Blame Manuals/Texinfo/Directories/trunk/Identity.texi

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@subheading Goals
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The @file{trunk/Identity} describes what The CentOS Project Corporate
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Identity is and the components it is made of.
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@subheading Description
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The CentOS Project Corporate Identity is the ``persona'' of the
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organization known as The CentOS Project.  The CentOS Project
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Corporate Identity plays a significant role in the way The CentOS
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Project, as organization, presents itself to both internal and
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external stakeholders. In general terms, The CentOS Project Corporate
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Identity expresses the values and ambitions of The CentOS Project
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organization, its business, and its characteristics.  
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The CentOS Project Corporate Identity provides visibility,
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recognizability, reputation, structure and identification to The
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CentOS Project organization by means of @emph{Corporate Design},
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@emph{Corporate Communication}, and @emph{Corporate Behaviour}.
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@image{trunk/Identity/Images/Manual/Corporate/monolithic,450pt,,,jpg}
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@subsubheading Corporate Mission
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The CentOS Project exists to provide The CentOS Distribution.
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Additionally, The CentOS Project provides The CentOS Web and The
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CentOS Showroom to support and promote the existence of The CentOS
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Distribution, respectively.
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@subsubheading Corporate Design
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Corporate design is focused on the effective communication of
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corporate visual messages. Corporate visual messages are all the
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information emitted by a corporation that can be perceived by the
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people through their visual sence (i.e., the human eye).  In order for
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such visual communication to happen, it is required to put the visual
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message on medium available for people to see.  These kind of media
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are know as corporate visual manifestations, since the corporate
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manifests its existence through them using corporate design. 
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The amount of visual manifestations a corporation uses to communicate
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its existence is very specific to each corporation itself. Inside The
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CentOS Project Corporate Identity, considering @emph{The CentOS
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Project Corporate Structure}, @emph{The CentOS Project Corporate
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Mission} and @emph{The CentOS Project Release Schema}, the following
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visual manifestations were defined:
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@table @strong 
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@item The CentOS Distribution 
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The CentOS Distribution visual manifestation exists to cover all
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actions related to artwork production and rebranding required by the
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The CentOS Distribution (--- @strong{Removed}(pxref:Directories trunk Identity Images Themes
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Models Default Distro) ---) in order to comply with its upstream
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redistribution guidelines.
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The CentOS Distribution is made of software packages. Inside the
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distribution there are packages that make a remarkable use of images
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and there are packages that don't use images at all. The CentOS
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Distribution visual manifestation gets focused on software packages
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that do use images in a remarkable way (e.g., @file{anaconda},
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@file{grub}, @file{syslinux}, @file{gdm}, @file{kdm}) and that way,
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through images, implements the corporate design in The CentOS
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Distribution (i.e., the operating system).
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@item The CentOS Web
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The CentOS Web visual manifestation exists to support The CentOS
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Distribution. 
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The CentOS Web covers web applications which let The CentOS Project to
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manifest its existence on the Internet. Through these web applications
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The CentOS Project provides Corporate Communication.  These web
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applications are free software and come from different providers which
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distribute their work with predefined visual styles.  Frequently,
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these predefined visual styles have no visual relation among
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themselves and introduce some visual contraditions when they all are
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put together.  These visual contraditions need to be removed in order
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to comply with The CentOS Project Corporate Structure guidelines.
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@item The CentOS Showroom
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The CentOS Showroom visual manifestation exists to promote The CentOS
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Distribution.
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The CentOS Showroom covers industrial production of objects branded by
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The CentOS Project (e.g., clothes, stationery and installation media).
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These branded objects are for distribution on social events and/or
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shops. They provide a way of promotion and a route for
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commercialization that may help to aliviate The CentOS Project
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expenses (e.g., electrical power, hosting, servers,
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full-time-developers, etc.), in a similar way as donations may do.
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@end table
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The visual manifestations above seem to cover all the media required
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by The CentOS Project, as organization, to show its existence.
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However, other visual manifestations could be added in the future, if
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needed, to cover different areas like building, offices, road
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transportation and whaterver visual manifestation The CentOS Project
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thouches to show its existence.
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@subsubheading Corporate Communication
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The CentOS Project Corporate Communication is based on @emph{Community
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Communication} and takes place through the following avenues:
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@itemize
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@item The CentOS Chat (@code{#centos}, @code{#centos-social},
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@code{#centos-devel} on irc.freenode.net)
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@item The CentOS Mailing Lists (@url{http://lists.centos.org/}).
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@item The CentOS Forums (@url{http://forums.centos.org/}).
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@item The CentOS Wiki (@url{http://wiki.centos.org/}).
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@item Social events, interviews, conferences, etc.
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@end itemize
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@subsubheading Corporate Behaviour
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The CentOS Project Corporate Behaviour is based on @emph{Community
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Behaviour} which take place on @emph{Corporate Communication}.
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@subsubheading Corporate Structure
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The CentOS Project Corporate Structure is based on a @emph{Monolithic
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Corporate Visual Identity Structure}. In this configuration, one
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unique name and one unique visual style is used in all visual
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manifestation of The CentOS Project.
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In a monolithic corporate visual identity structure, internal and
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external stakeholders use to feel a strong sensation of uniformity,
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orientation, and identification with the organization. No matter if
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you are visiting web sites, using the distribution, or acting on
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social events, the one unique name and one unique visual style
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connects them all to say: @emph{Hey! we are all part of The CentOS
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Project}.
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Other corporate structures for The CentOS Project have been considered
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as well. Such is the case of producing one different visual style for
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each major release of The CentOS Distribution. This structure isn't
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inconvenient at all, but some visual contradictions could be
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introduced if it isn't applied correctly and we need to be aware of
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it. To apply it correctly, we need to know what The CentOS Project is
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made of.
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The CentOS Project, as organization, is mainly made of (but not
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limited to) three visual manifestions: Distribution, Web and Showroom.
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Inside the Distribution visual manifestations, The CentOS Project
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maintains near to four different major releases of CentOS
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Distribution, parallely in time.  However, inside The CentOS Web
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visual manifestations, the content is produced for no specific release
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information (e.g., there is no a complete web site for each major
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release of The CentOS Distribution individually, but one web site to
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cover them all). Likewise, the content produced in The CentOS Showroom
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is created for no release-specific at all, but for The CentOS Project
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in general.
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In order to produce the correct corporate structure for The CentOS
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Project we need to concider all the visual manifestations The CentOS
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Project is made of, not just one of them.  If one different visual
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style is used for each major release of The CentOS Distribution, which
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one of those different visual styles would be used to cover the
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remaining visual manifestations The CentOS Project is made of (e.g.,
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The CentOS Web and The CentOS Showroom)?
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Probably you are thinking, that's right, but The CentOS Brand connects
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them all already, why would we need to join them up into the same
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visual style too, isn't it more work to do, and harder to maintain?
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Harder to maintain, more work to do, probably. Specially when you
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consider that The CentOS Project has proven stability and consistency
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through time and, that, certainly, didn't come through swinging
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magical wands or something but hardly working out to automate tasks
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and providing maintainance through time. Said that, we consider that
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The CentOS Project Corporate Structure must be consequent with such
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stability and consistency tradition. It is true that The CentOS Brand
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does connect all the visual manifestations it is present on, but that
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connection would be stronger if one unique visual style backups it.
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In fact, whatever thing you do to strength the visual connection among
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The CentOS Project visual manifestations would be very good in favor
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of The CentOS Project recognition.
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Obviously, having just one visual style in all visual manifestations
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for eternity would be a very boring thing and would give the idea of a
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visually dead project. So, there is no problem on creating a brand new
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visual style for each new major release of The CentOS Distribution, in
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order to refresh The CentOS Distribution visual style; the problem
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itself is in not propagating the brand new visual style created for
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the new release of The CentOS Distribution to all other visual
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manifestations The CentOS Project is made of, in a way The CentOS
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Project could be recognized no matter what visual manifestation be in
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front of us. Such lack of uniformity is what introduces the visual
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contradition we are precisely trying to solve by mean of themes
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production in the CentOS Artwork Repository.
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@subheading Usage
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The @file{trunk/Identity} directory structure organizes most files
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used to build and implement The CentOS Project Corporate Identity. In
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that sake, the following work lines are available:
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@table @strong
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@item Brushes
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This work line provides brushes for GIMP. When you prepare the
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repository, brushes in this location are made available immediatly for
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you to use in the ``Brushes'' panel of GIMP.
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@xref{Directories trunk Identity Brushes}, for more
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information.
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@item Fonts
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This work line provides the typography information required by all
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different visual manifestations of The CentOS Project. When you
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prepare the repository, fonts in this location are made available
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immediatly for you to use in GIMP and Inkscape.
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@xref{Directories trunk Identity Fonts}, for more information.
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@item Images
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This work line provides output location for final images that don't
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need to use background images (e.g., brands, icons, illustrations,
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etc.).
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@xref{Directories trunk Identity Images}, for more information.
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@item Models
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This work line provides design models for final images that don't need
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to use background images (e.g., brands, icons, illustrations, etc.).
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@xref{Directories trunk Identity Models}, for more information.
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@item Palettes 
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This work line provides palettes of colors for GIMP and Inkscape. When
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you prepare the repository, palettes of colors in this location are
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made available immediatly for you to use in the ``Palettes'' panel of
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GIMP and Inkscape.
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@xref{Directories trunk Identity Palettes}, for more information.
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@item Patterns
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This work line provides patterns for GIMP. When you prepare the
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repository, patterns in this location are made available immediatly
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for you to use in the ``Patterns'' panel of GIMP.
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@xref{Directories trunk Identity Patterns}, for more information.
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@item Themes
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This work line provides theme design models and theme artistic motifs
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for The CentOS Project. If you are interested in creating brand new
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visual styles for The CentOS Project this is the place for you.
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@xref{Directories trunk Identity Images Themes}, for more information.
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@item Webenv
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This work line provides the HTML/XHTML and CSS standard definitions
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used by The CentOS Web visual manifestation. If you are a web
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developer and plan to improve The CentOS Web visual manifestation,
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then the files in this location may result very useful to you.
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@xref{Directories trunk Identity Webenv}, for more information.
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@end table
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@subheading See also
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See @url{http://en.wikipedia.org/Corporate_identity} (and related
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links), for general information on Corporate Identity. 
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Specially useful has been, and still is, the book @emph{Corporate
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Identity} by Wally Olins (1989). This book provides many of the
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conceptual ideas we've used as base to build The CentOS Artwork
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Repository.