The CentOS Project Corporate Visual Identity

============================================

Alain Reguera Delgado <al@centos.org.cu>

v1.0, Jul 2013

Abstract

--------

The CentOS Project Corporate Identity is the ``persona'' of the

organization known as The CentOS Project.  The CentOS Project

Corporate Identity plays a significant role in the way The CentOS

Project, as organization, presents itself to both internal and

external stakeholders. In general terms, The CentOS Project Corporate

Identity expresses the values and ambitions of The CentOS Project

organization, its business, and its characteristics.

The CentOS Project Corporate Identity provides visibility,

recognizability, reputation, structure and identification to The

CentOS Project organization by means of Corporate Design, Corporate

Communication, and Corporate Behavior.

[[corporate_identity]]

.The CentOS Project Corporate Identity

image::corporate.png[alt="The CentOS Project Corporate Identity"]

Corporate Mission

-----------------

The CentOS Project exists to produce The CentOS Distribution, an

Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely

provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux

vendor.  The CentOS Distribution conforms fully with the upstream

vendors redistribution policy and aims to be 100% binary compatible.

(The CentOS Distribution mainly changes packages to remove upstream

vendor branding and artwork.).

The CentOS Distribution is developed by a small but growing team of

core developers.  In turn the core developers are supported by an

active user community including system administrators, network

administrators, enterprise users, managers, core Linux contributors

and Linux enthusiasts from around the world.

The CentOS Distribution has numerous advantages including: an active

and growing user community, quickly rebuilt, tested, and QA'ed errata

packages, an extensive mirror network, developers who are contactable

and responsive of a reliable Enterprise-class Linux Distribution,

multiple free support avenues including a

http://wiki.centos.org/[Wiki],

http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=8[IRC Chat],

http://lists.centos.org/[Email Lists],

http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/[Forums], and a dynamic

http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/[FAQ].

Corporate Graphic Design

------------------------

Corporate graphic design is focused on the presentation of corporate

messages with efficiency and efficacy. Corporate graphic design is a

cornerstone of corporate visual identity.  When the organization

doesn't take control over the corporate messages it produces, the

organization is letting that area of its identity to the unknown and

the result might be good or not so good, it is hard to know.  Even the

organization doesn't take control over its corporate messages they are

always talking about the organization.  Taking control of corporate

messages presentation is a decision the organization needs to take by

itself, based on its need of better describe what it is.  To work out

the corporate graphic design of an organization it is required to

identify which are the visual manifestations the organization reflects

its existence on.

The CentOS Artwork SIG has identified the following visual

manifestations for The CentOS Project organization:

* GNU/Linux Distribution -- to control the operating system appearance.

* Web environment -- to control the web applications appearance.

* Promotion -- to control the industrial media appearance.

[[centos-brand]]

Corporate Brand

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The corporate brand is the graphical identification of an

organization.  The CentOS Artwork SIG uses The CentOS Brand to connect

all the visual manifestations The CentOS Project is made of (e.g.,

GNU/Linux Distributions, Websites, Stationery, etc.) and, this way, it

provides visual recognition among similar projects available on the

Internet.

The CentOS Brand is composed of a graphical component known as The

CentOS Symbol and a typographical component known as The CentOS Type.

When The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type are put together, they

create what we know as The CentOS Logo.  All the components that make

The CentOS Brand can be used together or separately, considering that,

in hierarchy order, The CentOS Logo is rather preferred than The

CentOS Symbol, as well as The CentOS Symbol is rather preferred than

The CentOS Type alone.

image:corporate-logo-howto.png[corporate-logo-howto.png]

The CentOS Brand must be exactly the same every time it is printed

out, no matter what the medium is.  A route to reproduce The CentOS

Brand this way must be used so as to avoid reproduction mistakes of

any kind when final images are branded with it. To prevent such

mistakes, The CentOS Artwork SIG uses configuration files and the

*render* module of *centos-art.sh* script to produce PNG brand images

of different sizes and colors that can be combined later with other

images instead of manipulating The CentOS Brand in SVG format inside

each different design model that requires it.  This also grants a

single point of change for all brands already applied on final images.

In this environment, if you make a change to brands SVG files, they

will be propagated to all final images the next time you render them.

The CentOS Symbol is the graphical part of The CentOS Logo. As The

CentOS Logo, The CentOS Symbol is used to ``brand'' images produced by

The CentOS Project and provide visual connection between images so

they can be monolithically recognized as part of The CentOS Project.

The CentOS Symbol must be exactly the same every time it is printed

out and a route to reproduce it in such a way must be available so as

to avoid reproduction mistakes when images are branded with it.

The CentOS Type is the typographical part of The CentOS Logo.  The

CentOS Type is used to ``brand'' images produce by The CentOS Project

and provide visual connection between images so they can be

monolithically recognized as part of The CentOS Project.  The CentOS

Type alone provides less recognition than The CentOS Logo and The

CentOS Symbol. Frequently, The CentOS Type is used to advert the major

release of CentOS Distribution on the first images shown as part of

Distribution installation process.  The CentOS Symbol and any release

information printed out with it must have exactly the same proportions

every time they are printed out.

Corporate Fonts

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The CentOS Artwork SIG uses the following font files in their

corporate graphic designs:

image:corporate-fonts.png[corporate-fonts.png]

Corporate Colors

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In addition to colors used in The CentOS Symbol (9ccd2aff, 932279ff,

262577ff, efa724ff) and The CentOS Default Background Color

(204c8dff), The CentOS Artwork SIG uses the following colors in their

corporate graphic designs:

image:../corporate-colors.png[corporate-colors.png]

Artistic motifs have not any limitation in the number of colors used.

If you are a graphic designer creating artistic motifs for The CentOS

Project, feel free to take your creativeness at its limit by creating

color-full artistic motifs. For final bootup images which require a

reduced number of colors, create palette of colors for them with the

appropriate number of colors and let the *render* module of

*centos-art.sh* script to do the rest.

[[centos-clothes]]

Corporate Clothes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The CentOS clothes identify the The CentOS Project representative

people at public presentations.

image:../corporate-clothes-head.png[corporate-clothes-cap.png]

image:../corporate-clothes-torso.png[corporate-clothes-shirt.png]

[[corporate-themes]]

Corporate Themes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The CentOS themes organize visual styles for all the visual

manifestation The CentOS Project is made of. In order to automate the

process of rendering images based on customizable patterns, themes

have been divided into ``design models'', ``localization files,'' and

``artistic motifs.''

image:corporate-themes.png[corporate-themes.png]

[[corporate-themes-models]]

Design Models

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Design models are compressed SVG files created with Inkscape. They

describe the image files used to implement the CentOS project visual

manifestations.  For example, in the specific case of CentOS

distribution, each final image you want to re-brand has a design model

associated used to set the final image dimensions, whether or not it

has round borders, and what background to use on it.  Design models

are created once and rarely modified through time. They are only

modified if the visual manifestation they refer to changes or needs to

be tuned up.

[[corporate-themes-l10n]]

Localization Files

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Localization files provide localization for messages inside design

models. For example, if you decide to use slide images in CentOS

installer, you need to create one design model for each slide image

you want to produce in English language. Then, using *locale* module,

you create PO files for each design model you have. PO files are

created using the current language information of your terminal (e.g.,

see value of +LANG+ variable). Then you use the *locale* module again

to edit the PO files and provide string translations from English to

your preferred language.  Once translations are on the PO files, you

use the *render* module to produce images for your preferred language,

based on the artistic motif you initiate rendition for and the related

design models set in the rendition configuration file.

[[corporate-themes-motifs]]

Artistic Motifs

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Artistic motifs are PNG images holding the look and feel of each

design model available.  One important characteristic of artistic

motifs is preserving one unique visual style for all the PNG images

they are made of.  Artistic motifs aren't limited in number. It is

possible to have several artistic motifs and produce final images for

all of them using one single set of design models. Artistic motifs

give plenty of room for graphic designers' creativeness.  As

convention, artistic motifs are conceived without any specific brand

information on them. The brand information is set using brand images

later, when final images are produced.

[[corporate-communication]]

Corporate Communication

-----------------------

The CentOS Project corporate communication is focused on the effective

propagation of corporate messages. Propagation of corporate messages

is closely related to the media the organization uses as vehicle to

distribute its corporate messages.

The CentOS Project corporate communication takes place through the

following visual manifestations:

The CentOS Distribution

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This visual manifestation communicates its existence through software

packages.  There are packages that make a remarkable use of images,

packages that make a moderate use of images, and packages that don't

use images at all.  This visual manifestation is focused on providing

The CentOS Project images required by software packages that do use

images in a remarkable way, specially those holding the upstream brand

(e.g., _anaconda_, _grub_, _syslinux_, _gdm_, _kdebase_).

- The Community Enterprise Operating System itself (communicates the

  essence of The CentOS Project existence.).

- Release Schema (Lifetime) and all the stuff related (e.g., Release

  Notes, Documentation, Erratas, etc.).

The CentOS Web

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This visual manifestation communicates its existence through web

applications.  These web applications are free software and come from

different providers which distribute their work with predefined visual

styles.  Frequently, these predefined visual styles have no visual

relation among themselves and introduce some visual contradictions

when they all are put together.  Removing these visual contradictions

is object of work for this visual manifestation.

- The CentOS Chat.

- The CentOS Mailing Lists.

- The CentOS Forums.

- The CentOS Wiki.

- Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

- Social Events, Interviews, Conferences, etc.

- The extensive network of mirrors available for downloading ISO files

  as well as RPMs and SRPMs used to build them up in different

  architectures.

The CentOS Showroom

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This visual manifestation communicates its existence through

production of industrial objects carrying The CentOS Brand.  These

branded objects are directed to be distributed on social events and/or

shops. They provide a way of promotion and commercialization that may

help to reduce The CentOS Project expenses (e.g., electrical power,

hosting, servers, full-time-developers, etc.), in a similar way as

donations may do.

- Stationery (e.g., Posters, Stickers, CD Lables and Sleeves).

- Clothes (e.g., Shirts, T-shirts, Pullovers, Caps).

- Installation media (e.g., CDs, DVD, Pen-drives).

Corporate Behavior

-------------------

The CentOS Project corporate behavior is focused on the effective

interaction of each member involved in the organization (e.g., core

developers, community members, etc.).  It is related to ethics and

politics used to do the things inside the organization. It is related

to the sense of direction chosen by the organization and the way the

organization projects itself to achieve it.

The CentOS Project corporate behavior is based on a meritocracy (the

more you do the more you are allowed to do).

Corporate Structure

-------------------

The CentOS Project corporate structure is based on a Monolithic

Corporate Visual Identity Structure. In this configuration, one unique

name and one unique visual style is used in all visual manifestation

The CentOS Project is made of.

In a monolithic corporate visual identity structure, internal and

external stakeholders use to feel a strong sensation of uniformity,

orientation, and identification with the organization. No matter if

you are visiting web sites, using the distribution, or acting on

social events, the one unique name and one unique visual style

connects them all to say: Hey! we are all part of The CentOS Project.

Other corporate structures for The CentOS Project have been considered

as well. Such is the case of producing one different visual style for

each major release of The CentOS Distribution. This structure isn't

inconvenient at all, but some visual contradictions could be

introduced if it isn't applied correctly and we need to be aware of

it. To apply it correctly, we need to know what The CentOS Project is

made of.

The CentOS Project, as organization, is mainly made of (but not

limited to) three visual manifestations: The CentOS Distribution, The

CentOS Web and The CentOS Showroom.  Inside The CentOS Distribution

visual manifestations, The CentOS Project maintains near to four

different major releases of The CentOS Distribution, in parallel.

However, inside The CentOS Web visual manifestations, the content is

produced for no specific release information (e.g., there is no a

complete web site for each major release of The CentOS Distribution

individually, but one web site to cover them all).  Likewise, the

content produced in The CentOS Showroom is industrially created for no

specific release, but The CentOS Project in general.

In order to produce the The CentOS Project Monolithic Corporate Visual

Identity Structure correctly, we need to consider all the visual

manifestations The CentOS Project is made of, not just one of them.

If one different visual style is implemented for each major release of

The CentOS Distribution, which one of those different visual styles

would be used to cover the remaining visual manifestations The CentOS

Project is made of (e.g., The CentOS Web and The CentOS Showroom)?

Probably you are thinking: yes, I see your point, but The CentOS Brand

connects them all already, why would we need to join them up into the

same visual style too, isn't it more work to do, and harder to

maintain?  It is true that The CentOS Brand does connect all the

visual manifestations it is present on, but that connection is even

stronger if one unique visual style backups it.  In fact, whatever

thing you do to strength the visual connection among The CentOS

Project visual manifestations would be very good in favor of The

CentOS Project recognition.

Having just one visual style in all visual manifestations for eternity

would be a very boring thing and would give the idea of a visually

out-of-date project. So, there is no problem on creating new visual

styles for each new major release of The CentOS Distribution, in order

to refresh The CentOS Distribution visual style; the problem itself is

in not propagating the new visual style created for the new release of

The CentOS Distribution to all other visual manifestations The CentOS

Project is made of, in a way The CentOS Project could be recognized no

matter what visual manifestation be in front of us. Such lack of

uniformity is what introduces the visual contradiction The CentOS

Artwork SIG is precisely trying to solve by mean of automating the

production of corporate themes inside The CentOS Artwork Repository.

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