My goal all along was to create the next big eMail client, which means that we can't have a two-man-and-a-dog hobby Open Source project page (even if we are a two-man-and-a-dog Open Source project in reality). We need a corporate-style identity, like Postbox and Tbird have. Especially Postbox, because they're our competition.
That means a corporate colour scheme, font (set of typefaces), Web page design, logo, etc etc etc etc. So I've made some choices in that regard (and my progress is being tracked, as always, courtesy of Mercurial). Our corporate colour scheme, in short, will be Solarized (with thanks due to Ethan Schoonover) with the addition of one colour designed to represent the HERMES project as a whole (see below).
A set of logos are in the design process. All of them employ what I informally call "the Snitch" (a varying globe-like element surrounded by a pair of wings and the text "speeding the world's business" in our corporate typeface) on top of the word HERMES, all capitals, vertically biconcave. The Snitch changes based on the specific product: for Mail, it's a simple globe, for WireShare, it's a globe with "atoms" whizzing around it and a hand to represent sharing (like network shares in Windows).
As for typography, I've designed a typeface for use in HTML headings as well as the navbars (top and side). My inspiration was the old Soviet standard (and new Russian standard, comparable to ISO) for lettering in architectural and engineering blueprints.
I can't decide, though, on a colour to represent us as a corporation (meaning a group of people acting as one). I immediately settled upon a theme of, shall we say, "old-money institutional exclusivity", in the same way Eton College is an institution of British high-school education, or Cambridge University is an institution of British university education. Both of those institutions are symbolised in sport (rugby and rowing) by a shade of blue called #96C8A2. #96C8A2 also appears on "green" American dollars (why they call it green is beyond me, it's obviously a shade of blue!) So it's clearly associated in British and American middle-class circles with money, business, elite, nobility, style, good taste, etc.
Unfortunately, #96C8A2 also represents institutions in a negative sense (hospitals, prisons, mental asylums), because their walls are painted in similar colours. Wracking my mind for another shade of blue (don't ask me why blue) that would be associated with all the positive concepts I've already talked about, I came up with #81D8D0, which is the colour associated with boxes and bags containing jewellery by Tiffany & Co.
So I'm wondering, should I go with #96c8a2, or #81d8d0? Which is the nicer colour?
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My goal all along was to create the next big eMail client, which means that we can't have a two-man-and-a-dog hobby Open Source project page (even if we are a two-man-and-a-dog Open Source project in reality). We need a corporate-style identity, like Postbox and Tbird have. Especially Postbox, because they're our competition.
That means a corporate colour scheme, font (set of typefaces), Web page design, logo, etc etc etc etc. So I've made some choices in that regard (and my progress is being tracked, as always, courtesy of Mercurial). Our corporate colour scheme, in short, will be Solarized (with thanks due to Ethan Schoonover) with the addition of one colour designed to represent the HERMES project as a whole (see below).
A set of logos are in the design process. All of them employ what I informally call "the Snitch" (a varying globe-like element surrounded by a pair of wings and the text "speeding the world's business" in our corporate typeface) on top of the word HERMES, all capitals, vertically biconcave. The Snitch changes based on the specific product: for Mail, it's a simple globe, for WireShare, it's a globe with "atoms" whizzing around it and a hand to represent sharing (like network shares in Windows).
As for typography, I've designed a typeface for use in HTML headings as well as the navbars (top and side). My inspiration was the old Soviet standard (and new Russian standard, comparable to ISO) for lettering in architectural and engineering blueprints.
I can't decide, though, on a colour to represent us as a corporation (meaning a group of people acting as one). I immediately settled upon a theme of, shall we say, "old-money institutional exclusivity", in the same way Eton College is an institution of British high-school education, or Cambridge University is an institution of British university education. Both of those institutions are symbolised in sport (rugby and rowing) by a shade of blue called #96C8A2. #96C8A2 also appears on "green" American dollars (why they call it green is beyond me, it's obviously a shade of blue!) So it's clearly associated in British and American middle-class circles with money, business, elite, nobility, style, good taste, etc.
Unfortunately, #96C8A2 also represents institutions in a negative sense (hospitals, prisons, mental asylums), because their walls are painted in similar colours. Wracking my mind for another shade of blue (don't ask me why blue) that would be associated with all the positive concepts I've already talked about, I came up with #81D8D0, which is the colour associated with boxes and bags containing jewellery by Tiffany & Co.
So I'm wondering, should I go with #96c8a2, or #81d8d0? Which is the nicer colour?
I prefer 82cbd8