LibreOffice Mascot

Hello all,

additional to the unique branding of LibreOffice today, we want to introduce an alternative to TDF's trademarked logo/icon elements that can be used by the community with minimal restrictions: a mascot.

The idea is similar to "Duke" from Java (https://kenai.com/projects/duke/pages/Home), SuSE's chameleon "Geeko", Mozilla has a lizard/godzilla/tyrannosaurus, Linux' "Tux" is famous, KDE is going with the dragon "Konqi" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konqi) and Krita has "Kiki" (https://krita.org/en/kiki/).

The first step would be to find some metaphors that enables designs to be creative. Something like Freedom, Documents, Openness etc. Ideas for the realization are of course also welcome. The mascot could be an animal like a (grumpy old) cat to refer to the seven lives of LibreOffice or something more symbolic.

Based on your input we would later start the actual design task, and ideally have a few options where the community can choose the best.

Cheers,
Heiko

Since today is world penguin day [1] some journals reported about Tux,
which is a good reminder to keep our discussion boiling with the
reference how Linux found its mascot [2]. To summarize the discussion
I created a pad [3]. Anything to add?

[1] https://www.awarenessdays.co.uk/awareness-days-calendar/world-penguin-day-2017/
[2] http://www.gregroelofs.com/greg_lnxpeng.html
[3] https://pad.documentfoundation.org/p/UX-mascot

To put my two cents in.

The dragonfly is already used by DragonFly BSD and Opera Dragonfly.

Hi :slight_smile:
How about a Rock-hopper penguin?

It's very cute with orangey-red-yellow tufts out of jet-black ears. They
are impressively determined buggers. Despite the comedy-value of the way
they waddle and bounce they achieve incredible feats of athleticism such as
jumping higher than their own height from a standing start. Each time they
fall off a cliff they bounce from rock to rock at the bottom but then get
up again and follow the same route until it inevitably yet remarkably
reaches the top.

As Dr Who said "Penguins are cool".
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Cuteness factor as Cor's louse :slight_smile:

How about a tardigrade for a mascot?
What is a tardigrade you ask? Also known as water bears, they are adorable,
and also perhaps the most indestructable creatures known to man.
https://youtu.be/6H0E77TdYnY
https://www.tumblr.com/search/tardigrade%20gif

Apologies for top posting, but in languages like Italian "tardigrado"
means very slow, and "tardo" is commonly used to describe people with
mental handicaps. So, tardigrade is definitely a no go for Italy.

Hi,

out of curiosity, does it need to be an animal ? Thinking in a plausible
name for the mascot, I came with the name 'Libro' which means book in
spanish, and maybe in some other latin languages too, and these are the
results of searching book + mascot in google in case it helps for
inspiration:
https://www.google.es/search?q=libro&client=ubuntu&hs=EzW&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjoi_Lqh8PTAhXJlxoKHadDDvsQ_AUIBigB&biw=1301&bih=641#channel=fs&tbm=isch&q=book+mascot

Regards

El 26/04/17 a les 17:02, Heiko Tietze ha escrit:

Hi,

Xisco Fauli 於 2017年04月27日 05:35 寫道:

Hi,

out of curiosity, does it need to be an animal ? Thinking in a plausible
name for the mascot, I came with the name 'Libro' which means book in
spanish, and maybe in some other latin languages too, and these are the
results of searching book + mascot in google in case it helps for
inspiration:
https://www.google.es/search?q=libro&client=ubuntu&hs=EzW&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjoi_Lqh8PTAhXJlxoKHadDDvsQ_AUIBigB&biw=1301&bih=641#channel=fs&tbm=isch&q=book+mascot

Regards

Here I'd like to share my experiences.

We have a Linux distribution derived from Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu named
"ezgo", whose target is to promote many good FOSS (including educational
ones like kalzium, GCompris; and multimedia related like Inkscape, Gimp,
Krita, blender; and of course LibreOffice) and public domain resources
like PhET to "Muggles", i.e., people who have no idea about what FOSS is.

A simple introduction to ezgo is here:

https://dot.kde.org/2013/10/02/ezgo-free-and-open-source-software-taiwans-schools
.

The latest version of ezgo is now 13.

Since maybe 2013 or 2014 I'd also like to create a mascot for ezgo.
Actually I've tried it for years but couldn't get good ideas and I'm not
good at drawing either (not to mention digital design). Then last year
I ask for professional help from an artist, who is also promoting
digital art using open source tools and open format. Here is his final
work:

http://imgur.com/4yAMLWg

"MOE Giant", ("moe" means "cute" in Japanese, also the abbreviation of
"Ministry of Education"), which is "composed of many different parts,
which means many people's contribution". The Giant means the whole free
software world (so we are standing on the Giant's shoulder). The design
progress is here:

https://youtu.be/Y7971NUBV2Q

What I'd like to say is that, maybe we need some professional designer's
suggestions, who can understand our core spirit. It's a bit like
designing a corporation identification system though the range is much
smaller, but professional suggestions should help a lot I think.

And of course I paid the designer for the MOE Giant. :slight_smile:

Regards,
Franklin

We should keep in mind that we produce a professional product. And a clowny or manga or comic mascot doesn't seem to be very professional (IMHO).

I love penguins and butterflies.

Rock-Hoppers are my favorite penguin.

I use rock-hoppers when I need an animal or bird in a comic poster.

With this penguin for a logo, you can easily know that it is not the Tux penguin logo.

Hi all,

please let us take up this issue seriously. I for my own like fairies,
but I wouldn't come up with that as a serious suggestion.

     Tim-L--Elmira-NY <webmaster@krackedpress.com> hat am 27. April 2017 um 17:11 geschrieben:

    I love penguins and butterflies.

    Rock-Hoppers are my favorite penguin.

    I use rock-hoppers when I need an animal or bird in a comic poster.

    With this penguin for a logo, you can easily know that it is not the Tux
    penguin logo.

        > >
> Hi :slight_smile:
> How about a Rock-hopper penguin?
>
> It's very cute with orangey-red-yellow tufts out of jet-black ears. They
> are impressively determined buggers. Despite the comedy-value of the way
> they waddle and bounce they achieve incredible feats of athleticism such as
> jumping higher than their own height from a standing start. Each time they
> fall off a cliff they bounce from rock to rock at the bottom but then get
> up again and follow the same route until it inevitably yet remarkably
> reaches the top.
>
> As Dr Who said "Penguins are cool".
> Regards from
> Tom :slight_smile:
>
> >
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Regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Sophia Schroeder

Tim-L--Elmira-NY <webmaster@krackedpress.com> hat am 27. April 2017 um 17:11 geschrieben:

I love penguins and butterflies.

Rock-Hoppers are my favorite penguin.

I use rock-hoppers when I need an animal or bird in a comic poster.

With this penguin for a logo, you can easily know that it is not the Tux
penguin logo.

By the way, the hummingbird has the same name in French, Italian and
Spanish, AFAIK.

Its name is also phonetically close to LibreOffice, and this little bird is
also very nice.

Valter
Open Source is better!

Hi Nicolas, William, *,

I have seen this topic a few weeks ago and kindly asked Nicolas, my
coworker, who is a graphic designer specialized in advertising content
working for Pixinko, to think to a mascot that could suit LibreOffice needs.

He checked the whole thread to see the propositions you made. However,
he thinks birds should be avoided as most of FOSS software have such a
similar logo and important companies have mail applications whose logo
are basically representing a bird.

So he came up with the idea of "beaver" (castor) [1].

I do like the idea and the arguments supporting it.

thanks :slight_smile: !

Cor

Hi,

I read in the pad that colibri is one idea for an LibreOffice mascot.

Here an example of an coLibre
http://imgur.com/a/VXWNg

and with different background
http://imgur.com/a/VC2Uj

the design was community driven. I got very good improvements from the
telegram groups (LibreOffice and LibreOffice Design EN in addition from the
KDE VDG) so thanks for everybody to imporve the work.

If you think another animal was a good choise. I'll read the mailing list
and maybe I can prepare another mascot.

cheers
Andreas K

Hello everyone,

Sure - it all depends on how the final mascot is designed. That may even
be more relevant than the creature we choose to start with.

I have seen this topic a few weeks ago and kindly asked Nicolas, my
coworker, who is a graphic designer specialized in advertising content
working for Pixinko, to think to a mascot that could suit LibreOffice needs.

He checked the whole thread to see the propositions you made. However,
he thinks birds should be avoided as most of FOSS software have such a
similar logo and important companies have mail applications whose logo
are basically representing a bird.

So he came up with the idea of "beaver" (castor) [1].

Here are a few advantages for this kind of animal that could match both
LibreOffice vision and the way the LibreOffice community works towards
this project.

* Beavers are ingenious builders who can change the course of rivers.

  LibreOffice contributes towards changing mentality and provides an
alternative to the go-to Microsoft's solution.

  "Changing the course of rivers" can also be an analogy to build up
dreams. The Document Foundation marks a milestone with this project: the
dream to have a complete independent foundation has come true on
February 17th, 2012, an idea grown from the OOo old ages when Sun was
still the parent/sponsoring company.

* The beaver is a builder who has real power to change his environment,
change the course of things and life.

  Quite related to the previous idea, but LibreOffice, more than ever,
can make this happen. LOOL (CODE) has shown great progress.

* Beavers are nibbling wood all day long.

  LibreOffice nibbles as well, but market shares. In September 2016,
according to a survey from Collabora[2], LibreOffice reached 120
millions users, which isn't negligible.

* The beaver is small but powerful.

  Compared to the work force big companies like Microsoft can put into
practice, despite its size, the LibreOffice community hasn't to blush
from the comparison.

  Look at the way TDF forced (in some way) Microsoft to offer the
ability to install Office Web Apps on our own server, just because
Nextcloud + LOOL was a quite powerful free alternative.

* Despite its size, a beaver can modify its living space in depth within
a few days.

  Look at the way the LibreOffice project can move things on rapidly. On
the infrastructure size for example. You need more Tinderboxes VM for
deeper tests? This is a task done in a few hours.

* The beaver does not ask questions, he simply acts.

  LibreOffice is a meritocratic project. Don't wait for other to fix the
issue for you, just solve it and everyone will benefit from it. This is
the way community and paid developers are working for the project.

* Patient work, but effective.

  This took some time to refactor the LibreOffice code, but we can say
this task is mostly behind us now. We can now focus on more interesting
stuff like the UI.

* Trees are the base of paper.

  LibreOffice is a tool to craft our paper/letter to our needs, the same
applies for beavers, he craft the tool to his/her needs.

I remember you had a NextCloud instance somewhere for design related
stuffs, but I can't find it any more. This is why I hosted the
propositions to my Google Drive account [3].

Please note the possibilities are endless, the eyes from proposition 5
can be mixed with the pencil from proposition 4 for example.

I'm waiting for your reviews.

If you have any questions wrt. communication and advertising or need
more explanation towards the choices regarding this animal, I'll let my
coworker, Nicolas, answer as this is basically his job :slight_smile:

Looking forward to see a work designed by Pixinko used by such a big
open source community :slight_smile:

NB.: Please put me in cc when replying as this email address is not
subscribed to the mailing lists.

Regards,

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver
[2]
https://www.collaboraoffice.com/community-en/updated-libreoffice-growth-infographic-2016/
[3]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5AYDzHdw6bQS2tuOGEwOEd5eEU/view?usp=sharing

I have seen this topic a few weeks ago and kindly asked Nicolas, my
coworker, who is a graphic designer specialized in advertising content
working for Pixinko, to think to a mascot that could suit LibreOffice needs.

Thanks William for submitting my work and for introducing me to the
community.

If you have any questions wrt. communication and advertising or need
more explanation towards the choices regarding this animal, I'll let my
coworker, Nicolas, answer as this is basically his job :slight_smile:

I'll do my best to answer the questions LibreOffice members have and
apply their requested changes. :slight_smile:

Looking forward to see a work designed by Pixinko used by such a big
open source community :slight_smile:

Sure, this would be great.

NB.: Please put me in cc when replying as this email address is not
subscribed to the mailing lists.

I'm also not a subscriber. Please put me in to/cc as well.

[3]
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5AYDzHdw6bQS2tuOGEwOEd5eEU/view?usp=sharing

Nicolas Vrithoffe