Oolite Bulletins

Here is another based off of the latest choices. Goes back to the gold and silver idea arquebus had on the first page. Proof of concept only as the shading on the circles and chevrons could be much improved in the hands of someone with talent.

arquebus wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:03 am

I'm ok with the top right logo but I actually prefer the middle one. I don't think the top right logo will look especially good in other contexts - it really needs a black background for it to make sense.

I take your point and I think that's an important consideration to mention but I'm thinking that these look ok on a pale background (maybe it's me...)

arquebus wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:03 am

And for the bottom three, I like each of them in their own way. I wonder would it work to have the ships going up instead of down? Reminds me of those minimalist Star Wars posters, which is a good thing.

I think there's two main reaseons that I prefer the coriolis. 1. Although Griff did a great job with both, I've always thought his work on the coriolis was outstanding. 2. Seeing the coriolis ahead makes it a view from within the game, first person; compared to seeing the cobra where I'm left thinking this might be a third person view (less immersive/inviting IMHO).

Yeah, minimalist works for me too!

Nite Owl wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:31 am

Here is another based off of the latest choices. Goes back to the gold and silver idea arquebus had on the first page. Proof of concept only as the shading on the circles and chevrons could be much improved in the hands of someone with talent.

I think that if we're going to have a second colour in there then a medium to light grey seems to work pretty well. There is a risk of it detracting from the text however. Maybe the text could be closer to white? Also, like arquebus, whether it fades to black or white, although I have a preference, it Isn't a big problem for me either way.

phkb wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 2:28 am

This one has some appeal, too:

This one for example might be growing on me but the contrast between the dull 'gold' and the bright 'silver' is maybe a bit too much - I think it's needed for the name to stand out but not for the rest.


I know things can easily get bogged down in nit-pickery but it seems to me that we might actually be getting somewhere...???

Redspear wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:02 am

I know things can easily get bogged down in nit-pickery but it seems to me that we might actually be getting somewhere...???

Definitely! Iterating through these designs is kind of fun!

Redspear wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:02 am

This one for example might be growing on me but the contrast between the dull 'gold' and the bright 'silver' is maybe a bit too much - I think it's needed for the name to stand out but not for the rest.

Maybe something more like this, then:

A couple more variations on a theme:


We're getting closer, I think!

phkb wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:02 pm

Redspear wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:02 am

I know things can easily get bogged down in nit-pickery but it seems to me that we might actually be getting somewhere...???

Definitely! Iterating through these designs is kind of fun!

Redspear wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:02 am

This one for example might be growing on me but the contrast between the dull 'gold' and the bright 'silver' is maybe a bit too much - I think it's needed for the name to stand out but not for the rest.

Maybe something more like this, then:

Thinking about it...
Would it be possible to define a relationship between the outline and the filling? The outline color could be defined, e.g. a stong blue and the filling would be a gradient from dark gray to a dark version of the outline.

With that the concise color could be varied on the context. For the current OoliteStarter splash screen some orange would be a better match while for the current Oolite splashscreen it is not.

And noone limits us to have icons for the core and icons for the ecosystem.

hiran wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:29 pm

Would it be possible to define a relationship between the outline and the filling?

When you say "outline", do you mean the bright gold outline around the entire logo? And by "filing", do you mean the dull gold colour inside the icon itself (from the last example, anyway)?

phkb wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 9:56 pm

cbr wrote: ↑Mon Oct 23, 2023 9:52 pm

Variants...

cbr, do you want my original paint.net file? I think I can save it as gimp format if that would help. It's got all the layers separated, so you could apply different effects to different layers.

i am ok for now thanks

I really like that red gradient...



variant with double black outline, darkened characters and reduced 'oolite' to 99%

cbr wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 2:38 pm

I really like that red gradient...

Me too but... IF gold is to be preferred then some thoughts:

phkb wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:24 pm

A couple more variations on a theme:


We're getting closer, I think!

Not the one on the left for me but the one on the right is better. I think it addresses the contrast issue quite nicely.

Gold is a nice nod to the original source material/inspiration:

I believe that the original BBC logo was in silver, on both manual and box art.
For almost all of the conversions however, it seems to have been transformed into gold.


Alchemy!... sort of...

Some of those conversions really were quite different too.

Ramble commencing...

For example (from memory and so may contain bunk...), the coversions made by Torus really were the origins of the 'torus drive'. I remember reading an interview from one of the conversion team that suggested Bell & Braben had come across as a little snooty and not particularly helpful. Ironically, he went on to be quoted as saying how messed up some of the original mechanics were and how he had to fix them (not sounding snooty at all...) Of course interviews are often about sales more than truth but the key point here being (IIRC) that some of the things oolite has inherited aren't just from the minds of Bell, Braben & Holdstock...

Ramble complete...

So as our own conversion, maybe gold IS the colour?

Brighten up the one on the right a bit (not necessarily as much as the original elite logo above) and you might win me over... I'm not promising anything

phkb wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:34 pm

hiran wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 1:29 pm

Would it be possible to define a relationship between the outline and the filling?

When you say "outline", do you mean the bright gold outline around the entire logo? And by "filing", do you mean the dull gold colour inside the icon itself (from the last example, anyway)?

Affirmative, Quite Grand Subadmiral Sir!

Just one more...

cbr wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 7:06 pm

Just one more...

We should take your avatar...

Redspear wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 4:21 pm

Brighten up the one on the right a bit (not necessarily as much as the original elite logo above) and you might win me over... I'm not promising anything

How's this?

and the red with 'gold' glow

hiran wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 4:33 pm

Affirmative, Quite Grand Subadmiral Sir!

I see no reason why we couldn't have specific icon colour sets for different applications. One colour set for the main game. One for Oolite Starter. One for the Debug Console.

Edit to add: Once we have a "definitive" version, I'll share whatever resources I've created, and then everyone can go nuts with colours.

As for SVG... I'll let you know. I've been working with bitmaps so far, and my SVG skills are... limited!

cbr wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 7:06 pm

cbr wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 9:18 pm

Both of these are improvements I would say but the 'effect' may be lost or even undesirable at smaller sizes.

phkb wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 9:02 pm

Redspear wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 4:21 pm

Brighten up the one on the right a bit (not necessarily as much as the original elite logo above) and you might win me over... I'm not promising anything

How's this?

Yeah, it's definitely getting there by my estimation.

One problem with both this and cbr's images above is that the word oolite doesn't stand out very well.
Two alternative suggestions:
1. colour the word white instead of silver.
2. take a(nother) leaf from the original's book and outline the word ('oolite' in this case) in similar fashion to the icon itself.