My Design for Linux Mint logo and website

[carlos]

I love what the team has done with this distro, that I wanted to contribute the only way I know how.
I'm a web designer by trade so I figured the project could use some help and cohesion at least from the artwork side.
Now I know as with most art its always subjective, but I personally felt that Linux Mint as a project isn't completely tight as a brand. From what I've read in the forum and on the website I gathered that Mint at this point has its roots with ubuntu, for the future that still might be the case or it might not. So as Distro I figured Linux Mint needs to differentiate it self from others. So after a month of playing around I came up with a logo and website idea, for what I think is a good brand for the project.

This is my concept for the logo:



I've created a couple of badges and different color ways:






And Finally this is my idea for the website:



Right now this is just an image but its easy enough for me to code and plug it into a free CMS. I'm standards based designer so no worries of shoddy coding.

I hope you all like it. So far I've gotten excellent feedback from friends and family so much so that they all have been asking about what Linux Mint is.

So what do you think guys? Can we make this happen?

[clem]

I really like it!! It's simple and very nice. I'd like to keep the existing theme and logos for Bianca though because I like them a lot too. In the meantime we can gather feedback on the artwork you created and see what we can do for the future.

It's very different from what we have now. What I like the most is not the logo itself or even the web design but the simplicity of it. It just looks really nice and it's very pleasant to look at.

This is really good. Thanks a lot for your work on this.
Clem.

[carlos]

Thanks! That is exactly what I was trying to do. To make something simple and clean.

Well hopefully this will get some nice feedback. Let me know if I can be of more help.

[AlsaPhil]

cohesion at least from the artwork side

Dear Carlos,
I absolutely agree with you.
Clem is doing a fantastic job and more and more we will have a very specific and original distro.
This question of artwork and brand image is therefore a very important and, I personally think, an actual one.
The quality and the professionalism of Clem's work has to be valorized by a professional corporate design.
I considere here that your job is really great...
The only critic I would allow me is about the logo.
The actual and official logo for Mint is interesting. It shows an "Ubuntu Origin". It is not bad to remind it graphically as it is. This proximity with Ubuntu is in the announced rules (cf. Home Page) and it is not a handicap for creating even so an original product.
So I think it would be better to change your "Lm" logo and to replace it with the official Mint logo. But please keep your fonts and the global design (may be to develop it, as Clem said, with opinions from the community).
This above is only my modest opinion

[gramnemo]

Thanks it is very beautiful! It is important to have beautiful attractive style. Than more people there will be MINT that best it will be

[carlos]

Thanks for the great feedback so far, hopefully more users from the forum will ring in. I think I should have been a bit more detailed as to the reasons I came up with a new logo. I think it was Tiptup300 who came up with the logo as we see now, which I really like a lot.

I knew it was important to show the ubuntu roots, so I took what Tiptup300 had created and started to experiment with it, to see if there could be a new spin on it, a different variation to it.

But, as I kept using I started to realized that at least at this point the logo was fine as it is, but for the long term, I wasn't so sure. Somewhere in the forum I remember it being mentioned that in the far future the base distro could possibly change. Clem please feel free to smack me if I'm wrong.

Regardless if I was right or wrong, I felt that Linux Mint needed to stand on its own, regardless of what distro its based off.

So I started off in a whole other direction. I looked at the definition of mint and how I thought I felt about it (brand-new, clean, fresh). Those were the words that stood out for me. So I started with the Linux Mint as a word and started to play around with different fonts and from there I created a customized version of the words. Now I needed to finish the other part of the logo.

I figured it need to be recognizable on its own. Right now as the logo exists you know that its ubuntu based.
But as Clem keeps adding and improving on features, the distro is changing and growing into its own. I wanted to create something that as soon as you look at it you know who or what it is. Other important factors: The logo has to be able to print and look good, if it was only one color what would it look like and what does it look like at different sizes, can it be resized to any dimension and still look good?

So back to the word mint. The most obvious shape that comes to mind is a mint leaf.

So working off of that idea I played around with different variations. Now the problem with a leaf, is that a lot of companies use it as it logo. To the point that its actually become a cliché in the design world. I wanted to make sure to not duplicate what was out there already.

So what I did was create a shape that looks like a leaf shape but not quite. Also I didn't want to make it too curvy because it would start to look like existing leaf logos. After numerous tries and feedback from friends, viola you have what you see there. Obviously I went through numerous iterations of this, but that is the short version.

After creating the logo I decided to start working on the website using the logo as inspiration. Using a similar process we have what you see there. I can describe what I did with the website in another posting. So people can understand where I came from and why I made certain design choices. Sorry for the super long post but hopefully this sheds some light as to why I did what I did and I hope its received well.

[AlsaPhil]

Frijolie said

Ubuntu is based on Debian and they don't assimilate the Debian logo

It's a good argument I have to second

[historyb]

It all looks great. I like the teal colored badge and the website design is really nice.

[npap]

Hi Carlos,
That's really great artwork. The website art is terrific.
Good work, indeed.

[carlos]

Thanks guys! Feel free to use the badges, just remember its nothing official and hasn't had Clem's and the whole community's blessing.

BTW Frijolie I have a website but I'm still in the process of working on it. you can see it at http://www.designdrifter.com

I'm still very new to the linux community so I'm hoping to completely build my personal site on the linux platform.

[carlos]

Hey Frijolie its good to hear from another Linux newcomer who's into web development. I'm self taught also, but I've been fortunate to be doing it for many years now.

If your keeping it strict your way ahead of the curve.

[kiwiboyus]

Love it! Great work that man!

[carlos]

Thanks everybody! So far its looking like its being received very well.

@Monk, You have a keen eye

@techne, I tried to avoid the washed out color because it doesn't look alive. This community is very lively and the site should look like its breathing and electric. Mind you, I like the use of washed out colors, but I felt it would be wrong for the site at this time.

[hairy_Palms]

that website design is awesome!! and the case badges too, espcially the all green one

[shawn_duggan]

Carlos - as a web developer I can honestly say this is quite nice. It looks great.

On the Ubuntu forums in the Mint discussion people seem to have the misconception that Mint is simply Ubuntu+Automatix (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... ost2266348). It may be mostly Ubuntu today, but is growing more unique over time.

I know Clem has said he likes the existing look/feel of Bianca, but I think to differentiate Mint from Ubuntu requires something new. It may be time to cut the cord in order to grow. I vote for the new design. Ubuntu does not have the Debian logo anywhere.

Regardless of what is decided - thanks Clem (and the rest of the team) for your efforts.

[DasFox]

Nice work carlos

[belovedmonster]

I love the new artwork. I think it's actually better than Ubuntus!! Speaking of which, I put my whole support behind the idea of dropping the Ubuntu style logo of old. People are trying to hold onto that thing when frankly it was only ever OK, and it does nothing to promote mint as anything but a slight variation on Ubuntu when we should be selling ourselves as an original product worthy of individual attention.

My one gripe with the artwork is about those badges though. I dont quite understand what the curved line of shading is supposed to be doing. The way it goes through both the logo and the background badge just looks weird to me. Maybe I have funny eyes though, but it just doesnt look 3D or glossy to me it just looks like a weird bit of shading in the wrong place

[carlos]

Thanks all! It been a long road, hopefully in this last round of logo choices we can move forward with the design.

@monster I complete agree with you on the first point. As for the badges, I haven't looked at them in awhile, so looking at them again with fresh eyes. I have to agree with you. Maybe later on I will fix them so as to actually look glossy.

[belovedmonster]

Wow, you agree with both my points

In defence of the badges, I do think the colour schemes are beautiful in all 3. You should receive praise in particular for coming up with a blue scheme that still seems "minty", which has been a criticism of the blue artwork in the past. Come to think of it, you have also picked a green colour which is sexy while still being minty as well, because to tell you the truth I always used the blue themes anyway because the green was a bit, hmm, well nasty

I really do believe that this new artwork is leaps and bounds ahead of what every other distro has, including some of the big ones. I work in a creative job within the film industry and so I'd like to think I know a thing or two about what makes for good art and design, and what doest,; and I am always annoyed by just how ugly most stuff to do with Linux is. Small distros maybe have an excuse, but even the big boys seem to consider their products appearance as an afterthought. What I am looking for is to be able to send my friends a link to a Linux distro and for them to go "Wow that looks really slick", and Linux Mint with its new artwork could possibly be the first one where that's a reality.

On my myspace page I have a banner for Firefox and a banner for Openoffice. Let me tell you, Firefox has a professional site that I am proud to link to, where Openoffice has a fugly site that I am kinda ashamed of and I feel like I need to add a note below the banner: "Dont let the ugly site fool you - Openoffice is a great app!". This is why I am so excited to see that my favourite Linux distro is going to have a kick ass site that will impress people rather than turn them off.

[hippy]

Carlos from what i see you have put a lot of hard work into this and from a user's point of view i think you have done an awesome job, i like it all, but i think the website design deserves special mention, as has been said it has a clean simple look and feel to it which i like immensely, where i think it has the edge in my opinion is i feel it also portrays a feeling of relaxation and tranquility with the way you have used the shades of green resulting in giving the user a welcoming feel to the proposed site, excellent job.