XnViewMP new icon

[thibaud]

ok here is another chicken:

simple shapes. works great as small icon and on dark or light backgrounds.
monochrome versions specially for oops66

[budz45]

ok here is another chicken:

I like this one and as always with your work the variations are nice.

Would it be possible to make that blue into red and then that orange into a lighter shade of orange (orange not yellow) just to be more closer to the existing XnView logo or would it look too 'chicken' puck puck Also if you could just add the same triangle on the left also to really announce that eye shape then there is no chicken (just my feedback but it's upto you)

[thibaud]

Would it be possible to make that blue into red and then that orange into a lighter shade of orange (orange not yellow) just to be more closer to the existing XnView logo or would it look too 'chicken' puck puck Also if you could just add the same triangle on the left also to really announce that eye shape then there is no chicken (just my feedback but it's upto you)

[budz45]

OK I like the colours here nicer, it's just what I said about what Opera have done about their icon.

[Troken]

Im very impressed Only thing I react to is the small negative circle in the middle. I could do without it, otherwise, I'd buy it all as it is. I like the "XNv" letters, colors and all - very nicely balanced.

[budz45]

The final logo result is going to be seen on taskbar's, OS menu's etc.. So it's gotta look 'up to scratch'

....when Pierre decides on a final new logo then I would like to see a 256x256 Vista/7 icon size and the Mac OS 512x512 hi res sizes too I know that would be ded easy to size

[thibaud]

removed the hole in the spiral center. killed the chicken...

now creative people can come up with a tagline.

[JohnFredC]

I am aware that the iPhone is influencing theme design. Apple has always been a mover in the visual aesthetic milieu. Certainly if (when????) XnView runs on the iPhone and its progeny, it should adopt a visual style from that oeuvre, which admittedly does include button outlines.

But until then, and for any version that runs in a desktop workstation, I don't think it a good idea for the XnView logo to ape an environment it does not run in, whether that environment is Windows for Workgroups or the iPhone.

For that matter, my initial enthusiasm for messing with the XnView logo is completely gone. New proposals need to be improvements on the existing (excellent) one, after all, and not just visually appealing out of context.

Lots of effort, for increasingly diminishing returns.

PS. The capitalization should remain XnV, with the capital "V" implying "Viewer".

In English, one explication of XnView could be: eXcellent Viewer. I like that. It needs to remain.

[Troken]

The capitalization should remain XnV, with the capital "V" implying "Viewer".

I dont think that the extreme font of the logo has to follow traditional rules of typography. The "V" is not obviously a lower case "V". Yes, it is half the height of the "XN", but it is more of an image than typographical text, thus it can diverge from what we normally consider correct.

The "v" differs from the "XN" and for me it confirms that they are two separate elements (XN + view).

Had it been Times New Roman in use, there would have been a totally different matter.

[JohnFredC]

Sorry, that doesn't look like a "v" to me at all...

It looks either like an editor's (as in book editor's) conventional mark to "insert text at this point" or the caron, a frequently used diacritic.

[Troken]

Sorry, that doesn't look like a "v" to me at all...

Of course, its a matter of taste and preferences. I dont think it has to resemble a "v" perfectly, as it is a logotype. It's not a text made to read in the conventional sense. Many logotypes has heavily stylised letters, some even are hard to distinguish. I think ist a really cool typography. Similar examples:


Check out the "t" and the "r" in the Twitter logo!

[JohnFredC]

2Troken

Very interesting article written many years ago by Douglas R. Hofstadter (author of "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", highly recommended) which discussed, with many examples, how far we can distort the letters of the alphabet yet find them still recognizable.

Do you know it?

I am not opposed to blurring the line between alphanumeric and symbolic. Not at all. But there needs to be purpose beyond mere compositional aesthetics. I'm not saying that Thibaud's examples are not attractive, many of them are.

But IMO, either they just don't "say" (or "imply", if you will) XnView, or they don't exhibit a sufficient link with the old logo to communicate continuity with the current product (something I think is absolutely essential in a "new" logo).

[budz45]

It's not that bad, I wouldn't mind Maggie Simpson as XnView's mascot

removed the hole in the spiral center. killed the chicken...

now creative people can come up with a tagline.
[/img]

Hey I like that text of "view" below that 'V' , nice thinking, Pierre could sure use that text logo that on a new website.. But back on that MAIN 'eye' logo, the yellow+red variant and the newer spiral centre looks improved imo but here is my suggestions:

1) add an extra eye lash (4 eye lashes), this the easiest, with any appropriate spacings between each lash - should reinforce that 'Eye' symbol more as c currently I'm not seeing it.. On what JohnFredC was saying before:

An icon is a symbol meant to aid comprehension and identification. An icon is not a photo... it's supposed to symbolize, not illustrate.

In my mock-image fashion, that I like to practice on this forum, I have done a poor mock-up of your icon with the 4 total eye lashes PLUS I thought to tilt the whole shape to I think it was 90degress just to look at difference, I dunno look at the mock here; http://i48.tinypic.com/2d7g3h4.png oh and I thought to turn the spiral upside down to match the spiral order on the existing XnView logo.

do you agree on an image tilt and that fourth eye lash then if you were to recreate?

btw after uploading the mock to Tinypic.com , Tinypic done it's usual image effects ads which showed the mock as these (I screen capped); http://www.pixhost.org/show/488/1137714 ... 034823.jpg an http://www.pixhost.org/show/488/1137715 ... 034843.jpg look at the little girl's t-shirt

[Troken]

Very interesting article written many years ago by Douglas R. Hofstadter (author of "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", highly recommended) which discussed, with many examples, how far we can distort the letters of the alphabet yet find them still recognizable.

Do you know it?

Hi JohnFredC,
no I have not heard about it the article, sounds very intresting, I will certainly look it up. Hopefully it is out there on the www to read, thanks for the advice.

... But there needs to be purpose beyond mere compositional aesthetics. I'm not saying that Thibaud's examples are not attractive, many of them are.

I quite sure youre not saying that, since your arguments seldom lack substance. Posts always worth considering (I might not always agree though )

Hey I like that text of "view" below that 'V'

Hi budz45,
I agree it looks nice, but I dont think it is a good idea. You already have 'v' for 'view', so to add the word underneath becomes ... what do you call it... a tautology(?). Superfluous (it becomes XnViewView in my eyes.) As always, just my thoughts about it.

[thibaud]

But IMO, either they just don't "say" (or "imply", if you will) XnView, or they don't exhibit a sufficient link with the old logo to communicate continuity with the current product (something I think is absolutely essential in a "new" logo).

I'm not sure I understand, Are you saying the first glossy icon proposal was more in line with XnView current "identity" than this new one ?
when I look at this:

from a visual point of vue, I can only disagree,I don't see how the new icon could possibly closer mimic the original one.

But mentioning continuity with the current identity makes me smile
You must be a very creative person John, because I'm not sure where too look to find that so called Xnview identity.
. Is it in the fact that everyone has his owns made up ideas has to what the "Xn" stands for in XnView name (answers ranging from eXcelleNt to XeNo.) ?
. Or is it in the fact that the awesome and generous icons design from mezich, which is now the default Xnview/MP icon seems so detached from any reference to it's own application logo/identity ?
. Or should I rather found it in the way the current logo is so inconsistently assorted with a wide range of unexpected typo to spell it's name ?
. Or maybe it lies in the recurrence of the logo/icons re-design suggestions we see in this forum..
. Or... You get the idea.

Seriously if such a strong indentity in xnview visual communication really existed, we would probably not have this conversation.
Nitpicking about the proposed logo typo design is perfectly fine, we can't expect to please everyone taste can we.
but reclaiming a continuity with Xnview current identity sounds like someone running out of arguments

I found XnView current identity to be blurry and... weak (to say the least).
And the arrival of the newly developed XnViewMP could be such a perfect opportunity to actually try to start defining that identity.