@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.