Logo

[ploeh]

ZeroToNine should have a logo, to be used as icon for its NuGet package, etc.

[huorswords]

What about something like this concept?

^9
0^

[ploeh]

I don't know... What would that look like?

[huorswords]

The design that I was thinking would be something like this:

http://sdrv.ms/19QvmPy

[ploeh]

Here's @huorswords' suggestion inline, so it's a bit easier to see as part of the discussion:

[ploeh]

@huorswords Thank you for your suggestion. Nice work, and it also looks good as a smaller icon (which is important when the icon is used for NuGet packages).

[ploeh]

Before we decide on an icon, I want to share a sketch of what I had in mind.

Although my skills as a digital artist leaves much to be desired, I think that being able to combine all three digits of Zero29 (029) in a single symbol is almost too good to pass up.

I deliberately provided this concept as a sketch only, as I'd like to see if someone would take it and run with it...

[thecodejunkie]

There are a lot of aspects to logo design that most don't consider until it's too late. It's not all colors and shapes.

Don't put too much detail in the logo - or have different version of it as you go below certain cutoff points. Logos with too much detail will be hard to scale down (while still looking good) to the sizes we are used to using them (as far down as favicon).

Also avoid anything that has to do with complex coloring, drop shadows, gradients an such. You want your logo to be presentable on many different backgrounds (and things like drop shadows and gradients doesn't scale well at all).

Consider creating a usage guideline for your logo https://github.com/NancyFx/Nancy.Portfolio/blob/master/guidelines/guidelines.md that will help you with your design goals as well.

[ploeh]

@thecodejunkie That's a pretty impressive logo guideline you have there for Nancy! (I love the Nancy logo, BTW). While I would love to have something equally comprehensive for ZeroToNine, considering the scope of the project, I think something more primitive will be a good start :)

[strobaek]

If I had a vote, I would cast it on the ploeh's suggestion to combine all three numbers into one symbol. Love the simplicity.

[gallarotti]

I like you idea, @ploeh, but, like I was saying on Twitter, it put too much emphasis on the "2", in my opinion. Zero and Nine should be the focus of the logo. This is my try, based on the concept of a digital odometer, measuring the version number

[moodmosaic]

The logo by @huorswords indeed looks very clear as a smaller icon :)

The logo by @ploeh looks good as a smaller icon and has also a very nice concept, combining all three digits 029!

Currenty I tend to prefer @gallarotti's logo which looks clear as a smaller icon and includes a concept with numbers.

[gallarotti]

This one could be even easier to size down, using a simpler font, maybe?

[gallarotti]

Here is the above logo at 16x16, 32x32 and 64x64:

[huorswords]

I like so much the @gallarotti suggestion.

[gallarotti]

Just in case you like having some color, here are two more versions of the same idea. In particular, the second one is trying to recall the idea of the odometer

[ploeh]

@gallarotti Thank your for your suggestion - it's much better than mine!

I can take the image file you've posted here, but if you'd like, you should submit this as a pull request, so that GitHub will recognize you as a contributor.

If you don't care, or don't want to do that, please let me know, and I'll do it myself.

[ploeh]

@gallarotti Your latest update crossed mine. I like the black and white, sans serif version best.

[gallarotti]

@ploeh Let me repost the images as I just realized the background color was not pure black as I intended it. I will repost all the images here and then you can use them the way you want :) glad to hear you liked the concept!

[gallarotti]

Actually, even better, can I send you a ZIP via email so images don't get modified by GitHub?

[ploeh]

Sure, my email address can be found here (sorry about the paranoid anti-spam measures).

[ploeh]

@gallarotti Thank you for your contribution! I've added the files to the repository, and the icon URL to the NuGet specifications. Now we just need an excuse to push an update to NuGet :)

[thecodejunkie]

@ploeh @gallarotti when scaling down, don't just use a resize because the result ends up blurry the 16x16 version doesn't look good. At that size you need to consider a version without anti-aliasing

[ploeh]

@thecodejunkie That's a good point if you actually need the logo for a 'real' icons, etc. In the case of ZeroToNine, the major target for the logo so far is NuGet, which, as far as I know, suffers from machine-based auto-scaling: you can only supply a single icon URL, which will be used for everything from a 'big' (128 x 128) logo, to much smaller icons used inside of Visual Studio.

It's a damned if you do; damned if you don't situation. Supply a big icon, and it's going to look blurry in small sizes; supply a small icon, and it's going to look blocky in large sizes.