Refreshing GDAL's logo

[nirvn]

@rouault , I remember a tweet from you mentioning the wish/will to refresh GDAL's logo (while PROJ was looking for a logo of its own). Along those lines, I've had a new logo in mind, which - in my humble opinion - would be a nice improvement to the current one and help project a more pro look on first approach.

nirvn_v3 -- VERSION 3 A few commenters requested a stronger visual link to a satellite. Solar panels added.

nirvn_v2 -- VERSION 2 Taking @rouault's mention on not feeling so great about stressing the A part of GDAL, here's an updated proposal:

This is actually growing on me by the minute. The addition of an earth depiction (the curved green light) draws a nice link to GDAL's original logo.

The "mug test" passes too :wink:

And, it does look very good (actually, arguably better) when the logo is used as a small icon:

nirvn_v1 -- VERSION 1

Here's how it looks:

The whole logo is simplified quite a lot and - as with QGIS and PROJ - makes use of its spelling to add a GIS hint (a compass here, which still looks like a satellite scanning down to earth :smile: ).

It would sit very well alongside other osgeo projects, and is more of a circa 2019 styled logo.

Bonus: just like some folks are spelling PRØJ with that special Ø sign, GDAL could be spelled GDΛL :wink:

[jmckenna]

Maybe the 7 day voting length would be good, for the poll settings

[nyalldawson]

@jmckenna

I propose that we use the Twitter poll tool, posted from @rouault 's account, to decide between the final 4 logo options. It might be fun to see the community's result that way. (people love to use Twitter to criticize, so let's leverage that). More about the voting tool: https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-polls

I might be missing something, but why should the Twitter crowd get a say in this? I think it's justifiably up to the GDAL contributors to decide the logo for their project, and not necessary for the general public to get a vote. (Not to mention that it's just asking for a ton of random "suggestions" from a bunch of people... as everyone involved in mapmaking knows, everyone wants to put in their 2c when it comes to graphical design! :P)

[jmckenna]

@nyalldawson because we seem to be going in circles, with comments being added in multiple places and restarting edits after voting, whereas leveraging a poll tool gives a firm deadline. That and, I just made a suggestion here and you can definitely choose to ignore it, no problem, it's just a suggestion.

[hobu]

I agree with @sgillies on the kerning. It is a bit too loose. I also think that green for the "GDAL" text is a weak for situations such as black and white. If it the "GDAL" text were the darker color, it would be a little stronger.

As for process, I'm a definite NO on twitter polls. A github ticket is a bad enough 🚲 🏠 exercise. I'm happy to defer to the PSC chair to declare this done when he sees fit and move forward from there. No votes or polls or anything.

[rouault]

to defer to the PSC chair to declare this done

The PSC chair is recognized to have particular bad visual taste, so I'll happily let someone else motion when they are happy with a proposal suitable for adoption :-) I think we need a PSC vote for this.

[mwtoews]

Just focusing on the letters, here's an example darker green (RGB:499045) Fira Sans Bold with a few manual kerning adjustments: (↑ is my pick.) Or similar, but with Fira Sans Medium: (Fun fact: Fira Sans Medium is used for GRASS GIS' logo).

[jmckenna]

related: MDAL's new logo

[nirvn]

Greetings all -- what's the status of this attempt at uplifting GDAL's logo?

[jjimenezshaw]

Whatever design we choose, a square version (96x96 png for instance) for the favicon would be appreciated.

[rouault]

what's the status of this attempt at uplifting GDAL's logo?

we need someone to finalize the preparation of the logos (all SVGs declinations: color, black&white, square, ... ?), taking into account latest remarks about text, and submit that for a PSC vote.