PSF Logo
2008-09-02 (D. Goodger)
Off and on over the past month 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.
The files are available via the "Attachments" link (page bottom).
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 its uppercase/capital letters don't work well, so only lowercase is used. -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 there (-uppercase versus -titlecase). Flux Regular is the choice if we want the PSF logo to match the Python logo, and 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 between "WA" in software, and "AT" 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 keep 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. PSF-stacked-F.png:
The side-by-side layout doesn't work so well with Flux Regular though. PSF-side-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:
