ship-design

[11010010]

hello.

i am a graphic-designer from germany, working freelance since 5 years in various on- and offline-project. i use neooffice quite a bit everytime i open documents i recieve from clients. all fine and works like a charm, just one thing bugs me: the style of the ship which comes with the logo.

to take part a bit in the development of open-office, i thought maybe i could design you guys a new logo-ship and font-combination that you may use for every neooffice-related stuff.

once the logo is done, it will be all yours, with vectors and all. i am not a programmer so i cannot contribute in the programming. but maybe while designing i could help out.

oh and this is just a thought. you can always say: nay! not that! or nay, our ship is nice as it is.. that's also ok!

well, just tell me what you guys think

[Samwise]

Every now and then, we get a post about the ship icon, and how it looks "unprofessional", or whatever. It's nice that you offer to help though.

However, many people here got attached to the ship icon. There will always be people who dislike it, but the icon is not our first priority (we're focused on toolbar icons right now).

[pluby]

We have no plans to stop using the ship. The ship is the NeoOffice.org logo and has been since Ed created NeoOffice.org back in 2001 (has it really been that long?).

Patrick

[11010010]

hu.. i didn't want to get rid of the ship. just take it to some dock and repaint it. (in a way).. but i realized already that there are some identification problems with the team which i understand and accept.

i will have a look into the other icons, though it seems quite a hulky task. well, gotta get into it.

[LemonAid]

Thank you for your kind offer 11010010
I hope you are not offended by the love and history of our happy ... little ship.

[jakeOSX]

you know... we really should make a wiki page on the ship, some icon history.

=) hell, if i can find it i'll even post the bad icon i started years ago.

-j

[OPENSTEP]

Also, the present icon is actually an award-winning design from Mac|Life (a.k.a MacAddict) as one of the coolest Mac icons ever.

Based on that and history I'm very very reluctant to change.

The ship is oddly proportioned as that's the way it was in the original woodcut map from which I extracted the image. Don't have the link offhand as the old SID viewer doesn't work on OS X, but IIRC there's a JPEG2000 link I posted to the full map earlier.

The map was old enough to be public domain, I thought the ship was cool (e.g. exploring a "new world" for native office suites on OS X), and it's stuck, so it's here to stay. I'm pretty certain the original cartographer is no longer alive so won't be too receptive to complaints about proportions or perspective in his work

ed

[sardisson]

[Uzine]

In its own right, the ship is fine, and "de gustibus non disputamur", but pragmatically, I think the ship icon should stand out more clearly in Mac OS X Dock. I'm always confused with other software because it's so vague on one square cm.

[MacRat]

[Uzine]

In my experience any good copywriter or graphic designer will always be able to provide a text or logo that's even better than the previous one. Just my two cents : the logo isn't bad, but it could be better when viewed on one square centimeter or less.

[tknp]

First, let me say I am a switcher. I use Mac Intel for 2 months after 10 years of Windows. I made the switch smoothless but when I try to find an Office Application for Mac Intel it wasn't easy, until I found NeoOffice by chance.

I am really very impressed with your NeoOffice 2.0 Aqua Beta3, so impressed that I am going to buy a Early Access Program for ver. 2.1, but honestly the first time I started working with it was in a let's try this, base.
When I saw the NeoOffice Logo I thought it was one more of those programs to give you more problems than efficiency.
The Logo is not very credible nor professional neither appellative. It's a psychological process. Maybe the colors are too dark or something... or reclaims for an upgrade..
Those where my firsts filings, and I'm posting this only to help you to make a judgment, based on what some people can feel about 'the face' of NeoO.

tknp

[LemonAid]

Welcome to NeoOffice tknp,

Thank you for your comments and insight. We do appreciate you taking the time to help us understand how the Ship logo appears to you.

I can't say that this will cause a change in the logo, but it's good information to have. Maybe if NeoOffice becomes so popular that this would be something to consider.

We are glad you found NeoOffice and hope that you find it a valuable addition to your Mac. It's not "perfect", but it's the best Office Suite I have found for my uses. It keeps getting better all the time.

Philip ( Using the right tool for the job makes life ... easier )

[AC]

I feel I also have to say a few words about the logo. I fully understand the sentimental value of the logo for you guys, but I have remark that it doesn't convey the right message at all. The Macintosh experience are about sleek, professional elegance and the program logos shall reflect that, in my opinion. The ship logo, I'm sorry to say, looks unprofessional and amateurishly nerdy.. a hobbyist project that shouldn't be taken seriously (that is not my opinion of NeoOffice, I'm merely talking about the message you're sending). And why a ship to represent an office suit??

[pluby]

We use the ship for more than just "sentimental" reasons. We keep it because it has one Mac|Life (née MacAddict).

I understand if you don't think it is cool or well designed, but after winning a very competitive award, tossing it out seems silly.

As for the "it doesn't seem professional like Microsoft Office", well that is not our intent. Our intent has never been to act and look like a big, well-funded coporation as the reality is that we are still a tiny group of people working with meager funds to fill a need that Microsoft and Apple have chosen not to serve. We don't want people to forget that we are tiny in comparison to the giants that dominate people's choices of office suites.

Patrick