Re: [seul-edu] Logo suggestion

[Roger R Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>]

> It's important to remember that we're looking at a set of related logos
> <http://www.mlwebworks.com/seul>.  The "tree" character wasn't intended
> to be used for SEUL/edu, but for SEUL.  In that context it was intended
> to represent "simplicity."  For SEUL/edu, the apple brings education to
> mind (at least in the US) through various connotations such as "an apple
> for the teacher" and "A is for Apple."  I think a bell might also work
> in the US, and if it's a more generally recognized symbol for education
> we should consider it.
[snip] 
> A bigger question to me is a glyph for the overall SEUL logo.  What
> signifies "simplicity?"  And is that the concept we want to get across
> in this logo?  Assuming that it is, I don't know of any glyph that will
> be quickly and widely identified as meaning "simple" or "easy."  For
> that reason, the Chinese ideogram may work as well as any other.  On the
> other hand, if nothing says "simple," we are free to use any symbol we
> like.  A sun is nice, and a circle is the simplest geometrical figure
> (sort of), so that could work too.

After pondering some more and following the discussion here, I have
concluded that I don't like the 'Chinese ideogram' approach. The main
reason for this is that I don't want to confuse people into thinking that
we are somehow Chinese in origin or purpose. A secondary reason is that I
don't associate 'simplicity' with something that I can't read. :) A
tertiary reason is that we have some good alternatives -- I agree with Doug
that the sun motif is a very nice one.

I've also thought some more about whether I prefer 'SEUL' or 'SEUL.org' on
the main seul logo. I was confused at first about why a '.org' got in there,
but now I think I really like it. One reason is the one presented earlier,
that it makes it easier to remember the address. My bigger reason though is
that seul.org is a domain, and the logo is for the domain more than just the
project. A seul.org logo is something that we could put on any site that's
associated with seul. It would say something like "we are a part of the
seul community", as opposed to "we are seul". Similarly, I would expect a
logo for the openprojects network to be 'openprojects.net' rather than
just 'openprojects'. (Not that they have a logo, it seems, but hopefully
you get the idea.)

So: I like the sun, either #3 or #6 (whichever you think looks better. My
tendency is towards #3, but that might just be because some of the words
are obscured in #6. But #3 feels more natural to me -- more like a sunrise
and less like a firework going off.)
I like the apple and the scroll as sub-projects. If seul-edu thinks
a bell is more representative of education/learning, I'm ok with that too.

These look really good.
Thanks!
--Roger (SEUL Project leader)