Some graphic design for the Friendica Communication Platform
All work is licensed CC-BY-NC-SA
This repository is being used to design a strong and visual consistent statement of all aspects of what is (obviously!) the most interesting & promising distributed network project in 2012/2013. And although there are much more advanced distributed networks out there made by trees and although they introduced us to the branching concept, they didn’t make it into a GitHub repo, so meanwhile I’ll stick to friendica for the sake of the internetworking people.
The current logo is cute. But the essence is not it’s cuteness nor it’s swedish-flag colors nor it’s rounded corners. It’s the shape of two complementing F’s. Two connected F’s, in equality, one defined by the other. I think that’s just perfect for symbolizing a distributed network where not only everybody can join but also every network can fit.
I’ve tried hard to work out this essence and think the proposal recovers it.
The “connection” is made visually more firm with a “Dovetail joint”-like assembling known from woodworking. The solution solves some logo-must-have:
- It’s legible. It’s clearly an “F” but you immediately see also the upside-down one because of its characteristic form and also because the upside-down-F is actually the filled part of the logo.
- It scales well into any size, tested down to favicon size.
- It’s reproducible. Because of the clear cut-out and B&W solution it is color-independent so it will fit into any context no matter which colors you use (some examples to come).
- It’s distinguishable. Two color-inversed versions and the stamp-like-look will provide always good readability on any background/material (sooner or later you’ll want a T-Shirt!).
- It’s memorable. I know no other F that ugly! Just kidding, but for the ones saying: “looks angry” I’ll clarify “No it’s only demanding some rights!”.
This is a very personal choice. A type is able to tell you what the logo (the isotype) is all about. I take Douglas Rushkoff’s second command –live in person– very seriously so friendica is for me simply a digital communication platform and not any substitute for personal face-to-face communication. I don’t want to pretend it using a “Comic Sans” but you are free to do it in your theme.
My choice says this: It’s stylish and fresh and also a bit techie. The font is OpenSource and is called TitilliumText and the result of a project by students from Italy. As webfont it can be also part of any friendica theme (for headers only!) but I think it should be used wisely in more branded situations. Hopefully at friendica.com!
I very welcome feedback from designers, coders and friendica-evangelists alike!