Talk:CATUG logo

2011 logo competition

On March 8, 2011, Tim Butler wrote to the Mac Ministry List:

Dear Mac-Min'ers,

Now that CATUG has a new name and will soon have a new web site, we need a new logo to clearly represent us. The Ops team has tested out various concepts, but we have not yet settled on one. We are looking for more ideas and would like to invite CATUG members to submit designs for consideration. You can see here the designs that various Ops and Board members have submitted.

If you have a design you would like to submit, please send it to webservant@catug.org.

Goals

Tim suggested the following goals:

I think our visual image's main goal is to impact non-Christian Mac users. It seems to me Christians will already appreciate CATUG; Christian Mac users doubly so. But, if the wiki and other public resources have good information and an aesthetic design that speaks to Mac users generally, it helps to testify to our appreciation for the goodness of creation. Non-Christian Mac users may not realize that they are appreciators of God's creation and good gifts he has given to people like Jony Ive, but that is exactly what they are. We need to help them see that, by showing that a Christian Mac user also appreciates those things, only with all the more reason for it. In other words, being a Christian does not in any way correlate with giving up an appreciation for beauty.

If we achieve all of that, we should hit the other groups as well. And, I'd add, I don't see this goal as restraining us from using Christian imagery. We just need to think in terms of "If Steve Jobs came to Christ, and thus wanted to focus his gifts on the glory of God, what would he think of this logo?"

Criteria

The logo should identify both the "Christian" and "Apple user" elements. We are not allowed to use an unaltered Apple logo, except within the Apple-supplied user group signature.

Some criteria for a good logo are:

1. Looks good in B/W
2. Looks good in greyscale
3. Looks good in full color
4. Looks good at 58 pixels by 58 pixels
5. Looks good at 12 inches by 12 inches

The Ops Board like the idea of a logo that adopts the same configuration as an iOS app.

The logo must look good next to the text of the name, but it need not include text internally.

On the other hand, using typography instead does have an advantage in that it makes the logo more timeless and less likely to become out of date in the future.

Design ideas

Some early sketches are online here:

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/21874172/1/CATUG%20Logos?h=1217c5

The numbers below relate to the examples in the above gallery.

(1): The tongue of fire on the cross would be widely recognised as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Its placement also evokes the leaf on the Apple logo.

(2): The lion evokes the Lion of Judah (Christ), Narnia, and Apple's next OS. Part of the Apple logo is cleverly and subtly used in the design!

We also considered a classic Mac shape, as used by some other groups, but ruled this out:

Pro

• Simple
• Recognisable
• Can add a cross on the screen
• Classic means it is not tied to this year's current products

Con

• Dated–we need to be progressive
• Many current Apple users are switchers & may not be familiar with the old designs
• We are not just Mac users, but also iPad etc
• User experience even on OS X may be moving towards being more like the iPad and iPhone

(3) and (4): Hence, two more ideas use iPad & iPhone as well as an Apple Mac display. The font is Bleeding Cowboy; it has a grunge look that attracts the youthful. This can be changed; it is easier to show people a radical font and for them to imagine using a simpler one, than the other way round.

Some of us are inclined towards a clean sans serif organizational typeface, in the same category as Apple's use of Myriad Pro; maybe another humanist sans serif. Going with something on Font Squirrel would allow us to embed it and use it for text on our web pages, too.

On the other hand, (5) is a quick proof-of-concept supporting a case for serif fonts, and using typography rather than graphics to create the logo. It is subtly iconic in that it uses Apple's old corporate font, Apple Garamond Light.

(6) uses another font with our abbreviation on a cross. Some members liked (7), where CATUG has a cross within the T, and an apple in A.

(8) and (9) place catug in a huge bite out of an apple, with a flame in place of the leaf in the Apple logo, and a cross behind the T.

(10) is the first suggestion without letters, keeping just the visual elements of (9). (11) is an alternative using a circular shape for the "bite" instead of a cookie-cutter.

(12) and (13) add back the acronym or the full name to (10). (14) is a proof sheet showing how these could be used as a set across our sites.

(15) groups the words "Apple Technology" together, by abbreviating to Tech. The text-based design incorporates Christian and Apple logos; the Cross is at the top and central. This font, Optima, is too fine and loses strength and definition when resized.

(16) is another way to use Christian symbols in the middle of the Apple.

(17) is a neat text-based design.

(18) is a drawing for another concept, shaping all five letters into an apple with a cross at the centre.

(19) and (20) were sent in by Tim Martin (Top Step Design). They use the rounded corner shape to suggest the shape or shadow of an apple device. The cross is central, but not overpowering. The shiny text and font further identifies with Mac branding, without using their logo etc. The whole thing is very clean and functional in true Apple minimalist fashion. This is a greyscale version, but b/w would also work, and we could add color as well if we wanted. Comments on the Ops list include "gorgeous", "timeless", "clean", "contemporary". It uses Apple Technology in the logo without words, although we had a range of opinions as to whether it was "Mac-like"/"Apple-esque" enough to be recognised as such.

David Larson submitted concept drawings of an apple with a halo, although the Apple logo would require adaptation.

Summary of favourites considered

This is an attempt by Neville Reid to sum up the views expressed on Ops Board of what matters most for the CATUG logo, and the comments made on the most-discussed logos submitted to date.

Up to 2 marks were given for each of 5 criteria:

1. Recognisable as Christian
2. Recognisable as Apple Technology
3. Would work in black & white, greyscale and colour
4. Scaleable, i.e. would work at 75 pixels as well as larger sizes
5. Copyright free, esp. does not use Apple's logo

Ref #	Image	Christian	Apple	BW/ grey/ colour	Scaleable	Copyright free	Total score	Other versions
1		2	1	1	1	2	7
2		2	1	2	0	1	6
3		2	2	2	1	0	7
4		2	2	2	2	1	9	Main gallery
5		2	0	2	1	2	7
6		1	2	2	2	0	7
7		2	2	2	2	1	9
8		2	1	2	2	2	9	Version with text in main gallery
9		2	2	1	1	0	6	Matches "cover flow" banner
10		2	1	2	2	2	9	This is one of several designs using the St Hannes cross (command key symbol)