OpenMPT logo and icon redesign (was: Some custom MPT icons I made)

[ellobo]

I don't really have a problem with somebody remixing the logo etc. outside of the program. When used with the official OpenMPT app though, I would like to be consulted before any modifications. I'm still fine with licensing it, so you guys have the freedom to modify it without asking me. I'm just personally asking that you would consult me, out of respect. Of course if you couldn't reach me for whatever reason, you could just go ahead and modify it. And in the case of a complete redesign, there would be no reason to consult me. I come from the world of advertising and the way things work there is basically that you can only modify a logo with the consent of the original designer. In our case you could modify it without my consent but like I said, I kindly ask that you consult me first. Doesn't mean you'd have to agree with me or follow my guidelines.

[manx]

I don't really have a problem with somebody remixing the logo etc. outside of the program. When used with the official OpenMPT app though, I would like to be consulted before any modifications. I'm still fine with licensing it, so you guys have the freedom to modify it without asking me. I'm just personally asking that you would consult me, out of respect. Of course if you couldn't reach me for whatever reason, you could just go ahead and modify it. And in the case of a complete redesign, there would be no reason to consult me. I come from the world of advertising and the way things work there is basically that you can only modify a logo with the consent of the original designer. In our case you could modify it without my consent but like I said, I kindly ask that you consult me first. Doesn't mean you'd have to agree with me or follow my guidelines.

Sounds totally fine.

[Saga Musix]

Yeah, seems like we're all on the same page then. I'm looking forward to the new sketches then.

[ellobo]

Aight let's move on then. Can you list exactly what graphics you need and the dimensions?

[manx]

Can you list exactly what graphics you need and the dimensions?

For application icon (and possibly file icon, if we want that to be different) as recommended by Microsoft: 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 40x40, 48x48, 64x64, 256x256.
Additional useful and common icon resolutions are: 16x16, 22x22, 24x24, 32x32, 36x36, 40x40, 48x48, 64x64, 72x72, 96x96, 128x128, 192x192, 256x256, 512x512.
For the larger resolutions (probably 64 or larger) something generated from the same vector graphic would be preferred, possibly even for the smaller resolutions. The smallest resolutions (24 or below at least) may need some per-size hand-tuning though.
I do not think we should be too much concerned with lower colour resolutions in 2017. We probably need to provide 16 colour versions for technical reasons, however I do not think looking particularly good in 16 colours should influence the overall design in any way.
Transparency can (and should) be used for icons where appropriate.

We can generate the required icon sizes from a scalable vector graphics ourselves (SVG format would be preferred in that case, I think, however PDF (like you did provide originally would also work)), the maybe-hand-tuned low-res versions can be in any pixel image format supporting transparency (like PNG).

As for the logo (which could be used as splash screen, about dialog and on the website), I do not think we have any specific requirements regarding size and/or aspect ratio.

In any case, if the design is done with a program that does not use SVG as its native file format, the original file from whatever program you use would also be useful for us to have (in order to ease possible future derivations) in addition to a SVG.

[Saga Musix]

I guess since the splash / about screen / logo is mostly focussed on having the logo and OpenMPT text next to it, an aspect ratio that is wider than the current splash screen would make a lot of sense. Something like 7:3 or so.

[ellobo]

I don't have much time during this weekend but I'll get on it next week. I'm using Adobe Illustrator to design. Also I work on a Mac, which I boot into Windows for OpenMPT only. I've made icons on MacOs before but I'm not sure if those files can work on Windows as well. I'm guessing they probably won't?

[Saga Musix]

As long as we get the icons as SVGs and/or PNG, we can do the rest (i.e. assemble an ICO file). You do not need to worry about that last step, also because we will need them in slightly different variants for various purposes.

[ellobo]

Ok good to know.

[ellobo]

I was given a big project with a lot of deadlines so I haven't had time to finalize the graphics yet but I'll send you something this week. Sorry about that.

[Saga Musix]

No worries, we're still quite far away from the next big release anyway.

[Exhale]

you guys inspired me, and I would post what I did but this is all I keep getting : The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved. (trying again with ultra low quality)

[Saga Musix]

Should be fixed now.

[Exhale]

Should be fixed now.

I think you fixed it or maybe it liked the lower quality file even though the original was 244k

[manx]

you guys inspired me

I like the general design of "mp" with the embedded plug.

The black square icon is maybe a bit too nervous due to the vertical wires. At least for smaller sizes, they would probably need to be removed or simplified.

The wide logo appears to be putting emphasis on the "Open" part of the name, which is the least actually meaningful part of the name, imho. Also, it completely leaves out the "Tracker" part of the name, which kind of contrasts with the shortened name "OpenMPT" that we have been using for quite some time now for the most part. Of the 3 logos, I would prefer the middle one (the top one is probably a bit too minimal, and the bottom one probably a bit too noise (although something like that could be fine for a splash screen or the about dialog). Both, the middle and the bottom one would probably need some work to be embeddable on the website though, because the background of the logo does not easily integrate into page layouts due to varying background color.