PSF Logo Suggestions
Note: This page describes older suggestions for a PSF logo. The official versions are listed on the PSF Logos page.
Contents
2008-09-02 (D. Goodger)
Off and on over the past few months I have been playing with layouts and typefaces for a PSF logo. I took my ideas and ran them by my father, who is an experienced graphic artist (now retired) with many logo designs under his belt. His advice was to keep it clean, keep it simple. That's one thing the Python logo graphic already is, and something we shouldn't mess with.
Typeface
The image files all have a suffix, -F or -B, depending on the typeface (font) being used. -F is for Flux Regular, which is the typeface used by the word "python" in the standard Python logo. Flux Regular has nice curves that go well with the blue&yellow graphic (undoubtedly they were chosen/designed to match), but I find its uppercase/capital letters unattractive, so I only used lowercase. -B is for Blair Medium, a simple sans-serif typeface that gives a feeling of solidity appropriate to a Foundation.
| Flux Regular (-F) | Blair Medium (-B) |
|---|---|
|
|
The lowercase letters in Blair Medium are really small caps, and there are some variations below (-uppercase versus -titlecase). Flux Regular is the choice if we want the PSF logo to match the Python logo. It has a softer feel. If we want the PSF logo to be distinct, a change of typeface is an easy way to do that. Either way works well IMO.
Note that there is letterspacing/kerning work still to be done on the text. E.g. there's too much space (in the Blair Medium) between "W" and "A" in software, and between "A" and "T" in foundation.
(One of the ideas I showed my father kept the existing logo with Flux Regular "python", but add "Software Foundation" in Blair Medium. That was nixed as too busy; best to use only one typeface in the logo.)
Layouts
There are several different layouts presented. We don't have to decide on one particular layout, because different layouts are useful in different situations. We should decide on the typeface to use though.
Horizontal
The horizontal layouts could be used for letterhead and banners. There are 1 and 2 line variations, just to show how we can mix it up. The graphic is in the middle to break up the text; my earlier set of candidates had it at far left, but that left an unbalanced whole.
PSF-horizontal-1line-F.png:
PSF-horizontal-2lines-F.png:
PSF-horizontal-1line-B.png:
PSF-horizontal-2lines-B.png:
Vertical
The vertical layouts show how the PSF logo could be used in more square situations, like on business cards. The -vertical-F logo puts the graphic between "python" and "software foundation", which looks nice, but that doesn't work so well for the -B variations.
PSF-vertical-F.png:
PSF-vertical-uppercase-B.png:
PSF-vertical-titlecase-B.png (with "lowercase" small caps):
PSF-vertical-initials-B.png:
Stacked & Side-By-Side
The stacked and side-by-side layouts are more horizontal, and could be used for web badges, banners, and general situations.
The stacked layout only works with Flux Regular. This is effectively the Python logo with "software foundation" added. PSF-stacked-F.png:
The charm of Flux Regular is the curve of the right side of the lowercase "p", which closely matches the curve of the graphic. In uppercase, that's lost, and even resizing or repositioning the lowercase "python" loses the correlation. Only the "stacked" layout (above) keeps the correlation. Without it, there's not much point in continuing to use Flux Regular. Changing the typeface makes a distinct logo.
The side-by-side layout doesn't work so well with Flux Regular though.
PSF-side-F.png:
PSF-side-titlecase-F.png:
PSF-side-uppercase-F.png
The side-by-side layouts does work well with Blair Medium. The only difference between these is the relative size of the letters. The -titlecase variation uses the typeface's lowercase, which is actually small caps.
PSF-side-uppercase-B.png:
PSF-side-titlecase-B.png:
2008-04-30
The following logo candidates were posted to the PSF-members mailing list. Identical text was used for a fair comparison. See the list archives for the discussion.
From Marc-André Lemburg:
psf-MAL-v3.png:
psf-MAL-v4.png:
From David Goodger:
psf-DJG.png:
