Design 4 Drupal camps logo?

Sure, a single logo and press kit sound like a good consolidation of effort. I'm not a fan of logo contests, though. I think there was recently a discussion around spec work in the Drupal Association group at http://groups.drupal.org/node/237478 which neatly summarizes the issue.

I'm certainly interested in being part of this discussion, however. Drupal Design Camp LA is coming up on October 12, 13 & 14, and I think in theory we're all interested in reducing duplication of effort.

As far as Drupal Design Camp LA goes, it's a production of the Downtown Los Angeles Drupal group. Can you cross-post this discussion to the Downtown Los Angeles and Drupal Design Camp LA groups?

   http://groups.drupal.org/og/subscribe/219129
   http://groups.drupal.org/og/subscribe/242368

Thanks!

I totally agree that a consistent brand/identity would help Drupal Design camps. Aside from the negative implications of a contest, I also worry about the quality of work that will come out of it. Professionals rarely have time to enter this type of contest. Is there any budget for hiring someone to develop an identity?

Honestly, I'm not even sure we would need anything too complex, just something that supports whatever style each camp is using for their marketing. Future Insights (http://www.futureinsights.com/) does a decent job of branding their different conferences (less so with current versions). Build also does a good job of taking their brand in a new direction each year (http://2011.buildconf.com and http://2012.buildconf.com).

Thanks for bringing this up. I think this is one element that is key to the success of Drupal Design Camps.

As Dani said, we (D4D Boston 2013) are working on starting a branding committee along with mission statement for next year's camp. Please let her know if you want to be a part.

As far as domains, that will be another conversation that has to do with hosting, COD install, site launch time, and the purpose for the main site.

invokatron, the drupalicon with the beret/hat was used as an D4D Boston camp avatar in 2010, and seems to work going forward as an avatar on twitter, etc. Artist/Drupalist. We just need to remove the colors/background that are tied to 2010 brand. We have the vector version.

Just to be clear, in early Aug Dani and the D4D Boston 2013 team will be working on mission and brand for the Boston Camp. But this work could certainly be re-purposed for other cities.

My inbox has been abused by this conversation...

So just my 2 cents and I hope this helps to get the ball rolling

Firstly, design has been shown to have a tremendous impact across just about every field of modern society. Its a big confluence of ideas from just about every discipline and spills over, and is spilled over into almost every discipline I can think of.

Now that's done.

A brand is a really vague term. No two people have the same idea of what that is, but for the sake of argument lets say its a collection of marks/statements/visuals that have repetition/recognition and association as their goal and ultimately selling/convincing someone of something.

Q: So what are you trying to brand?
A: Drupal Design Groups.

Q: What happens there?
A: They're meetups where: insert blurb.

Q: What's the benefit of them?
A: People engage with the Drupal community, learn new skills and techniques, job offers are made, and beers are usually consumed, reasonably relaxed as they are informal. Think of the adage "take your work seriously but never take your self too seriously".

So here's your brief:

Drupal Design Camps.

Summary:

• Drupal groups – the principal community centric forum for the drupal community - want to create a brand mark or marks that represent the key values of both the drupal community and the benefits of physically attending Drupal Design Camps.

• The work should be designed for both print and web and a range of devices. Colour, Black and white, transparent and flattened artwork will all be required in various formats detailed later in the brief.

• The print version should include vector based artwork that can be scaled up to produce large scale banners, posters and signage.

• The print version should also be able to be scaled down or have a 'condensed version' of the mark so that it can be produced onto various smaller paraphernalia including name badges, business cards and official signage.

• The print work should include both a Pantone version for high quality print production as well as both CMYK and RGB versions in order to permit smaller Drupal Groups to use this resource without incurring significant printing costs. Consideration should also be made for the production of assets from a range of printers - both hi-res and low-res output and consideration & advice (or better yet) versions produced for both gloss and matt papers and any post print methods that will be used (for instance lamination and printing onto non paper products - such as signage for stands and canvas printing).

• The web based logo should be designed to be able to scale and must include versions that will fit most spaces likely to be encountered on a website. This will include banner adverts (960px+ and 1140+ all the way down to smaller sizes such as mobile phones, tablets, etc.
**The drupal community includes a range of unusual phone users, designing for the iphone/pad/imac will not be sufficient.

• Some consideration should also be given to the dynamic scaling of images in accordance with responsive design as well as image size for mobile icons/images etc.

• To this end the mark should be considered for an array of small sizes and should follow both 72dpi image doctrines as well as versions created for hi res devices at 300dpi.

• A version of the mark should also be created to be encapsulated along with the particular location's name for App based devices. Including but not limited to the Iphone, Android, Ipad and other Tablet devices.

• This mark will be deployed over such a broad range of media and have a varying array of information arranged alongside it (dates, location, descriptions, taglines, etc). It is suggested that you develop a strong and versatile system of marks, logos and identity that can easily be transformed and deployed to a wide variety of media.
• Brand guidelines are required to be produced and be made sufficiently flexible so that the design can be repeated across a range of countries in various languages and locations. To this end it's suggested you look at other successful international brands who's signage is readily localized without loosing the ability to recognize the brand (think airlines, food chains, hotels, etc.)

• Consider the final produced artwork to form part of a kit. This should include mockups and guidelines for print as well as a wide variety of well organized files. Please consider that the final user of these materials may not be as proficient in either web or graphic design as yourself, therefore documentation and help files will also be required or made part of the documents themselves.

• The meetups will also sometimes be sponsored. So consideration and guidelines for this will also be appreciated. Examples of such sponsors can be found online on various meetups and as an example see the Aquia partners page.

• Finally, there is also a requirement to provide a means of distinguishing guests and participants from speakers, organisers, etc. How you do this is up to you.

The Demographic:

• 16 - 60 year olds

• Wide range of employment, from happy dabblers, coders just starting
out to CEOs, CTOs, Recruiters, Graphic Designers, Front and back end designers and wide range of other participants both inside and on the periphery of the Drupal community. Small business owners, newbies, eccentrics, the sleepless and nocturnal through to university/college/school students. Mums, Dads, Geeks & Design Hipsters (said lovingly) and just about everyone else inbetween attend these meetups.

• Whilst the events are billed as "Drupal design camps" the meetups cover a very broad range of topics and consequently should be made to be inclusive of both 'designer types' and 'coder types'.

• That said, since the meetups are design focused - its a great opportunity to show off your skills.

• Ethnicity covers just about everything you could think of, but the mark should be considered to be used internationally, so should not adhear to one particular style.

• Primarily this will be developers who are already active in the drupal community or other developers looking to engage more with the community.

• Worldwide - best guess for annual attendance is somewhere between 100,000 - 300,000+ unique attendees.

Where will the mark be used:

Everything, everywhere see pre-amble. However the largest size will like be a small cinema display/OHP via both HD & SD displays down to emails and small smartphones (including older models).

Art direction:

• The Druplicon (the tear drop shaped drupal mascot) is one point of direction as it is almost universally recognized by members of Drupal community.

• Drupal itself has a background and origin as a word and title created by Dries Buytaert - essentially meaning 'drop' / incremental. This might be an interesting approach.

• Consideration of both the existing color use and brand guidelines laid out by drupal groups should be considered, but not necessarily adhered to. However there are strict guidelines regarding a variety of Drupal assets including the same and some of it's branding that fall under certain brand guidelines, copyright and the rights of affiliation which must be read and understood before commencing this project.

• The design must encapulate the purpose of Drupal Design Camps. Its inclusive approach and the benefits of attendance. This might come in the form of groups, personal progression and community participation.

• A significant part of such meetups is also the ability to 'put name to face' and the blending of the line between the real and virtual.

• Past drupal meetups have seen marriage proposals, some truly aweful jokes, some incredibly funny presentations, technical hickups "lots of it worked fine an hour ago", job offers, product launches, business deals, study and "aha-moments" and a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes to keep them running and engage new and current users.

• Typographic use should be considered for both online and offline versions as well as smart phone and multiple operating systems.
This means for print - no lower than 8.5pt (minimum small print size for a lot of EU countries) and probably larger given the demographic.
Typography use must include both web fonts and optionally non-web safe fonts. These may be suggested or included in the templates and designs that you use.

• Examples of previous Drupal events litter the internet - hit google - then get away from the computer and have a think!

Feel free to use/modify this any way you want. Take my copyright! :P

John

Keep at it. Its something thats come up a lot of times.

I really think Drupal can win out by producing better documentation and support for its design and implementation than other CMS sites do.

Even if its not comprehensive to begin with. It would be amazing to be able to produce a design repository that can be updated and expanded upon.

I think this might go to form the glue that binds the brand together. Just as common module use draws more users/support/testing, so can common design assets.

Primarily because design flattens out to an extent over time as the same optimum solution/s to a design problem emerge and you get repeated design patterns. Its not just web design/drupal/cms s but everywhere.

It also slowly gets better, more efficient and people can make it unique.

90% of our current logos have undergone a lot of gradual development and some great leaps forward. A great example is FEDEX (see if you can see the arrow in it).
The 2012 London Olympics - because like it or not, most people recognize it (what was the Greek Olypic logo?).

Or even DHL's colour scheme - Coca cola's script - Pepsi's blue and red or the Democrats and Republicans - etc. Even younger companies such as Google, Yahoo (yuck but we all know it) AOL, and more. They're versatile and can be put almost anywhere and evolved without destroying the recognition.

I think this is what should be aimed for. Would be great to open source the creative process too. e.g. group moodboards, word associations, colour schemes.

Good luck and ping me anything you want some fresh eyes on.

Remember Alignment, Contrast, Typography, Color, Balance.

Sorry to add yet another comment when folks are already complaining about the overwhelming quantity.

Just want to correct any impression that D4D only attracts 16-60 year olds (this in response to alltooeasy's otherwise excellent post) who are interested primarily in the technology of the future (this in response to shawn650's provocations).

I'm older than 60, and very happy to do a good job of reaching my current customers - who use old and new computers as well as smart phones and tablets.

The reason I am interested in technology that "will be history in two years" is to support myself. If I can't keep income coming in for the next 2 years (or however long), the future won't happen for me.

Thanks for all of the well-reasoned posts. Here's to a great, diverse future together!