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  NLnet Gives KOffice a New Logo and Sponsors ODF development
KDE Office Suite Posted by Boudewijn Rempt on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @05:18
from the beuro dept.
The Dutch NLnet foundation aims to financially support organisations and people that contribute to an open information society. Some time ago they decided to help KOffice in two exciting ways: to sponsor the design of a new logo for KOffice, with matching logo designs for all KOffice applications, and to sponsor Girish Ramakrishnan to improve the ODF support in KWord 2.0. The KOffice team is deeply grateful to NLnet for this support!

Girish Ramakrishnan, a former Trolltech employee, has already started on implementing a thorough test suite for ODF text loading. Helping him are Thomas Zander and Thorsten Zachmann, two old-time members of the KOffice team. In his own words:

"I am working on getting ODF support up to speed in KWord, my work being sponsored by NLNet. As the first step, I have spent my time now automating the ODF testsuite at the OpenDocument Fellowship....

"So far, I have found some basic tests are failing - loading of lists, possibly superfluous spaces/blocks. I have patches coming up."

KOffice has done without a real logo forever: we used to use the application icon of KOShell, a rainbow, but that was hardly a real logo, and besides, everybody, including the primary school your correspondent attended, uses a rainbow. But coming up with a good logo is hard, and we postponed and postponed the task.

But then NLnet proposed to retain the services of designer Michiel van Kleef of 30 Media. Michiel was faced with a very hard brief: to design a logo, not an icon, for KOffice which combines business and creativity in one, integrated package. After consultation with the KOffice team we arrived at the following logo:

This great design suggested to Michiel the possibility of doing variations on it for the individual applications that KOffice consists of. While KOffice itself has got the KDE color blue, the business applications get orange:

     
  

And the graphical applications get purple (and it's good to see that Karbon2 opens the official SVG sources correctly):

     

KPlato, the project planner application that is coming along amazingly well for KOffice 2.0 is the odd one out, and gets red:

The helper applications KChart and KFormula are green:

  

There is also a logo for Kugar, the report writing component in KOffice 1, which will probably be replaced by Adam Pigg's promising new report component in KOffice 2:

All with a subtle, but apposite variations on the design in the circle.

Now all that remains to be done is updating the KOffice website and prepare some t-shirts for Akademy!



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Over 40 comments listed. Printing out index only.
Well done
by Harri on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @05:28
I have to say the logos look really nice!
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Wow
by Jakob Petsovits on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @05:39
Those look great. The pink is a bit too saturated for my taste, but that's cool with me, not necessary to criticize small personal taste issues when everything is awesome otherwise. And the ODF sponsoring is just as nice to hear!

I am so looking forward to KOffice 2 :)
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Good job guys!
by Dread Knight on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @05:46
Great work guys! :-)

I would prefer less shiny, but that's just my 2 cents :-)
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How would they look at smaller sizes?
by OC on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @05:53
Specially 16x16 and 22x22? There should be enough visible differences at these sizes.
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These are logos, not icons!
by Blurbs on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @06:55
I'm sure that some idiots who are not reading the text properly [*] will start to complain that these will not be distinguishable at small sizes. So just once again:
These images are designed to be LOGOS. They are not meant to be used as ICONS. So stop mumbling and screaming, and read the text!

[*] Ok, I have to admit that that note is well hidden in the text and should be placed a bit more apparent - I myself first thought "that will be tough to distinguish these as Icons...". :)
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Nice!
by Erlend on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @07:24
Very nice! This is great news :-)
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Beautiful
by NJ Hewitt on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @07:34
Wow! Well done, that artist.

I don't understand why the F for KFormula is upside-down, but overall I think these look very professional, very cool, very KDE4 :)
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Some suggestions
by Bob on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @07:42
I don't like saying this (I realise dot threads are getting ruled by trolls) but the logos are very unrecognisable and really don't communicate anything to me. The Koffice one is OK as a logo (I would prefer some hint that it is an office application if it were used as an icon) but the other ones don't really look like anything but a bunch of strange symbols.

It would be OK if there was only a couple of extra logos, but there are so many, they all look very similar and they don't communicate even the name of application, let alone what it does. This makes them very forgettable once you figure out what they are too. For instance, the Kugar one doesn't even look like a K or anything to me really; it looks a bit like a rotated fast forward sign with the chunk removed. How am I suppose to work out the difference between the Kugar and Kforumla logo by looking at them or remember which is which without serious effort?

I'm very confused by the logo/icon comments; why would you want a logo for an application that is different to its icon? That would just be confusing and dilutes your branding.

To improve each logo/icon I would do either or both of these:

* include something that indicates what the app does (e.g. a spreadsheet symbol in the kspread logo), like the openoffice icons.

* incorporate the whole name of the application into the logo, not just one letter or a bit of one letter.

Please don't flame me. I've explained what I don't like, the reason why and have suggested improvements. Feel free to ignore my comments.
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Cool. Hope they become icons
by Michael Wright on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @07:58
They look great. These logo (which I am sure would look good as icon) follow a specific style which great, the user would able see these applications are part of the office suite.
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Logos, icons and brand recognition
by Frando on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @08:02
Hm. I actually quite like the logos from an artistic/designers point of view.

But:
How are the application icons supposed to look? If these are specifically *logos* and not *icons* - how are the two going to relate?

Normally, icons and logos are quite similar, which is a Good Thing (tm) from a branding and brand recognition point of view.

Maybe the same overall design, but with a symbol related to the actual application in the center of the circles (i.e. the same colors as the logos for each application, but with e.g. a page of text for kword or a spreadsheet symbol for kspread in the center of the circles instead of these unrelated symbols)?
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nice!
by p.daniels on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @10:28
These are fantastic! Well done!
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Awesome!
by Yeah Right on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @11:17
The new logos are awesome!

Very simple, cool, distinct and recognizable. Nice!
The only thing is... they're not that intuitive.
Also, there must be only so many variations available. What happens in a few years when new apps have been added to the suite?

But overall, congratulations!
Now we'll just see how good the applications have become.
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Pink?
by Michael on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @11:32
Pink is really a bit too much for me. I'd prefer sth. a little less obtrusive. Otherwise they look really great though.
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Cluelessness
by Bruno Laturner on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @12:19
I'll go with the crowd.

I have no idea what some of these apps do, and the logos, while cute(and weird), even make me scratch my head trying to figure what are we talking about.

If you say it's a office suite, okay, I figured it out by reading KOffice, then you have KWord, KSpread, KPresenter, KChart and KFormula, I might have a little idea about what they do, I'm not so sure about the last two. Kivio sounds like Visio, so it might also be a diagramming software.
[/cluelessuserwithsomeofficeexperience]

Okay, for real, I use Krita all the time, Kexi is the "database program", Karbon 14 is the "vector graphics editor", and I've learned what KPlato and Kugar are from the news.

I'll not nitpick about the Knaming_scheme, it's been overly done, but where's the marketing team to FLOOD everyone with awareness of what KOffice 2.0 is?

I do believe it can take the 1st place for the best Open-source Office suite. On the other hand there's not much time until July if you want to have a simultaneous release with KDE 4.1.

PS: A little nitpick from my dirty mind: Kugar's logo looks like a dick. (no offense)
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Like the Logos
by AD on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @15:16
I like the logos. They're really nice.

Not quite self explanatory, and very similar to each other. But after some getting used to, I think we'll really like them.

Could you guys update the KDE - logo for KDE 4.1 too? I'm curious to see what it would look like. Then if more people like the new logo than the old one, we could switch. Either way I'd like to see a KDE logo in the theme of your logos. :)
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Yaaaay: ODF
by Matija "hook" Suklje on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @15:32
I really like the idea of colour-differentiating the apps by their tasks.

But the main joy I find in this post is the sponsored ODF support! Now *that* is good news!

If this were icons (which it doesn't seem like that's the case): why not just use a different iconset? ;)
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New logo: Undesirable icon meanings
by bugsbane on Friday 18/Apr/2008, @17:15
OK, as a designer I feel I need to point out a couple of obvious things that seem to be being overlooked here. The visual style of the new logos is very shiny and attractive. This is a good thing (tm).

Given that they look like play/stop/ff/rewind buttons on a media player its worth looking at what they suggest and if it is what we want:

K-Office - Looks like the classic "Go back one chapter/track" button. Uh, don't we want people to feel they're going *forward* with K-Office?
k-Word & K-Spread - Quite unique. Good. Especially the word one which clearly looks like the "W" in word processor. These work nicely.
K-Presenter - "Go forward 1 chapter/track" could be OK as presentations are often to impress, which is compatible with the "go forward" idea.
Kexi - Uh oh. Looks like the "Quit" or "Shut down" icon. (See the top right corner of any window with Oxygen for reference).
Karbon - This is the classic "Eject" icon! Does any software maker (other than CD-ROM burning) want to be associated with "Eject"?
Krita - I love Krita. I want it to do well. Does an icon that points *down* and *backwards* suggest a great app?
Kivio - See Krita, but going down faster... :(
K-Plato - No media player references. If anything the square looks like the classic "photographers 2 finger, 2 thumb rectangle", suggesting to see clearer. I'd say this works well with project planning ie "See your project more clearly."
K-Chart - Why not just 3 vertical lines? Yes, I know it doesn't have the "V" in it, but it would more clearly represent a pie chart. Form follows function.
K-Formula - Why not just an = sign? See K-Chart above.
Kugar - Looks like it's trying to mimic a Cougar footprint. Fair enough. A cougar fits with an "Agressive business" report concept. Why upside down though?


All in all, it's definately a huge step up for K-Office (yay!) and many of the icons (K-Word, K-Plato) work really well. A number though give a very clear belittling image that I suspect the original designer missed, especially K-Office, Kexi, Karbon 14, Krita and Kivio.I'm hoping with the visual style established and the files available though, that other designers can upgrade these icons, but keep the style before they stick too rigidly. Overall though, the style is great. The 1 colour per set of apps is nice. And it's all definitely a huge improvement. The question is... will the community be allowed to improve them further? :)
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Only one logo is needed
by trg on Saturday 19/Apr/2008, @02:43
IMO:

KOffice is *a single product* and therefore needs only *one* LOGO.

Inside this single product we have *many applications* which all need different ICONS.

--> The logo can be very abstract.
(but not too abstract since your product is not that well know)

--> The icons should be less abstract.
(for productivity)

Having different logos for each app is just plain silly. But if you really have to go there do NOT make the logos and icons different. That would be even more silly (and confusing for users).

This is the way its done elsewhere. If you don't believe me just take a look at any other multi app products (e.g. OpenOffice) or even single products where the logo is almost always also used as the icon (e.g. Adobe Reader).
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so...
by anon on Saturday 19/Apr/2008, @10:16
so if someone sponsors art work does it have to be accepted? i could reiterate all the reasons why these are unsuitable but we've all read the posts above.
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i don't get them
by gunter on Saturday 19/Apr/2008, @13:53
Well, they do look kinda nice but i just don't get them. so i think they suck as icons, the one for koffice is good though
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Application icon = file type icon + logo
by Erik on Saturday 19/Apr/2008, @18:00
I suggest to compose the application icons as follows:
1. Take the standard icon of the file type that the application works with.
2. Put (a part of) the application's logotype on top.

(I do not know whether the ODF file type icons are standardized on freedesktop.org or in the ISO standard.)
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Repeated logo...
by Nuno Pinhão on Sunday 20/Apr/2008, @01:05
I notice that Kformula has the same logo as Kword - except for the color. This is NOT a good idea for the visually impaired. I'm sure it's quite easy to find a close alternative.
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Bad choice
by Dimitri on Sunday 20/Apr/2008, @01:22
This was a bad choice. In MS Office you have your Icons and every one sees "Ah this is Word or this is outlook". They are clear and easy to remember. No problem.

But here? The may be nice, crystal,svg etc etc but there is absolutely no association between the icon and the application - and that is what icons are for.

Dim
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The logos are nice... but they don't "work"
by someone on Sunday 20/Apr/2008, @04:57
The logos/icons (I don't know the real difference between the two words, honestly) are nice. The idea of assigning them a common "theme"/"skinning"/"branding" is brilliant. To repeat the '>' or '>' or '^' or 'v' symbol in each of them emphasizes that idea even more.

So, I can probably very easily recognize these logos/icons as "something to do with KOffice".

However, the total set still doesn't "work". Not for me, I'm sorry. It will take years for me to learn to differentiate between most of them. (Kexi I can associate with the "x", KWord with the "W"... but the rest I just don't "get").

I assume it would be very difficult to reject this "donation", even if some/most members of the KOffice Team felt the same.

Has there ever been such a thing like "usability testing" for a set of related icons/logos? If so, I'd be very much interested if testing this set would confirm my personal feelings. However, I don't assume there is any likelyhood such a testing will happen...

Oh, well. More important is, that code-wise the progress on KOffice is looking very good and promising.

Congratulations to the small developer team that brings this about. You can be proud to have come so far already. Hopefully, this achievement and the upcoming releases on Windows platforms will also bring you more and new developers joining in over the next two years.
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SVG?
by Cultural Sublimation on Sunday 20/Apr/2008, @08:07
Where can I find the SVGs for these wonderful icons? I would very much like to learn from such masters...
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Um... Kexi's angry face?
by Valerie on Monday 21/Apr/2008, @09:26
Nice! But... am I the only one who thinks that the Kexi logo looks like an angry smiley face? A bit like >:( ? It's pretty funny, but I doubt that it is the intent...
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Beautiful!
by Ruben S. on Thursday 24/Apr/2008, @20:36
These new logos are fantastic, they're very slick and professional! Seeing KDE4 come to life and the gorgeous new revised version of the blue gear logo for KDE, it seems fitting that the office suite also is getting a makeover.

Currently I'm forced to use Gnumeric for university, but I use KWord, Krita and Karbon14 more now than ever. It's good to see some thought being put into their promotion again. I know it's shallow to choose computer software based on their advertising and how stylish their logos are, but enough people still do. This is a much needed step in the right direction.
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very similar to each other
by emonk on Wednesday 30/Apr/2008, @06:59
Nice... but I think they are very similar to each other, and users will not run programs that wanted to run.
Thanks and keep working!!

Text translated from spanish to english by google translate :P .
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very similar to each other
by emonk on Wednesday 30/Apr/2008, @06:59
Nice... but I think they are very similar to each other, and users will not run programs that wanted to run.
Thanks and keep working!!

Text translated from spanish to english by google translate :P .
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