[maemo-developers] Maemo CLI application icon (take 1)...

[From: Graham Cobb]

Can we please keep this discussion on one list (I got 4 copies of Andrew's 
last reply for some reason!)?  I suggest -developers for the discussion of 
the icon/emblem as that is where most of the people who are affected live. 
Once that is complete -community is the right place to discuss the actual 
policy (bearing in mind the results of the brainstorm).

On Monday 14 December 2009 15:17:26 Andrew Flegg wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 15:04, Tim Samoff <tim at samoff.com> wrote:
> > I've been working on an icon to be used by CLI applications in the Maemo
> > Application Manager.
>
> Do you reckon it's feasible to have an emblem (say the jigsaw piece)
> which can be overlaid on any icon to represent it? It looks pretty
> legible on the 48x48 icon IMHO.

How about using the whole thing as the emblem just allowing the application to 
replace the inner black square with their own icon if they wish?  I feel the 
jigsaw piece doesn't work well unless you also use its white shadow and then 
the broken border works really well.

>
> > Take a look:
> >
> > http://samoff.com/random/maemo/term_icon/
> >
> > Let me know what you think (good or bad). I'm happy to make changes if
> > needed.
>
> Minor nit: ">_" is great for my nostalgia for a BBC prompt, but is
> probably better as "$_" for Linux :-)

Actually, just "$" -- how about making it a larger $ sign occupying most of 
the height of the jigsaw piece?

> We could even extend it to "#_" for ones (such as nmap) which require
> root? (and a stronger yellow to indicate its increased danger)

I don't particularly like trying to encode information in the icon/emblem.  
The marketing side of me is shouting about "brand dilution"!  There should be 
one emblem which people quickly learn means "no icon installed -- some other 
way of using this package, like a command line".  Having variants (different 
colours, different symbols) will just lead to confusion and will make it 
harder for people to recognise what the emblem is telling them.

It is only programmers who would think of having variants on the symbol to 
tell you something about the package -- that is what the description is for.

Graham