, ten minutes.  The pawpads are too small, and should look more like streaks of paint, as if they were on the canvas and the palette was being held up to it.  But hopefully this is enough to give you the basic idea.  I took the colors from Fender's fur and tie (above), Rednef's skin, and Dragoneer's purple to round out the spectrum somewhat.  (I tried red, but then it looked too much like fall leaves.  And green just didn't fit at all.)  And in months that have associated color schemes (like October or December), you can change the colors used in the palette, but it's still the same basic logo, so it's still consistent.

So what do you all think?


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## Floppity Comics (Nov 2, 2008)

That's pretty neat!


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## Frasque (Nov 2, 2008)

I don't see why we need consistency. It's not like anyone is ever unsure what site they're looking at, and no one is trying to sell anything. I prefer seeing an interesting new piece of artwork on the page every month to a boring logo.


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## CHICAGOÂ¤lollie (Nov 2, 2008)

FA _does_ really need some kind of consistent logo-thing, simply using Fender won't always be enough. The idea behind this logo is nice and simple, and gets the whole "art/animal" point across, so on a first look as a whole, I like it. C:


From a design point-of-view -- And I know it's a preliminary mock-up design, so you could take this as suggestions and points to think about, if you want to take it further -- While the logo's main use would be online, it looks as though it has too many colors in it. I'm not sure if it'd go down to a single color easily (in the event that it needs to be printed on another set of memory sticks or something).

The paintbrush handle... I'm not sure how you'd be able to get around it, but at the moment- If the logo is on its own, it feels as though it's off-balanced. Maybe if you were to move it across so that the brush bit makes up the fifth toe?


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## Eevee (Nov 7, 2008)

oh hey cool

some issues come to mind though

1. how well does that palette scale down to favicon size, 16x16?

2. this will be overlaid on the banner, so it should probably have a thin outline or something just in case the banner is blue or otherwise clashes or blends too much

3. it will have to be smaller in general

4. blue/purple and yellow/brown don't really work so well together..


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## Stratelier (Nov 7, 2008)

Eevee said:


> 1. how well does that palette scale down to favicon size, 16x16?



Favicons are sometimes available in 32x32 . . . but really, at a size such as that you don't scale it, you pixel it.


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## Firehazard (Nov 11, 2008)

Eevee said:


> 1. how well does that palette scale down to favicon size, 16x16?


Badly.  I tried it to see for myself.  But luckily you're not supposed to scale a logo for an icon anyway; you redraw it.



Eevee said:


> 2. this will be overlaid on the banner, so it should probably have a thin outline or something just in case the banner is blue or otherwise clashes or blends too much


Easily doable.  That's why I added a drop shadow in this version, to gauge how well it accomplishes that.



Eevee said:


> 3. it will have to be smaller in general


And it would, naturally.  This is just the size it came to when I zoomed out to 100% in Flash.  Which reminds me, I should probably provide some variant of the original vector so someone else can tweak it.



Eevee said:


> 4. blue/purple and yellow/brown don't really work so well together..


I have been known to wear green shirts with blue jeans.  Color combinations aren't my strong suit.  But I dunno; the idea here was to give a feel of a varied palette without the old overused red-yellow-green-blue combo (I'm looking at you, Microsoft and Google).


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## Eevee (Nov 11, 2008)

Firehazard said:


> Badly.  I tried it to see for myself.  But luckily you're not supposed to scale a logo for an icon anyway; you redraw it.


I know; I mean how well does the _concept_ scale to 16x16  :V



Firehazard said:


> And it would, naturally.  This is just the size it came to when I zoomed out to 100% in Flash.  Which reminds me, I should probably provide some variant of the original vector so someone else can tweak it.


SVG++



Firehazard said:


> I have been known to wear green shirts with blue jeans.  Color combinations aren't my strong suit.  But I dunno; the idea here was to give a feel of a varied palette without the old overused red-yellow-green-blue combo (I'm looking at you, Microsoft and Google).


that's probably because it's the simplest combination that doesn't clash terribly  8)  we could try white/brown/red/pink as a subtle nod to furries and lolfoxes, maybe, and it could contrast decently with a blue logo.  not sure, I'd have to dick with the colors for a while


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## lilEmber (Nov 11, 2008)

Eevee said:


> oh hey cool
> 
> some issues come to mind though
> 
> ...


This.

Plus, Maybe having this in the corner of the site, seeing as the new banner size on ferrox will be across the top have it always in the same position. Because it's always there people will know when they design a banner.

And I think it should stay the FA mascots. Simply because it keeps the playing field even comparing to all the furries on this site, and nobody feels left out. Just keep it the mascots who represent all of the FA community.


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## Quiet269 (Nov 11, 2008)

The paintbrush looks odd to me...


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