Logo suggestion for LAD - Linux Audio Developers

Here's my idea for a new logo.

The first thought was: What should be in such a logo? That is, what elements are typical of either "Linux", "audio" and/or "development"? Sure the Penguin was a possible choice, but I think it's been used far too often by now, and so I believed something new would be needed.

I collected items that could be typical for this area:

After some simple sketches on paper, I settled on the idea of a "wavefront", and fired up Xfig to sketch some possible outlines. My main idea was something like "wavefronts directed towards a listener in the center" or so. Here's what came out:

In the end, I chose the upper left version. Don't ask why - I just did. :-)

Next thing then was to export this into a large .ppm file which I loaded into the Gimp. There, I began creating new layers to add the border, text, shadow, background color fill etc.

In the end, I came up with this as a stand-alone logo:

(512x512 pixel)

In black/white, it looks a bit different, but should still print out quite nicely:

(512x512 pixel)

Even in icon size, it's still recognizable:

(100x100 pixel)

(50x50 pixel)

And finally, here's a composition of the logo including some text. This could be used for instance on flyers, webpages (small link button included below) etc.

(681x235 pixel)

Small version, "web linkbutton style":

(90x31 pixel)

The same logo, but omitting the dropshadow behind the logo and the text. This makes the text slightly more crisp.

(90x31 pixel)

The important thing to think about here is probably if we really need this. I think we do. With the upcoming LinuxTag 2001 in Germany (from July 5th - 8th, 2001), there is a chance to reach a lot of people, users and programmers, through direct talks at the fair, through the accompanying CD-ROMs, through the magazines which sponsor the whole event etc. I believe this is a great chance to "form a new image" to get people to realize that this group of talented people exists and what they do.

If people are interested, I would gladly offer this as a new "official" LAD logo, and will (in the good spirit of open-source) put it under a GPL-like license (OpenArtist license?). Tell me your thoughts.

Frank Neumann, Last change: May 14th, 2001