New OOo Project Proposal: Design, Artwork and Branding Project

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This page is meant to collect thoughts and ideas leading to a new OpenOffice.org incubator project. The project will be dedicated to branding and corporate design for OpenOffice.org, including the creation of OpenOffice.org related artwork as well as ensuring a common look-and-feel among the product, website, marketing material and any other place(s) referring to OpenOffice.org.

The project's working title is (until anybody comes up with a better name) ...

Design, Artwork and Branding Project

Main directive

This project wants to establish and maintain a consistent and unique visual identity for OpenOffice.org - both the product and the community.

Why do we need this project?

File:Branding mix up.png
Different branding elements used at the product, on our website and as references to the project and the program

OpenOffice.org's visual impression across the product (e.g., icons, splash screen), website, documentation, marketing and other areas is inconsistent.

Branding elements from OOo2 are mixed up with OOo3 splash screen elements inside the product, in documentation and marketing materials. Our website has got it's own style, unrelated to the other graphical design elements (and even this style is not used on all the native-lang websites).

For an overview of the issues, please see Bernhard's presentation at OOoCon 2009.


Actions to be taken

First steps

  • Contact the existing projects actually working on the area of visual identity and branding:
    • OOo design team at Sun: Definition of the present style ("Galaxy")for branding / visual design of the product and creation of the majority of graphical elements in the product.
    • Art: Creation of marketing material and other artwork based on the splash screen and other branding elements.
    • Website: Design of the website style to be used for the OOo project websites and collateral sites like wiki, templates and extensions.
    • Marketing: Usage of artwork created by the Art Project for online and and printed representation.
    • User Experience: Feedback of the general users and specified target groups on branding and visual identity.
    • Native Language: Localized artwork on website, other online and printed material in native language.
    • Documentation: Design of the official OOo documentation.
    • User Interface: Menues, buttons and windows inside OOo.
  • Find people from all these projects interested in working together on design and branding topics as representatives of their projects. They will serve as contact persons in both directions: From their projects to the new branding/art project and from the new project back to the other projects.
  • Look at artwork projects within other well known open source software and see if we can gain additional insights or ideas
  • Proposal and creation of the new project
    • A decision on what will happen to the Art project - it may be preferable to integrate it into the new project

After establishing the new project

  • Determine the general goals for visual design.
  • Revise present artwork and design elements with regards to their usability for a general branding design.
    • Define the goals of OOo quite clearly (perhaps run a survey among the community on that topic) and have a look at any of the present graphical elements with regards to it's relation to this goals and it's usability for our general branding. Keeping in mind the recognition value of these elements (this might be part of such a survey too), we then have to decide, if they should be part of the new branding identity, if they have to be updated or recreated from the scratch.
  • Define a general visual design and branding style.

Next activities

  • Create a style guide describing the visual design to be followed by every artist working on artwork to represent OpenOffice.org.
    • According to this style all necessary artwork has to be created.
    • Spread this artwork to all the projects involved in branding and visual design (see above).
    • Establish this style all the places where OpenOffice.org is represented by visual means.

Continuous work

  • Re-evaluate iteratively the visual goals of OpenOffice.org.
  • Have members from the project on i-Teams in relevant/applicable areas
  • Decide about possible design updates with major product changes.
    • Have measurable goals for each release cycle of OOo - i.e., a roadmap - to provide clear directions for the community so that more of its artwork can be included in and throughout the project
  • Keep the artwork, the places where it is used and the style guide up-to-date.

More information

People interested in active contribution

OOo user name real name active in other projects interested in comment
bedipp Bernhard Dippold art, marketing, (website, UX) organizing and coordinating with other projects
ChristophNoack Christoph Noack UX representing UX interests visual design is an essential part of what the user experiences when using the product and our services
Ivanm Ivan Miskovic art, website and (to a lesser extent) UX making OOo look great in every possible way a strong and consistent visual identity will see more downloads, website visitors, etc.
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