Hmm.. I quite like Carls design, but I can't help feeling its not much of a step forward. Although simple and clean, its barely discernable from the original.
And on the subject of dogs, I guess yes we English are a little more 'conservative' but don't misunderstand. I don't mind the dog, its just the original logo was a little bit 'Hello Kitty -ish'... I think its worth finding a derivative of the original logo that is more universally appealing....
The other comment that keep popping up is 'its looks great for a developer site'.
Whilst I accept that is true, I'm not prepared to accept that OpenACS is merely a melting pot for enthusiastic developers. I think we should accept that the community is more than just a development one (significant portion though that is), and the design should reflect that to some degree..
My thinking here is (and I just *know* this is going to cause waves) that in particular the main areas of the site are possibly more important to non-developers than developers. After all, if your an OACS developer, chances are you aren't paying much attention to thedesign after a while anyway. However the more commercially or speculatively visting folks are likely to place more emphasis on it.
I realise everyone can throw the 'simple is best, its what Philip prescribed, techies know better' and all that.... but human nature is what it is, and giving off a more 'professional' or 'slick' look is part an parcel of appealing to that. The website is probably the most visible and significant marketing tool the community has, so please forgive my cautious approach. Without wishing to be unkind, what I definately don't want to see is a 'site for geeks' style approach, it alienates non-techies, and also gives off a sort of inverted snobbery.. i.e. 'we wouldn't lower ourselves to do something a bit marketing-oriented..and this site is too techie for you...'
. Hope that makes sense.
I still think Design #1 was the nearest, and if the header bar was just shrunk a little, it'd probably fit quite sweetly..
Cheers
Simon
