@subheading Goals

The @file{trunk/Identity} describes what The CentOS Project Corporate

Identity is and the components it is made of.

@subheading Description

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 @emph{Corporate Design},

@emph{Corporate Communication}, and @emph{Corporate Behaviour}.

@float Figure, The CentOS Project Corporate Identity

@image{trunk/Identity/Images/Manual/Corporate/monolithic,450pt,,,jpg}

@caption{The CentOS Project Corporate Identity.}

@end float

@subsubheading Corporate Mission

The CentOS Project exists to provide The CentOS Distribution.

Additionally, The CentOS Project provides The CentOS Web and The

CentOS Showroom to support and promote the existence of The CentOS

Distribution, respectively.

@subsubheading Corporate Design

Corporate design is focused on the effective communication of

corporate visual messages. Corporate visual messages are all the

information emitted by a corporation that can be perceived by the

people through their visual sence (i.e., the human eye).  In order for

such visual communication to happen, it is required to put the visual

message on medium available for people to see.  These kind of media

are know as corporate visual manifestations, since the corporate

manifests its existence through them using corporate design. 

The amount of visual manifestations a corporation uses to communicate

its existence is very specific to each corporation itself. Inside The

CentOS Project Corporate Identity, considering @emph{The CentOS

Project Corporate Structure}, @emph{The CentOS Project Corporate

Mission} and @emph{The CentOS Project Release Schema}, the following

visual manifestations were defined:

@table @strong 

@item The CentOS Distribution 

The CentOS Distribution visual manifestation covers all actions

related to branding and artwork production required by the The CentOS

Distribution. @xref{Directories trunk Identity Themes Models Default

Distro}.

The CentOS Distribution is 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 Project 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 upstream vendor has released 4 versions of their

@acronym{EL,Enterprise Linux} product that The CentOS Project rebuilds

the freely available SRPMS for.  The upstream vendor releases security

updates as required by circumstances. The CentOS Project releases

rebuilds of security updates as soon as possible. Usually within 24

hours (our stated goal is with 72 hours, but we are usually much

faster).

The upstream vendor also releases numbered update sets for major

versions of their EL product from 2 to 4 times per year. There are new

ISOs from the upstream vendor provided for these update sets.  Update

sets will be completed as soon as possible after the upstream vendor

releases their version @dots{} generally within 2 weeks. The CentOS

Project follows these conventions as well, so CentOS-3.9 correlates

with EL 3 update 9 and CentOS-4.6 correlates with EL 4 update 6,

CentOS-5.1 correlates to EL 5 update 1, etc.

One thing some people have problems understanding is that if you have

any CentOS-3 product and update it, you will be updated to the latest

CentOS-3.x version.  

The same is true for CentOS-4 and CentOS-5. If you update any CentOS-4

product, you will be updated to the latest CentOS-4.x version, or to

the latest CentOS-5.x version if you are updating a CentOS-5 system.

This is exactly the same behavior as the upstream product.  Let's

assume that the latest EL4 product is update 6. If you install the

upstream original EL4 CDs (the ones before any update set) and upgrade

via @command{yum}, you will have latest update set installed (EL4

update 6 in our example). Since all updates within a major release

(CentOS-2, CentOS-3, CentOS-4, CentOS-5) always upgrade to the latest

version when updates are performed (thus mimicking upstream behavior),

only the latest version is maintained in each main tree on The CentOS

Mirrors (@url{http://mirrors.centos.org/}).

There is a CentOS Vault (@url{http://vault.centos.org/}) containing

old CentOS trees. This vault is a picture of the older tree when it

was removed from the main tree, and does not receive updates. It

should only be used for reference. 

@item The CentOS Web

The CentOS Web exists to support The CentOS Distribution. 

The CentOS Web covers web applications which let The CentOS Project to

manifest its existence on the Internet. Through these web applications

The CentOS Project provides Corporate Communication.  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 contraditions when they all are

put together.  These visual contraditions need to be removed in order

to comply with The CentOS Project Corporate Structure guidelines.

@item The CentOS Showroom

The CentOS Showroom exists to promote The CentOS Distribution.

The CentOS Showroom covers industrial production of objects branded by

The CentOS Project (e.g., clothes, stationery and installation media).

These branded objects are for distribution on social events and/or

shops. They provide a way of both promotion and monetary incomming to

aliviate The CentOS Project expenses (e.g., electrical power, hosting,

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

do.

@end table

The visual manifestation described above seems to be enough for what

The CentOS Project is, by now. However, other visual manifestations

could be added in the future, if needed, to cover different areas like

building, offices, road transportation and whaterver visual

manifestation The CentOS Project thouches to show its existence.

@subsubheading Corporate Communication

The CentOS Project Corporate Communication is based on @emph{Community

Communication} and takes place through the following avenues:

@itemize

@item The CentOS Chat (@code{#centos}, @code{#centos-social},

@code{#centos-devel} on irc.freenode.net)

@item The CentOS Mailing Lists (@url{http://lists.centos.org/}).

@item The CentOS Forums (@url{http://forums.centos.org/}).

@item The CentOS Wiki (@url{http://wiki.centos.org/}).

@end itemize

@subsubheading Corporate Behaviour

The CentOS Project Corporate Behaviour is based on @emph{Community

Behaviour} which take place on @emph{Corporate Communication}.

@subsubheading Corporate Structure

The CentOS Project Corporate Structure is based on a @emph{Monolithic

Corporate Visual Identity Structure}. In this configuration, one

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

manifestation of The CentOS Project.

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: @emph{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 manifestions: Distribution, Web and Showroom.

Inside the Distribution visual manifestations, The CentOS Project

maintains near to four different major releases of CentOS

Distribution, parallely in time.  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 created for no release-specific at all, but for The CentOS Project

in general.

In order to produce the correct corporate structure for The CentOS

Project we need to concider all the visual manifestations The CentOS

Project is made of, not just one of them.  If one different visual

style is used 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, that's right, 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?

Harder to maintain, more work to do, probably. Specially when you

consider that The CentOS Project has proven stability and consistency

through time and, that, certainly, didn't come through swinging

magical wands or something but hardly working out to automate tasks

and providing maintainance through time. Said that, we consider that

The CentOS Project Corporate Structure should be consequent with such

stability and consistency tradition. It is true that The CentOS Brand

does connect all the visual manifestations it is present on, but that

connection would be 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.

Obviously, 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 dead project. So, there is no problem on creating a brand new

visual style for each new major release of The CentOS Distribution, in

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

in not propagating the brand 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 contradition we are

precisely trying to solve by mean of themes production in the CentOS

Artwork Repository.

@subheading Usage

The @file{trunk/Identity} directory structure organizes most files

used to build and implement The CentOS Project Corporate Identity. In

that sake, the following work lines are available:

@table @strong

@item Brushes

This work line provides brushes for GIMP. When you prepare the

repository, brushes in this location are made available immediatly for

you to use in the ``Brushes'' panel of GIMP.

@xref{Directories trunk Identity Brushes}, for more

information.

@item Fonts

This work line provides the typography information required by all

different visual manifestations of The CentOS Project. When you

prepare the repository, fonts in this location are made available

immediatly for you to use in GIMP and Inkscape.

@xref{Directories trunk Identity Fonts}, for more information.

@item Images

This work line provides output location for final images that don't

need to use background images (e.g., brands, icons, illustrations,

etc.).

@xref{Directories trunk Identity Images}, for more information.

@item Models

This work line provides design models for final images that don't need

to use background images (e.g., brands, icons, illustrations, etc.).

@xref{Directories trunk Identity Models}, for more information.

@item Palettes 

This work line provides palettes of colors for GIMP and Inkscape. When

you prepare the repository, palettes of colors in this location are

made available immediatly for you to use in the ``Palettes'' panel of

GIMP and Inkscape.

@xref{Directories trunk Identity Palettes}, for more information.

@item Patterns

This work line provides patterns for GIMP. When you prepare the

repository, patterns in this location are made available immediatly

for you to use in the ``Patterns'' panel of GIMP.

@xref{Directories trunk Identity Patterns}, for more information.

@item Themes

This work line provides theme design models and theme artistic motifs

for The CentOS Project. If you are interested in creating brand new

visual styles for The CentOS Project this is the place for you.

@xref{Directories trunk Identity Themes}, for more information.

@item Webenv

This work line provides the HTML/XHTML and CSS standard definitions

used by The CentOS Web visual manifestation. If you are a web

developer and plan to improve The CentOS Web visual manifestation,

then the files in this location may result very useful to you.

@xref{Directories trunk Identity Webenv}, for more information.

@end table

@subheading See also

See @url{http://en.wikipedia.org/Corporate_identity} (and related

links), for general information on Corporate Identity. 

Specially useful has been, and still is, the book @emph{Corporate

Identity} by Wally Olins (1989). This book provides many conceptual

ideas we've used as base to build The CentOS Artwork Repository.