@rossturk: When we started looking in the space, we created complexity emerging from simplicity. Whenever we have a hard decision to make, we can return to the guide and ask how can this be driven from simplicity and complexity.
@ra33it0: We can lean into the symmetry aspect. Because it is in some way the opposite of chaos. We are trying to create order from chaos.
@rossturk: As a downstream user, I seek more colors, because I like to make things with this logo. As a user I want to be able to make more vibrant stuff.
@ra33it0: What we have right now are two blues, and blues in psychology mean trust and reliability.
@ra33it0: Blue could also resemble water and the purity and adapability of water. And water is also interesting because it have all these different states of matter.
@rossturk: I like notion of stability and consistency. I look at Nix to create the universe of possibilities.
@rossturk: most important for me is that nix retains its universe of possibilities as part of the brand
@idabzo: I am thinking about all these fantastic people that build this community. We said there are no two similar flakes and we can say the same about the community members.
@ra33it0: There is also this heavy tie in mathematics to eigenvalues, and philosophy.
@rossturk: Hexagons are a good example of self organization
Colors
@rossturk: How can this discussion about branding core influence color choices?
@djacu: The thing I was thinking about as we were discussing community members and the infinity possiblities was why not the same for colors. Therefore no restrictions.
@rossturk: It would really tie into some of the brand elements if the color system represented the physical rules of the “universe” and people could use it somewhat organically
@djacu: I think one thing I can do to solve the rainbow color issue is that for variations where we are borrowing from pre-existing colors, create a new colorspace specifically for that logo varation.
Granted, I do like our current logo, but keep in mind that it’s also quite well-known and doing something new would probably mess up the “brand recognition”.
Right now, I fail to read a greater motivation out of the transcript. And e.g. “I seek more colors” part doesn’t sound very convincing to me at least.
Marketing lead here—just jumping in to calm any rising concerns.
What we’re doing right now is a set of efforts to put things in the right place when it comes to our visual identity—logo, font, and branding in general.
While we already have a well-crafted logotype and a great open-source-friendly font (Vengur), we’ve been missing proper documentation and guidelines—things like how to use the logo across different contexts, how not to use it, color recommendations, etc. These have become standard practice for most projects and are super helpful in maintaining consistency.
There will be some small updates to the logo, but believe me—they’re incredibly minor (think: adjusting element spacing for better balance). If we didn’t mention them, most folks probably wouldn’t even notice.
The notes shared earlier came from a brainstorming session as part of this broader design process. The meeting itself was very productive and covered a lot of ground, though admittedly it’s hard to capture the full context in written minutes when discussions are that intense.
To clarify a few key points:
We’re currently refining the overall design system - @djacu has been working tirelessly and making great progress.
the Flake logo is here to stay! We love it, and aside from minor tweaks for improved symmetry and an improved color palette, it’s not going anywhere.
we’re putting together a set of guidelines for how to properly use NixOS/Nix branding in the real world - nothing will change in a way that would upset the community. Everything we’re doing is with the community’s best interest in mind.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ping me on Matrix or reach out in the marketing channel. Always happy to chat!
1000x this! I’ll expand on this to give more history about why I started this and what will be different.
Background
There have been several long standing issues with the original logo that I want to fix. There are also general issues with our branding that I want to resolve.
If you look closely, you’ll see that the edges of the lambda are not collinear (see image below).
Additionally, you’ll see that edges of the lambdas that should be horizontal are not (see image below).
The gradients of the lambdas are not well defined and are not the same for both colors.
The anatomy of the logo is not defined. This includes things like the size of the lambda, how long legs are, the size of the gap between lambdas, etc.
The spacing between the logo and the logotype is undefined.
The spacing between characters in the logotype is undefined.
There is no general guidance on usage which hurts our ability to enforce a trademark after the board applies for one
There is no guidance about usage, clear space, variations, sizing, and many other things that should be considered and written down when creating a logo, style guide, and branding identity.
To address these issues, I have begun re-creating the logo from code. The entire lambda is now parametrically defined. It is as mathematically perfect as computers can make it. And it creates deterministic SVG files. I want to accomplish all this while still preserving the original logo design as much as possible and brand recognition it has.
Changes
Unless you have stared at the NixOS logo for hundreds of hours, you probably will not see a difference. I have been staring at the logo for months doing this redesign and, at a glance, I cannot tell the difference. The biggest change is the proportions of the lambda. You can look at it two ways but they are effectively the same: the top part of the lambda got longer or the two bottom legs got closer together. This matches the same mathematical model that I created for the openscad implementation a year ago (and what tipped me off that something about the design was off). Spatially aligning the gradient definitions caused a minor shift in color across the lambas on the order of a couple bits. I am flipping between the new and old logo in my browser and I cannot perceive any color difference. Suffice to say the original look and feel of logo is well preserved.
Current work
If you are curious about the kinds of products that need need to go into a branding style guide, below is a picture of a snowflake’s lambda. This is one of the many images that would go into the anatomy section of the guide. Fully dimensioned. No ambiguity. I think it’s pretty cool.
When creating a branding guide, you generally have some section discussing colors and variations. Usually, you see design teams create a color palette and then pick only colors from that palette for the logo. We have the two toned blue logo, the white logo, and we also have the rainbow logo. But what if we want to create more varations? We don’t have a color palette defined. The discussion around colors was to brainstorm how our core identity can influence colors and what rules we should set in place to ensure good design practices are used and brand uniformity across the current and future variations of the logo.
Sorry I tried to capture the core take from certain discussions as it was hard to keep up. The first section was our discussion about brand identity and how we can use that to influence choices we make in the branding guide. @rossturk had brought up that the lambda gained prominence as a symbol for lesbian, gay, and LGBTQ+ rights in the 1970s. However, he wasn’t sure if that was still used and also an acceptable symbol in those circles in the modern day. We talked about it a bit but I just captured everyone’s final feelings about it with that comment.
