[[identity]] The CentOS Project Identity =========================== The CentOS Project identity is based on a monolithic visual structure. In a monolithic visual structure, the organization has one unique name (<>) and one unique visual style (<>) in all its visual manifestations, internal and external stakeholders use to feel a strong sensation of uniformity, orientation, and identification with the organization. No matter if they 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: Hey! we are all part of The CentOS Project. The CentOS Mission ------------------ The CentOS Project exists to produce The CentOS Distribution, 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 Distribution 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 CentOS Distribution has numerous advantages including: an active and growing user community, quickly rebuilt, tested, and QA'ed errata packages, an extensive mirror network, developers who are contactable and responsive of a reliable Enterprise-class Linux Distribution, multiple free support avenues including a http://wiki.centos.org/[Wiki], http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=8[IRC Chat], http://lists.centos.org/[Email Lists], http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/[Forums], and a dynamic http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/[FAQ]. [[centos-visual-manifestations]] The CentOS Visual Manifestations -------------------------------- The CentOS Artwork SIG has identified the following visual manifestations for The CentOS Project organization: * The CentOS Distribution -- to control the operating system appearance. * The CentOS Web environment -- to control the web applications appearance. * The CentOS Showroom -- to control the appearance of goods produced by industrial means. The CentOS Distribution ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This visual manifestation communicates its existence through software packages. There are packages that make a remarkable use of images, packages that make a moderate use of images, and packages that don't use images at all. This visual manifestation is focused on rebuilding the packages that make use of images affecting the visual style of of the final product. Special attention is dedicated to change packages holding upstream branding information (e.g., _redhat-logos_ and _redhat-artwork_). - The operating system itself (communicates the essence of The CentOS Project existence.). - The release schema (lifetime) and all the stuff related (e.g., release notes, documentation, erratas, etc.). The CentOS Web Environment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This visual manifestation communicates its existence through web applications. 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 contradictions when they all are put together. Removing these visual contradictions is object of work for this visual manifestation. - The CentOS Chat. - The CentOS Mailing Lists. - The CentOS Forums. - The CentOS Wiki. - Special Interest Groups (SIGs). - Social Events, Interviews, Conferences, etc. - The extensive network of mirrors available for downloading ISO files as well as RPMs and SRPMs used to build them up in different architectures. The CentOS Showroom ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This visual manifestation communicates its existence through production of industrial goods carrying The CentOS Brand. These branded goods are directed to be distributed on social events and/or shops. They provide a way of promotion and commercialization that may help to reduce The CentOS Project expenses (e.g., electrical power, hosting, servers, full-time-developers, etc.). Some of the goods produced here include the following: - Advertisements (e.g., posters, flyers, stickers, paper bags, stands, ...). - Office Stuff (e.g., pens, folders, cups for coffee, ...) - Clothes (e.g., shirts, pullovers, sweaters, caps, ...). - Installation media (e.g., pen-drives, CDs and DVDs with labels and sleeves included). [[centos-brand]] The CentOS Brand ---------------- The CentOS Brand is the main graphical identification of The CentOS Project. The CentOS Artwork SIG uses The CentOS Brand to connect all the visual manifestations The CentOS Project is made of (see <>) and, this way, it provides visual recognition among similar projects available on the Internet. The CentOS Brand is composed of a graphical component known as The CentOS Symbol and a typographical component known as The CentOS Type. When The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type are combined, they create what we know as The CentOS Logo. All the components that make The CentOS Brand can be used together or separately, considering that, in hierarchy order, The CentOS Logo is rather preferred than The CentOS Symbol, as well as The CentOS Symbol is rather preferred than The CentOS Type alone. The CentOS Brand must be exactly the same every time it is printed out, no matter what the impression medium is. A route to reproduce The CentOS Brand this way must be used in order to avoid reproduction mistakes of any kind when final images are branded with it. To prevent such mistakes, The CentOS Artwork SIG creates SVGZ files only for The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type components. Then, using automation scripts, final images in different sizes, colors and formats are produced for them. In this environment, if changes are introduced to The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type, they will be propagated to all images holding them, the next time they all are rendered. Since the whole rendition process is fully automated, the fact of propagating brand information through a variable number of images is fairly simple and exact. The CentOS Symbol ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CentOS Symbol is the graphical part of The CentOS Logo. The CentOS Artwork SIG uses The CentOS Symbol to ``brand'' images produced by The CentOS Project and provide visual connection between them so they can be monolithically recognized as part of The CentOS Project. The CentOS Symbol must be exactly the same every time it is printed out. To grant this uniqueness, The CentOS Artwork SIG designs The CentOS Symbol in SVGZ format and uses automation scripts to produce final images from on it. Final images produced from automation scripts vary in format, color and size but The CentOS Symbol proportion is strictly retained in all of them. Construction ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1. ... Usage Restrictions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In order to apply The CentOS Symbol to other images correctly, the following usage restrictions must be complied: 1. ... Color Restrictions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In order to apply The CentOS Symbol to other images correctly, the following color restrictions must be complied: 1. ... Acceptable Variations ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Printing too many different colors on specific sorts of media may result very expensive sometimes, so the following acceptable variations for The CentOS Symbol are also available: 1. ... The CentOS Type ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CentOS Type is the typographical part of The CentOS Logo. The CentOS Type is used to ``brand'' images produce by The CentOS Project and provide visual connection between images so they can be monolithically recognized as part of The CentOS Project. The CentOS Type alone provides less recognition than The CentOS Logo and The CentOS Symbol. Frequently, The CentOS Type is used to advert the major release of CentOS Distribution on the first images shown as part of distribution installation process. The CentOS Symbol and any release information printed out with it must have exactly the same proportions every time they are printed out. To grant this uniqueness, The CentOS Artwork SIG designs The CentOS Type in SVGZ format and uses automation scripts to produce final images from on it. Final images produced from automation scripts vary in format, color and size but The CentOS Type proportion is strictly retained in all of them. image:corporate-fonts.png[corporate-fonts.png] Construction ^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1. ... Usage Restrictions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In order to apply The CentOS Type to other images correctly, the following usage restrictions must be complied: 1. ... Color Restrictions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In order to apply The CentOS Symbol to other images correctly, the following color restrictions must be complied: 1. ... Acceptable Variations ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Printing too many different colors on specific sorts of media may result very expensive sometimes, so the following acceptable variations for The CentOS Type are also available: 1. ... The CentOS Logo ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The CentOS Logo is the combination of The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type. The CentOS Artwork SIG uses The CentOS Logo to ``brand'' images produced by The CentOS Project and provide visual connection between them so they can be monolithically recognized as part of The CentOS Project. The CentOS Logo must be exactly the same every time it is printed out. To grant this uniqueness, The CentOS Artwork SIG doesn't create The CentOS Logo in SVGZ format, instead it combines final images produced from The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type using automation scripts. Because final images related to both The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type do share common proportions, it is possible for automation scripts to combine them in a great number of ways to produce a great number of final images for The CentOS Logos and with high levels of exactitude. Construction ^^^^^^^^^^^^ image:corporate-logo-howto.png[corporate-logo-howto.png] Usage Restrictions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In order to apply The CentOS Logo to other images correctly, the following usage restrictions must be complied: 1. ... Color Restrictions ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In order to apply The CentOS Logo to other images correctly, the following color restrictions must be complied: 1. ... Acceptable Variations ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Printing too many different colors on specific sorts of media may result very expensive sometimes, so the following acceptable variations for The CentOS Logo are also available: 1. ... The CentOS Palette ------------------ In addition to colors used in The CentOS Symbol (9ccd2aff, 932279ff, 262577ff, efa724ff) and The CentOS Default Background Color (204c8dff), The CentOS Artwork SIG uses the following colors in their corporate graphic designs: image:../corporate-colors.png[corporate-colors.png] Artistic motifs have not any limitation in the number of colors used. If you are a graphic designer creating artistic motifs for The CentOS Project, feel free to take your creativeness at its limit by creating color-full artistic motifs. For final bootup images which require a reduced number of colors, create palette of colors for them with the appropriate number of colors and let the *render* module of *centos-art.sh* script to do the rest. [[centos-themes]] The CentOS Themes ----------------- The CentOS themes organize visual styles for all the visual manifestation The CentOS Project is made of. In order to automate the process of rendering images based on customizable patterns, themes have been divided into ``design models'' and ``artistic motifs.'' image:identity-themes.png[identity-themes.png] [[centos-themes-models]] Design Models ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Design models are compressed SVG files created with Inkscape. They describe the image files used to implement the CentOS project visual manifestations. For example, in the specific case of CentOS distribution, each final image you want to re-brand has a design model associated used to set the final image dimensions, whether or not it has round borders, and what background to use on it. Design models are created once and rarely modified through time. They are only modified if the visual manifestation they refer to changes or needs to be tuned up. Localization of design models is also possible. It takes place in the same directory of design models, through PO files which are manipulated by automation scripts. The localization of design models allows production of final images for different locales. For example, if you decide to use slide images in CentOS installer, you need to create one design model for each slide image you want to produce in English language. Then, using *locale* module of *centos-art.sh* script, you create PO files for each design model you have. PO files are created using the current language information of your terminal (e.g., see value of +LANG+ variable). Then, you use the *locale* module again to edit the PO files and provide string translations from English to your preferred language. Once translations are on the PO files, you use the *render* module of *centos-art.sh* script to produce final images for your locale, based on the artistic motif you initiate rendition for and the related design models set in the rendition configuration file. [[centos-themes-motifs]] Artistic Motifs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Artistic motifs are PNG images holding the background information of each design model available. One important characteristic of artistic motifs is preserving one unique visual style for all the PNG images they are made of. Artistic motifs aren't limited in number. It is possible to have several artistic motifs and produce final images for all of them using one single set of design models. Artistic motifs give plenty of room for graphic designers' creativeness. As convention, artistic motifs are conceived without any specific brand information on them. The brand information is set later using automation scripts and final branding images, when final images are produced. The CentOS Behavior ------------------- The CentOS Behavior is focused on the effective social interaction of each member involved in the organization (e.g., core developers, community members, etc.). It is related to ethics and politics used inside and outside the community. It is related to the sense of direction chosen by the community and the way the community projects itself to achieve it. The CentOS Behavior is based on a meritocracy (the more you do the more you are allowed to do). The CentOS Visual Structure --------------------------- The CentOS Project has a monolithic visual structure. In it, The CentOS Project expresses its visual identity through one unique name and one unique visual style through all the visual manifestations it is made of. In order for The CentOS Project to express its identity according a monolithic visual structure, it is required to consider all the visual manifestations The CentOS Project is made of, not just one of them. For example, if one different visual style is implemented 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 goods from The CentOS Showroom)? Having one unique visual style in all visual manifestations for eternity would give the idea of a visually out-of-dated project. So, there is no problem on creating new visual styles for one of the visual manifestations from time to time, in order to refresh the way it looks and feels; the problem itself is in not propagating the new visual style created, onto all other visual manifestations The CentOS Project is made of, in a way that The CentOS Project does be recognized in the new look and feel, no matter what visual manifestation be in front of us. Such lack of uniformity is what introduces the visual contradiction The CentOS Artwork SIG is precisely trying to solve by mean of identifying, organizing and automating artwork production inside The CentOS Artwork Repository (<>). // vim: set syntax=asciidoc: