openSUSE to have Logos Competition

The openSUSE Community is pleased to announce a logo competition for a new openSUSE logo as well as four openSUSE distributions; Tumbleweed, Leap, Slowroll and Kalpa.

You read that correctly; the openSUSE Community is considering a new, distinct openSUSE logo to represent the project; essentially, a new chameleon-inspired design. This new logo should complement the brand identity of the openSUSE Project with its distributions. The color green (#73ba25) is reserved as the primary logo color for the project, but color suggestions for distribution logos are welcome.

There have been discussions of a new openSUSE logo over the years, but the timing to transition to a new logo wasn’t ideal, until now. As openSUSE’s logo is similar to SUSE’s old logo and the project is experiencing a transitional period, now seems like a logical time to have the competition along with the four distribution logos. This should provide an opportunity to strengthen the visual identity of the openSUSE brand and make it discernible and cohesive with its other logos.

The current Tumbleweed logo’s wide shape and thin lines have caused visibility and recognition issues, which we aim to avoid with a new Tumbleweed logo. The Leap logo doesn’t have the same issues, but members of the community felt the option should be available to submit a new logo for Leap.

The intent of the competition is to have the logo designs visualize a unified brand. Newly added openSUSE Distribution logos are designed with simple shapes and lines for uniqueness and interest, typically as empty outlines, although the possibility of using fill is not excluded. The logos use a 16u square canvas with a 1u stroke width, maintaining a relatively square aspect ratio.

openSUSE is a community-driven Linux project that develops, builds and maintains many software packages, tools and infrastructure for its distributions.

Tumbleweed is a pure rolling-release Linux distribution with tested versions of the newest stable software.

Leap is a reliable open-source Linux distribution with a focus on stability for desktops and servers.

Slowroll is an experimental distribution based on Tumbleweed, but has a slower release pace. Big updates come every one or two months, and continous bug fixes and security fixes gradually come in moving toward the big updates. The Slowroll logo should not directly mimic the Tumbleweed logo to maintain differentiation among the distributions from the same source.

Kalpa is the KDE Plasma MicroOS Desktop distribution that is gradually advancing from its Alpha state, and receives updates as a subset of Tumbleweed. While Kalpa has a close relationship with Aeon, their logos should be distinct. Gears and the letter K motifs are acceptable for Kalpa, but it cannot directly use KDE trademarks.

An element of the competition, as stated above, is the desire for submitted logo designs to be similar and integrate well with the newer project logos like Aeon (a GNOME MicroOS Desktop distribution), MicroOS and Leap Micro. There is a desire for all the logos together to show a cohesive brand identity for openSUSE and its distributions.

The logos will be selected for the marketing material at events, on its websites as well as on clothing. All the logos submitted will be voted on using survey.opensuse.org.

To establish the official logo for the Project and distribution going forward, current logos of openSUSE, Tumbleweed, and Leap, must be submitted just like the others. The rules of the contest can be found at https://en.opensuse.org/Logocontest.

The competition starts on Nov. 1.

The winners will receive a “Geeko Mystery Box” as a reward for their creative designs.

The deadline is Nov. 22.

The Rules of the Contest are as follows:

• The logo should be licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 and allow everyone to use the logo without attribution (BY) if your work is used as a logo for the openSUSE Project. Note that the attribution is going to be shown on the project’s websites.
• Design must be original and should not include any third party materials.
• Both monochromes and color formats are essential for submission.
• Submissions must be in SVG format.
• Design should reflect the openSUSE communities.

• The logo should avoid the following things:

  • Brand names or trademarks of any kind.

  • Illustrations that may consider inappropriate, offensive, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or libelous.

  • Sexually explicit or provocative images.

  • Violence or weapons.

  • Alcohol, tobacco, or drug use imagery.

  • Discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.

  • Bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against groups or individuals.

  • Religious, political, or nationalist imagery.

• The branding guidelines will be helpful to design your logo (optional) https://opensuse.github.io/branding-guidelines/

Please submit your design by doing the following:

• Email: ddemaio@opensuse.org
• Subject: openSUSE/Tumbleweed/Leap/Kalpa/Slowroll – [your name]
• Your name and mail address to contact
• Vector file of the design with SVG format ONLY.
• Post a PNG of the design under the openSUSE, Tumbleweed, Leap Slowroll, or Kalpa headings on https://en.opensuse.org/Logocontest
• File size less than 512 KB.
• Text about philosophy of the design

The designs that are submitted will be added to a survey where the community can vote on the submitted logo designs. The final decision will be made at an openSUSE Community meeting and it may not be the highest scored design.

We recommend the artist to use Inkscape, a powerful, free and open source vector graphics tool for all kinds of design.

Join others on openSUSE’s Marketing Telegram Channel if you want to chat with people about the designs.