[Pythonmac-SIG] MacPython logo redux

[Bob Ippolito]

You may have a point with regard to people disliking/being afraid of 
snakes.  However, I'm not sure how much weight that really carries.  
Python isn't named FuzzyBunny, and even though the language was not 
named after the snake, it seems that most people (even the people that 
know the reference) make the snake association.  Also, most (all?) 
software developers/researchers/hobbyists/etc are mature enough to not 
have a problem with a depiction of a snake.

Yes, the logo is detailed, but scaling is not an issue because I have 
access to the designer and can have him tweak an icns file to get the 
low res versions right.  Besides, it's layered photoshop, and organized 
well enough so that even I could rather painlessly remove enough of the 
detail to have it gracefully scale down to 32x32 just by hiding layers.

As far as the apple goes, it's a separate layer and can be replaced 
with other things for customization purposes -- i.e. you could 
potentially put something that looks like a console there for 
PyInterpreter.  I'm not terribly concerned with Windows XP, I just want 
something to work for OS X.

-bob

On Nov 4, 2003, at 12:28 PM, Kevin Ollivier wrote:

> 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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