| @subsection Goals |
| |
| The @file{trunk/Identity} describes what The CentOS Project Corporate |
| Identity is and the components it is made of. |
| |
| @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 |
| 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 |
| |
| @subsubsection 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. |
| |
| @subsubsection Corporate Design |
| |
| The CentOS Project Corporate Design is focused on the effective |
| communication of visual messages through graphic design. Visual |
| messages can be considered any information that people can perceive |
| through the visual sence (i.e., the human eye). The CentOS Project |
| Corporate Design is very tied to @emph{The CentOS Project Corporate |
| Structure} which, in turn, is based on @emph{The CentOS Project |
| Corporate Mission} and @emph{The CentOS Project Release Schema}. |
| |
| The CentOS Project Corporate Design is applied to The CentOS Project |
| Visual Manifestations. A visual manifestation is any medium, digital |
| or printed, used by The CentOS Project to communicate its existence |
| (e.g., @emph{The CentOS Distribution}, @emph{The CentOS Web} and |
| @emph{The CentOS Showroom}). |
| |
| @table @strong |
| @item The CentOS Distribution |
| |
| 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. |
| |
| @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. |
| |
| @subsubsection 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{ |
| @code{ |
| @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 |
| |
| @subsubsection Corporate Behaviour |
| |
| The CentOS Project Corporate Behaviour is based on @emph{Community |
| Behaviour} which take place on @emph{Corporate Communication}. |
| |
| @subsubsection 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. |
| |
| @subsection 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 |
| |
| @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 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. |