Artwork/Mascot
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Mascot
Goal
The goal of this initiative is to produce a community-created and maintained mascot for the Fedora project that brings a friendly personality to the project and reaches out to our target audience. It seems a mascot have high demand from the Ambassadors and community.
The main characteristics of the mascots should be:
- Free, so it can be used without any restriction (not even trademarks);
- lovable, this is the purpose of a mascot;
- produced by the community, it should not be someone's baby but our community's baby.
Issues to be solved by a mascot are:
- the Fedora logo is somewhat impersonal
- it's not 'ours' - eg the community didn't create it and doesn't own it so we're restricted in using it
- it's not very good fodder for plush animals :)
- it seems many suspect it doesn't reach out to as broad an audience as a well-done mascot might.
Schedule
According with the current schedule , Fedora 7 is going to be released on 24 May 2007. It would be useful to have graphics using the mascot in the wild at the release date, so probably a deadline for choosing a mascot should be no later than 2 weeks before the distro release date. I propose 10 May 2007 as the latest possible date, but it may be earlier, a mascot does not have to be very complex.
As the base mascot is a simple shape (simple to be easy to remix and create derivative graphics), I think we don't need multiple rounds, one to collect ideas, another to polish the proposals and a third one to select one results and do ca complete design. Is enough to have a round to collect ideas, metahors, sketches, designs, remix those, see what we like and select a winner by consensus. I propose the end date of this round one or two weeks before the deadline, effectively 3 or 4 weeks before Fedora 7 release.
License
We need the mascot to be freely usable, not impeded by trademarks and other restriction. License we can use are:
- Public Domain dedication - at first sight it may look a bit extreme, but it allow unlimited freedom for users.
- Creative Commons Attribution. with attribution to the Fedora Project - it allow derivatives
Ideas
Attach here your ideas, sketches, images, proposals, Even suggesting a metaphor is good. Also, please provide feedback for existing proposals.
- Tux - it is the majority opinion to not use Tux or a Penguin, for various argumentation: Fedora is more than the Linux kernel, penguins are overly used, is old fashioned
- animals a lot of people suggest using animals: goats, dogs, cats, condors, dolphins, tigers etc. Is easy to create fuzzy, lovable characters using animals as a base.
- there are objections about using certain animals: no dolphins because MySQL already use a dolphin, no Tigers because Pardus Linux already use a tiger etc. My take is: if what we like best is a dolphin, use a dolphin, but make sure it clearly is not the MySQL dolphin. Make this a drive to not worry about that animals are already "taken".
- I think it we use an animal it has to be anthropomorphic, so we can lend him human characteristic and get poses useful in various situations
- use a character, not necessarily an animal, something like this
- As I said above, I think an anthropomorphic is the best middle ground. Also, having it very simple, like the stick figure in the example, is good for derivative works.
- icebear (maybe with sunglasses and maybe with a baseball cap) - was proposed on the Marketing list, bot with and without accessories
- lion - powerful, charming, elegant and last but not least also majestic, all his attributes are also matching to the "Fedora Project" (from the Marketing list)
- goat - there is an unbelievable number of supporters of this on the Marketing list
- puppy - another one with many supporters on the Marketing list, probably because puppies are inherently lovable
- cat - another proposal
- we have here the eternal flamewar: cats against dogs
- dolphin - from the Marketing list: everybody loves them, and they are social, intelligent,
and tasty
- Platypus - from the Marketing list: The greatest animal on the planet, built up from many small strange parts you can find elsewhere in nature. The most bizarre animal around, and at the same time perfectly suited to the environment in which it lives
- condor - from the Marketing list: is the most greater fly bird, 2m (6 feet) of wing and also: flying symbolize freedom... flying high with freedom
- owl (also from the Marketing list)
- Blue Arara Parrot
- we can use the blue shades of our project
- tiger
- bee. - from the Marketing list: Why a bee ? Because it is maybe the only insect who has in charge the reproduction process of flowers, by spreading pollen. Lets compare flowers to Linux Distributions then, and pollen to technology in general. Isn't Fedora the most bleeding edge distribution which sees most of its technologies spread among the free and open source world, I.e. Linux distributions ?
- pony. - from discussions within Fedora Development, when we talk about potentially lofty feature requests, someone will invariably go one step further and ask for a pony (which is typically replied to in the negative ). Perhaps this could be our way of making everyone's dreams of pony ownership come true? (Albeit probably not how they wanted.)
TRY 1
JiriJakubMasek: a mascot named Feliks, a dragon-fly pilot, it isn't in the list of possibilities, but it's lovely, isn't it?
- NicuBuculei: how about a changed perspective, larger eyes and bigger head?
- NicuBuculei: maybe with such kind of body (rough sketch) (File:Artwork Mascot feliks1 n.svg SVG source] )
- NicuBuculei: a possible colorization of the head above (File:Artwork Mascot feliks2 n.svg SVG source] )
Variant (replacing black outlines with softer, blue ones): (File:Artwork Mascot feliks2 n1.svg SVG source] ) 
- NicuBuculei: and one very close to Jiri's original (File:Artwork Mascot feliks3 n.svg SVG source] )
TRY 2
A bee
NicuBuculei: Derived from one of my previous dragonfly modification" (File:Artwork Mascot bee1 n.svg SVG source] ) 
TRY 3
- A mysterious creature tentatively called Fedorina. No one knows which category of species that creature belongs and where it comes front. So far, one of people managed to draw a rough steck of Fedorina face giving the hint she is a female. Stay tuned as an investigation to see the complete part.
- Yes, more investigations are needed, there it potential with she, she may be even evil. (nicu) update: if she is tall, have a thin waist and big boobs, probably is evil but if she is a chibi (short body, super deformed) she is good. And I have nothing against an evil mascot.
- Starting the investigation, Fedorina is spotted once again. Apparently, she likes to pose for a brief moment before vanishing. As the result, the drawing is blurry. However, the investigation managed to get her shape that indicate her agility. Rumor talks about her chibi form but it is still unconfirmed. More information will come soon. For now, here is the appearance described by witnesses.
- disturbing news from a remote location in Eastern Europe: a 4 years old boy claims he encountered Fedorina. Is not clear if the apparition was indeed her, a poorly executed fake or just the little boy imagination affected by too many re-runs of the PPG show on local television networks (from our special correspondent, NicuBuculei)
TRY 4
- Here's a sketch of an alien. Our dominant color is blue, and the logo font is kind of spacey, so I doodled a few aliens today and I liked this one. --MairinDuffy
- Freaky - this morning, commuting to work it was raining and the bus windows blurred and I was sketching mascots with my finger on the blurred window, guess what? An alien :p Only my alien had the eyes on the top of his antennas. (nicu) update: my finger-drawn alien was something like this (thus not as polished as yours):
- Hehe, maybe we are on to something with aliens? :) Here are some more alien dudes --MairinDuffy
- I think you are up to something here, I like this approach better: using simple shapes. IMO, the success criteria of the mascot is not a very good looking complex shape, but something easy to draw, which can be re-created by a lot of enthusiasts (which are not equally skilled), and those graphics are just like that. Simple question: other than colors, how we know this is an alien? (nicu) Update: I tried a redraw of this alien and indeed, is very simple to do
- vectorization + colorization (File:Artwork Mascot alien2c n.svg SVG source] ) (--NicuBuculei)
- more exploration of simple alien shapes (--NicuBuculei)
- Nicu, right on that is a great point. Keeping the shapes simple and easy to replicate will make it easier for contributors to work with the mascot. Here are a few more attempts, making the shapes simple and following your lead on the general outline. --MairinDuffy
- I have some time to spend, here is a vectorization and colorization (File:Artwork Mascot more alien2 n.svg SVG source] ) (--NicuBuculei) Update: the alien with a Fedora t-shirt
TRY 5
- Here is a nice Polar/Ice bear I thought would work in the "playing with Tux" theme. Shades optional and second pic has a fedora nose (although it makes him look more like a rat). I could go further and give him the rest of his body which would be his arms folded absorbing the sun. --CharlesBrej
File:Artwork Mascot bear mascot.svg
- Here he/she is standing possibly looking at a fedora aurora
File:Artwork Mascot bear mascot standing.svg
TRY 6
- Here is a Blue Arara - Parrot --RodrigoPadula (Created by Ronaldo Padula and Jayme Ayres)
- we can use the blue shades of our project
File:Artwork Mascot blue arara.svg
- NicuBuculei: my vectorisation of the same image, with a slightly simplified shape and irregular outline (File:Artwork Mascot arara2 n.svg SVG source] ) and the same with colors and some bling (File:Artwork Mascot arara3 n.svg SVG source] ). Update: added a variation - the champ sporting a Fedora t-shirt.
TRY 7
From Simon Watz (has not yet signed the CLA but would like this posted while he gets that taken care of. He asked me to post this on his behalf. --MairinDuffy)
TRY 8
- not have name :D ( Created by MolaPahnadayan )
- Draft 2
- Draft 6
TRY 9
- Doe (Still working :S) ( made by MariaLeandro )
- He is like a fedora boyscout (like we all are jijiji)... or at least I think so. I'm making a female character too. I inspire on my local team, Fedora Venezuela; we are always giving support to anyone who need so.. we are like a scouts group :D
- doe :D:D
TRY 10
- Rabbit ( made by AdamPribyl ) -- upload
- Draft 1
- This logotype is based on idea of combination of fedora "f" letter and an animal.
Source: File:Artwork Mascot fedoraf rabbit2.svg
PS: Thanks to Mola for inital upload.
TRY 11
- luppy ( made by MariaLeandro )
- we should use more color... that's how luppy began. luppy is a sea_horse-dragonfly that represents (at least for my) that small things not necessarily are weak. A small sea horse with the speed of a dragonfly, become a possible animal that it can represent the simplicity of what we are... but the complexity of what we can do. luppy always is happy (at least now :D)
- draft 1 (still need a little help on hands.. hope draw 2 get better)
Werewolf
NicuBuculei: This is not exactly a mascot proposals, it the cartoon I used (with great success, it was quite popular) for Fedora 8 (codenamed Werewolf). It may not have a bright future one we go to new released, but I think is useful to have it archived (with File:Artwork Mascot werewolf f8.svg SVG source] ).
