New OOo Project Proposal: Design, Artwork and Branding Project

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 creation of OpenOffice.org related artwork as well as taking care for a common look-and-feel among product, website, marketing material and any other place 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 general visual identity for OpenOffice.org - both the product and the community.

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.

• Proposal and creation of 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 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.
• Decide about possible design updates with major product changes.
• Keep the artwork, the places where it is used and the style guide up-to-date.

More information

• Information: How to propose new projects?

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