Re: [CsMain] Website Theme Mockup

On Wednesday 17 February 2010 17:24:27 pm res wrote:
> On 17.02.2010 12:32, Denis Washington wrote:
> > It was mentioned several times on this list that the website may need a
> > fresher look, and therefore I played around with Inkscape the last few
> > days to mock something up. I'd  now like to present the results of this.
> 
> Looks nice. For my personal taste, the current color scheme is somewhat
> too pastel-y.
> Besides my subjective opinion, since the shades of blue are relatively
> light, there is not much contrast between the white background or text.
> So darkening things would probably improve readability.

The pastely-ness was a deliberate descision - from my experience, such a color 
scheme generally gives a feeling of professionalism, and that impression was 
what I wanted to archieve. I might overestimate this effect, however.

> 
> > When looking at those screenshots, you probably will have noticed that I
> > didn't use the current official CrystalSpace logo, but a simplified,
> > monochrome-blue version. In combination with the site design, I also
> > would like to propose this new logo; I find it's clearness appealing,
> > and think such a logo design would feel more professional than the
> > current one. As can be seen, I also designed very similar logos for CEL
> > and CELstart. (The current three icons have very different styles and
> > don't have much of a stylistic coherence, IMO.)
> 
> They look more coherent indeed.
> However, to make same somewhat more distinctive, perhaps consider use of
> _different_ colors after all? E.g. the celstart logo now is a red
> rocket, so maybe give the logo a red tint. CEL could be, dunno, green.
> (If the logos are reduced - e.g. for use as OS icons - having only a
> blue 'c' and the respective shard thingies may make the logos look too
> much alike. Color would be another 'clue' there.)

Different colors are indeed a good idea. In fact, I like the colors you 
propose. I will experiment with that.

> 
> Just one thing that irks me is the wire cube in the CS3D logo. It
> doesn't really fit IMO.
> 

This can be easily removed. I must have been in a too playful mood when I 
added it. ;)

> > There is also another, more subtle change that the mockups suggest: a
> > small change in how the term "CrystalSpace" is used. Currently,
> > "CrystalSpace" and "CrystalSpace 3D" are interchangable in that they
> > both mean the 3D engine. I propose to use "CrystalSpace 3D" for the
> > engine instead, making "CrystalSpace" the name of the complete platform
> > - that is, CrystalSpace 3D + CEL + CELstart. Thus, everyone working on
> > one of these projects (or any other project that might be developed
> > under the CrystalSpace umbrella in the future) would be part of the
> > broader "CrystalSpace community". Admittedly this is a purely cosmetic
> > change, but one that, in my opinion, would signal a greater belonging of
> > CEL(start) to the CrystalSpace project.
> 
> Since "CrystalSpace 3D" and "CrystalSpace" are already used synonymously
> it might be better to use additional "qualifiers" if when clarity is
> needed, such as "CrystalSpace 3D engine" for the engine, "CrystalSpace
> project"/"community" for the umbrella.
> 
> (I'm not sure, but I think the "3D" kind of seeped into the name when
> the domain crystalspace.org fell to a domain grabber and we had to
> settle for crystalspace3d.org instead ...)

This would be another, if slightly more ackward, solution. But I don't think 
it would be hard to adjust to the "CrystalSpace" / "CrystalSpace 3D" 
difference, and taking that route would make for a somewhat nicer branding for 
advertising (in the open-source sense, that is). Otherwise, there is always 
the chance of confusion of CrystalSpace-the-engine and CrystalSpace-the-
complete-development-kit. Or exotic questions like "is the CrystalSpace 
community the community working on CrystalSpace or on CEL(start) too?" The 
suggested branding change would provide clarity.

Regards,
Denis

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