Logo....

[admin_old]

I am looking for your creativity for a logo...... I like ours as it is, but if you would like ot submit a new idea for a logo. Do it up, and we will vote on them next month. They must be submitted to this forum by the last day of this month.
T

[First Light]

Hi Tony,

Here\'s an idea I whipped up for a new masthead. The idea is a bit rough but my time is pretty limited through the end of the month. I hope it is helpful in getting the creative juices of others flowing.

I didn\'t actually create a \"logo\". As you can see, I used the official FourThirds logo on the far right and then included some photos of 4/3rds lenses and one body. The lenses from left to right are: ZD 150mm f2.0, ZD 50-200mm f2.8-3.5, ZD 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 and ZD 50mm f2.0. The camera is obviously an E-1 with an HLD-2 battery grip and GS-2 grip strap.

I tried to match the color for the title closely to your original in case you want to stay with the RGB color scheme. The font is Formata Bold (an Adobe Postscript font). I had to guess at the overall size of the masthead but this can be adjusted as the original is much larger and was created in Photoshop with multiple layers. The blank area on the left is to accommodate your Newsflash box.

I can send you the source files if you decide to use the idea and want to refine it further.
http://www.ht-fitness.com/downloads/FTPmast1.jpg

Note: I resized this art to the required 500x130 pixel size.

Post edited by: First Light, at: 2005/10/01 10:57

[admin_old]

That is nice. I just sent a e-mail to Oly JP asking if we could use the logo. If they don\'t respond in a few days, I will call the PR guy.
The demensions of the logo are: 130x500. Good start. It was what I was thinking kind of.
T

[First Light]

I\'m not used to working against a bright white background and the dark detail of my previous graphic was completely lost against the light background of the website. Let\'s see if the following shows more detail...

http://www.ht-fitness.com/downloads/FTPmast2.jpg

Note: I resized this art to the required 500x130 pixel size.

Post edited by: First Light, at: 2005/10/01 10:55

[borgunit]

Just one I whipped out quick. I will clean it up if it looks promising. Some thoughts...? http://fourthirdsphoto.com/components/com_simpleboard/uploaded/images/43_logo1.jpg

Post edited by: borgunit, at: 2005/09/28 10:08

[borgunit]

One I just whipped out real quick. I can clean it up if it looks promising. Any thoughts...?

Sorry about all these failed upload posts.

Post edited by: borgunit, at: 2005/09/28 10:09

[borgunit]

Just one I quickly sketched up. I can clean it up if it looks promising. Any thoughts...? Having Issues here with image size :unsure:

Post edited by: borgunit, at: 2005/09/28 10:06

[borgunit]

Just one I quickly sketched up. I can clean it up if it looks promising. Any thoughts...?

[First Light]

Hello again,

I think the following masthead will better match the color scheme of your website. It includes a logo (vertical \"4/3\" with rotated \"photo\"). If I had more time I would have omitted the \"Four Thirds Photo\" text on the left and substituted a line drawing of an E-1 (sort of like a schematic against the ruled background).

Anyway, as is, I still like it quite a bit and I hope you do to.

http://www.ht-fitness.com/downloads/FTPmast3.jpg

Post edited by: First Light, at: 2005/10/01 00:26

[llpoolej]

I like this one First light!! Very creative!

[Den]

Nice masthead, First light! I\'d really like to see a version of that used somewhere...

Den

[First Light]

Here\'s what I hope will be my final submission...

http://www.ht-fitness.com/downloads/FTPmast4.jpg

This is what I meant earlier when I wrote that if I had time I\'d substitute a drawing of the E-1 on the left. In this case it is an E-1 with a ZD 14-54mm lens. Although I did some major work on the drawing, I can\'t take credit for it because it is largely based on the drawing on page 22 of the E-1 Reference Manual. So a copyright credit should be included at the bottom of the webpage if it and the official FourThirds logo are used.

This masthead is sized to the required 500x130 pixels so it should be ready to use if you like it. I used various combinations of Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Photoshop CS2 to create it. All of the fonts are from the Adobe Formata Postscript font.

[admin_old]

I really like this one First light. I had a couple of weeks ago submitted a question to Olympus about using the logo... They said that they would would get back to me, they haven\'t yet.
So we will see if they get back to me soon. It should be known I hope this week.
Tony

[Den]

MHO... Not sure about the E-1 (beautifully executed in itself, mind), not just because there\'s an E-3 on the horizon but also because the masthead becomes a bit too fragmented for my taste (seems there\'s four things going on). Not sure either about changing the name of the site to \'4/3 Photo\'. Personally, I\'d like to see the words \'Four Thirds Photo\' remain on the top of the site.

[llpoolej]

I would have to say I prefer the first one 1st Light. Both are very cool though!

[First Light]

Thanks for the comments. Regarding the use of E-1 artwork, I think it is the best for the following reasons:

The E-1 was the first 4/3rds camera.
According to Olympus, the next \"pro\" body will be similar.
The E-500 body is similar in appearance.
The resolution of the masthead is low enough that details are obscured and the drawing looks kinda generic.

Even though this is my preference, I\'m happy to go with whatever decision is made.

Here\'s a couple of more ideas to chew on:

http://www.ht-fitness.com/downloads/FTPmast5.jpg

Besides swapping the position of the drawing and 4/3 Photo logo, I also tweaked the drawing by removing the lens cover and adjusting the lens position.

http://www.ht-fitness.com/downloads/FTPmast6.jpg

I like the 3/4 view with the lens better but you might find this front-view drawing produces a better flow from left to right. Regarding the logo, I prefer to keep them as simple as possible and the use of \"4/3\" instead of \"Four Thirds\" does that. Plus, I just like the layout of my logo (yes, I admit bias :) ).

Finally, regarding permission from Olympus to use their logo and art, I hope that they do provide it. In the meantime I believe we could go ahead and use them until we hear otherwise from them. All we need to do is clearly state on the website that we do not represent Olympus and Olympus is the copyright/trademark owner.

Further suggestions are welcome—but my time is limited so don\'t get too wild.

[mikefellh]

Den wrote:
Not sure either about changing the name of the site to \'4/3 Photo\'. Personally, I\'d like to see the words \'Four Thirds Photo\' remain on the top of the site.

You can\'t use the \"/\" character as part of an URL name as it\'s used as a directory separator.

[pixelmaniaman]

I\'m no good at design but how about ~ sensor as background, actual 4/3rds logo centred with four thirds photo going across L to R...

[admin_old]

Well, I quickly drew something up...
http://www.allplaces.net/GCCC/
Here is the quick version...
BTW Olympus did tell me I was not allowed to use the logo until I heard back from them.
I would have to change the background color of the current logo.
But what do you think?
T

Post edited by: tspore, at: 2005/10/02 00:39

[lkeeney]

tspore wrote:
Well, I quickly drew something up...
http://www.allplaces.net/GCCC/
Here is the quick version...
BTW Olympus did tell me I was not allowed to use the logo until I heard back from them.
I would have to change the background color of the current logo.
But what do you think?
T<br><br>Post edited by: tspore, at: 2005/10/02 00:39

Tony,

My only concern about showing a camera, or drawing of a camera, is you will be dating your logo. Who knows what the 4/3 cameras will look like in the future. They may look drastically different.

Then again you want to always show the very first 4/3 camera as part of your logo.

Lawrence

[First Light]

Hi Tony,

I think that I\'m responsible for muddling this thread and I apologize. You started by asking for new \"logo\" designs and I offered a masthead design instead. Now it seems that we are mixing the two.

Let me begin by saying that your latest idea—the rotating camera that morphs into each model—is IMHO very clever. Great idea! However, I wouldn\'t call it a \"logo\".

Logo
In its simplist and most elegant form, a logo is a symbol that identifies an idea, a brand, a company or a product. A brilliant example of a purely graphical logo is the Nike swoosh. Sometimes a logo contains only text but when it does, the fonts and geometry of the text define the logo. So far in this thread, three logos have been suggested for this website:

The original pie wedges with \"Four Thirds Photo\" text.
Borgunit\'s tiled \"43\" graphic.
My vertical \"4/3\" with rotated \"photo\" text.

Here they are in the order listed above:

http://www.ht-fitness.com/downloads/logos-1.jpg

Perhaps it would be helpful to select a logo before proceding to the design of a new masthead that incorporates it. I tend to view logos in the context of a larger design. That\'s why I worked on the logo and masthead at the same time. Again, I\'m sorry for introducing the confusion.

Masthead
If the rotating/morphing cameras are used in the masthead, I think we should lose the E-1 in the background, center the rotating cameras in the frame, and allow each model to rotate a full 360° before morphing to the next model. That way each one would be visible from all angles and (I think) it would produce a smoother, cooler looking animation. Of course, this will mean waiting until an E-500 is available for photos unless you want to start with just the E-1 and E-300 now.

But as a general rule, I prefer a simpler design. Animated thingies on websites can look really cool when implemented well but they too often come across as gimicky. Plus, they make websites very slow to download for those of us who live in areas where broadband is not available. So I prefer that animation not be used. (As it is, this website is already slower than most.)

My first crude idea for a masthead was to show pictures of the gear. Later, I had a change of mind. Instead of focusing on the gear (cameras and lenses), why not narrow the focus to the lens mount and 4/3-type sensor? After all, that\'s what the 4/3rds standard is all about. That\'s why the basis of my second design featured a close-up view of the lens mount.

Some may wonder why I didn\'t stop there. Why add a drawing of a camera and lens? The answer is because some casual web surfers may not recognize what the mount is. So adding a drawing of a camera and lens helped provide a kind of visual explanation. It\'s just an idea. Perhaps someone reading this will have a better one.

There seems to be some concern about the masthead looking dated and that\'s a valid concern. By showing one or more camera bodies, we date the graphic design to the past and/or present. We would need to update the masthead for future bodies if we want to stay current. (Many good websites do this very thing.)

I agree with this line of thought if photos of camera bodies are included in the masthead with one exception: I think the E-1 would always be a good symbol as it was the first. A nice alternative (for me) was to use the line drawings (see my samples) because I believe they are sufficiently \"generalized\" in that form. I could go further and try to remove/alter some of their features so they are less recognizeable as an E-1. Or, they can be omitted entirely. But then we would lose the visual explanation of what the 4/3rds mount relates to.

Official FourThirds logo
I guess we don\'t have much of a choice here since Olympus specifically said not to use the logo until you hear from them again. I still think we could get around it by showing a close-up photo of the logo from one of Olympus\' cameras or lenses. At any rate, it is a simple matter to omit it. I located it on a separate layer in my Photoshop files so it would be very easy to turn off in any of the sample mastheads that I provided.

I hope that I\'ve helped to shed some \"light\" (pun intended) on this discussion. :)

[admin_old]

First light, Good comments. I only added single shots of the camera, because 1 ended up being only 4 frames, 1 background, 1 E-1, 1 E-300, and 1 E-500 so it would load much faster. If it is a full rotate around the camera, and doing 2-3 cameras with shots, would take 12-25 frames for each camera... Much bigger file to download.
The site is probably a bit slower for you, because of the enormous database that this site contains. I have integrated galleries and BB, and user management all together, so people do no have to register for separate things.
Also to help keep the DB under control, I have made the user information quite small, only having the basic info. I figure if people want to share about themselves they can in the About me part of the website.
So all in all it is a balance between speed and slickness....
I have very few problems with actual upload time, even when I am on my SLOW cell phone connection, But it could be faster. To help speed things up I regularly dump the Temp folders, and do not track how many people are on line, and hit per page... This helps.
If I drop \"who\'s Online\" it would even be faster... But I haven\'t made up my mind on that one yet.
I think that for the logo of four thirds, from Olympus, I would love to be able to use it, but I don\'t want to and burn any relationship that I have with them. They already arn\'t happy that I kept the info about the E-500 up... But they were still kind enough to send me all the files on the E-500 (picture files) that I was able to post....
I want my relationship with them to be good.
I could also dump the usermenu from most of the screens and the syndicate from most of the screens and that too would help in speed.
But it is all in my opinion in process, and this site is. I apreciate your feedback, and lets see if someone gives us somefeed back.
BTW - I also own the domain 43photo.com
Tony

[admin_old]

BTW - can you e-mail me the PDF of the logo, Maybe I can add pictures of the cameras changing within that. I like your idea a lot.
T

[First Light]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the kind remarks. I hope that you don\'t have to disable any features of the website in order to improve its performance. Other websites that have a lot of similar features seem to be a little faster so it may be something else. (For example, check out http://www.photocamel.com.)

As for the logo, I\'ll do you one better and send you the original PSD file of the entire masthead since you have Photoshop CS2. Because I don\'t know if you have the Adobe Formata typeface family, I\'ll rasterize the fonts so you won\'t need them. I\'ll try to email the file within the next half hour.

[admin_old]

thanks if you want just upload the logo to my FTP
allplaces.net/ftp
username: guest@allplaces.net
password: guest
(It is a webbased FTP and quite slick if you ask me.)
Anyhow Thanks
Tony