[Pythonmac-SIG] MacPython logo redux

[Kevin Ollivier]

Hi Bob,

I have to say I will always vote against anything that looks like a 
real snake, art or picture. The problem is that some people find snakes 
creepy (the scales, eyes). A picture that *abstractly* looks like a 
snake or is playful, i.e. the PyGame or Windows Python icon, is OK, but 
something that is quite realistic (i.e. the O'Reilly Pocket Reference), 
even if not intentionally spooky or creepy, nonetheless is so to people 
who dislike or are afraid of snakes. (And the media does play on this - 
you're most likely to see snakes in horror movies or wilderness shows 
like "Crocodile Hunter" - they present the image of dangerous, creepy, 
menacing.)

And after reading an article from Linus last night, I have a slightly 
new perspective on this issue - after all, just WHAT does a penguin 
have to do with an operating system kernel? ;-) But there is little 
doubt that 'Tux' is well-liked in the community and is now clearly 
associated with Linux and open source. And it really is a good icon 
design - bright colors, cute-looking, and heck, most everyone likes 
penguins. So I think a realistic snake icon may just be swinging the 
pendulum in the other direction - going from too abstract to too 
realistic.

On the more 'practical' side, I think the icon is too detailed to show 
clearly at small sizes, like 32x32, and I'm not sure the Apple 
reference is really needed. A good icon could be used on XP as well, 
and plus Mac users know they're on Mac - I've seen very few icons (if 
any) which use the Apple logo in them. I think it really needs to be 
kept simple.

Kevin

On Nov 4, 2003, at 8:33 AM, Bob Ippolito wrote:

> Sorry to bring this up.. but it took a couple months to get this :)
>
> I had my roommate ( Evan Mathis - http://www.morevisual.com/ ) come up 
> with a new MacPython logo:
> 	http://undefined.org/python/py_mac-sq-256.png (the original is in 
> Photoshop format, and is much higher resolution than this)
>
> Which is a potential replacement for:
> 	http://homepages.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython/pics/MacPyBanner.gif
> 	(look at it from http://homepages.cwi.nl/~jack/macpython/ -- the 
> transparency on that gif is.. weird)
>
> Another suggested candidate was:
> 	http://gandreas.dsl.visi.com:8000/IndyIcon.tif (Glenn Andreas)
>
> So, anyone like it, hate it?  I know that some people are opposed to 
> the snake, but this one is not a photo of a real Python.  I like it, 
> and other Python-the-language-related-things use 
> Python-the-snake-related-identities and I think it's important to keep 
> that kinda consistent.  A 16 ton weight takes quite a few leaps to get 
> there and I don't believe other Python-the-language-related-things use 
> 16 ton weights.  And as discussed before, the cool Python text 
> featured on http://www.python.org/ does not work at small resolutions, 
> so that is not an option.
>
> -bob
>
>
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