@subsection Goals

The @file{trunk/Identity} directory structure implements @emph{The

CentOS Project Corporate Identity}.

@subsection 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

visual 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}.

@subsubsection Corporate Design

The CentOS Project corporate design is applied to every single visual

manifestations The CentOS Project as organization wants to express its

existence. Examples of the most relevant visual manifestations inside

The CentOS Project are @emph{The CentOS Distribution}, @emph{The

CentOS Web} and @emph{The CentOS Stationery}.

The CentOS Project corporate design is organized in the following

work-lines:

@table @strong

@item The CentOS Brand

The CentOS Brand is the name or trademark that connects the producer

with their products. In this case, the producer is The CentOS Project

and the products are The CentOS Project visual manifestations. 

@xref{Repository trunk Identity Brands}, for more information.

@item The CentOS Colors

The CentOS Fonts provides the color information used along The CentOS

Project visual manifestations.

@xref{Repository trunk Identity Colors}, for more information.

@item The CentOS Fonts

The CentOS Fonts provides the typography information used along The

CentOS Project visual manifestations.

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

@item The CentOS Themes

The CentOS Themes provides structural information and visual style

information, as well, used along The CentOS Project visual

manifestations.

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

@end table

@subsubsection Corporate Communication

The CentOS Project corporate communication is based on community

communication.  In that sake, the following media are available for

corporate communication:

@itemize

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

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

@end itemize

@subsubsection Corporate Behaviour

The CentOS Project corporate behaviour is based on community

behaviour.

@subsubsection Corporate Structure

The CentOS Project corporate structure is based on a @emph{monolithic}

corporate visual identity structure. In this structure, we use one

unique name (The CentOS Brand) and one unique visual style (The CentOS

Theme) in all The CentOS Project visual manifestations.

Inside 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 have been considered as well, but they

introduce visual contradictions we need to be aware of.  In that sake,

lets describe the idea of: @emph{Producing one different visual style

for each major release of The CentOS Distribution}.

The CentOS Project maintains near to four different major releases of

The CentOS Distribution parallely in time and that fact makes one part

of The CentOS Project structural design, but just one part, not the

complete structural design.  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. Would we end up with four different visual styles,

one for each distribution?  In that case, why The CentOS Distribution

we use shows one visual style, The CentOS Web sites another and The

CentOS Stationery even another completly different one?  Isn't them

all part of the same project?

Probably you be 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, it is 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 wangs or something but hardly working out to automate

tasks and so providing maintainance through time. Said that, we

consider that The CentOS Project visual structure should be consequent

with such stability and consistency tradition. It is true 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

does is in not propagating the brand new visual style created for the

new release of 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.

@subsection Usage

The @file{trunk/} directory structure is organized in

@emph{renderable} and @emph{non-renderable} directories. Generally,

renderable directories contain two non-renderable directories inside,

one to store design templates (the @file{Tpl/} directory), and other

to store the content produced (the @file{Img/} directory).

In order to produce content inside rendereble directories, you can use

the following command:

@verbatim 

centos-art render trunk/Identity/Path/To/Dir

@end verbatim

@quotation 

@strong{Warning} If the @command{centos-art} command-line

is not found in your workstation, it is probably because you haven't

prepared it for using The CentOS Artwork Repository yet.

@xref{Repository trunk Scripts Bash Cli Functions Verify}, for more

information.  

@end quotation

This command takes one design template from the template directory and

creates an instance of it in order to apply translation messages on

it, if any. Later, using the design template instance, the command

renders the final content based on whether the design template

instance is a SVG file or a Docbook file. If the design template

instace is a SVG file, the final content produced is a PNG image. On

the other hand, if the design template instance is a Docbook file, the

final content produced is a XHTML file. Final content is stored in the

image directory using the design template directory paths as referece.

The rendition flow described so far is known as the

@emph{base-rendition} flow.

Besides the base-rendition flow, the @command{centos-art} provides the

@emph{post-rendition} and @emph{last-rendition} flows.  The

post-rendition flow is applied to files produced as result of

base-rendition flow under the same directory structure. For example,

you can use post-rendition action to convert the PNG base output into

different outputs (e.g., JPG, PDF, etc.) before passing to process the

next file in the same directory structure.  The last-rendition flow is

applied to all files produced as result of both base-rendition and

post-rendition flows in the same directory structure, just before

passing to process a different directory structure.  For example, the

@file{Preview.png} image from Ksplash component is made of three

images. In order to build the @file{Preview.png} image through

@command{centos-art} we need to wait for all the three images the

@file{Preview.png} image is made of to be rendered, so we can combine

them all together into just one image (i.e., the @file{Preview.png}

image).  This is something we can't do using post-rendition flow.

Inside @file{trunk/Identity} directory structure, you can find that

base-rendition, post-rendition and last-rendition flows can be

combined to build @emph{directory-specific} rendition.  The

directory-specific rendition exists to automatically process specific

renderable directories in very specific ways. Using directory-specific

rendition speeds up production of different components like Syslinux,

Grub, Gdm, Kdm and Ksplash that require intermediate formats or even

several independent files, in order to reach its final construction.

Directory-specific rendition is a way to programmatically describe how

specific art works are built in and organized inside The CentOS

Artwork Repository.  Such descriptions have been added to

@command{centos-art} command-line to let you produce them all with

just one single command, as fast as your machine can be able to handle

it. 

@xref{Repository trunk Scripts Bash Cli Functions Identity}, for more

information about the @command{identity} functionality of

@command{centos-art} command-line interface.

@subsection 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 be, 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.