Why leaves, man that’s as dead as our competitors want Haiku to be. It definetly needs to be an animal, how else can you make cute mascots to put in your room or to give to your children.
I mean Tux is cute and when you see Tux you think of Linux, if Tux was a leaf you could only use it to wipe your *ss with.
I think that racoon is cool, it’s small lightweight, smart fast and cute creature if now a talented designer would come up with design.
stormbind wrote:kurtis wrote:ico = windows icon, which aren't really graphicsWhat are they then? They always used to be noncompressed bitmaps.
.ico’s are actually strange formats (but generally supported by many graphics programs) - a single .ico file can actually contain all sorts of images in different sizes and color depths… for instance, when downloading .ico graphics from the internet, many artists provide 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 72x72, 96x96, and 128x128 pixel versions of their icon, and then they may provide various bitdepths for each one of those (4 bit, 8 bit, 16 bit, 24 bit, and 32 bit are common) - there’s also no guarantee that each of the different sizes and bitdepths are even the same graphic, they can be completely different if desired by the author…
all of this allows your operating system to use the proper sized graphic depending on the chosen icon-size for file listings, toolbars, etc. If an ico files doesn’t contain an image of the proper size and depth, the next closest size is scaled and/or dithered (this process is slower and usually ugly) to make it fit.
This is why SVG is becoming popular for icons - no need to support multiple icon sizes to suit the OS and user’s desires, literally one-size-fits-all
As may be, but afaik they are still always uncompressed bitmaps. You can have a bitmap of arbitary size; doesn’t stop it being a bitmap.
Windows scales/stretches the bitmap to a specific size but that’s not changing the file format.
If you create a *.bmp in any image editor, convert it to the system pallet (not-optimised 256 colour), save it and rename it to *.ico … you will get a little icon… it will probably look ugly because their are specific rules for transparency and alpha-channel.
I got it, a puffer fish! 
Haiku is a type of (Japanese?) poem, but in the examples I have seen it is used in relation to death, grief, or respect…
There is a famous Haiku about a puffer fish… well, about eating a puffer fish. This is popular because they are poisonous and eating them is “playing with death”.
So I think the Haiku maskot should be a puffer fish, which sometimes looks cute … Puffer fish are dangerous to prey and dangerous to predators!!
Maybe a yellow Puffer Fish, because yellow was the colour of BeOS.
However, I still think the fork would be good because of Zeta. Zeta is the closed source continuation of BeOS (Zeta 1.x = BeOS R6) … and presumably once Haiku 1.x is complete, it will not continue to copy Zeta… resulting in a fork!
Much like BSD is a fork of UNIX… and today FreeBSD has almost nothing in common with SCO UnixWare (despite both coming from AT&T UNIX).
Sooo… what do people think of a Cartoon-like Yellow Puffer Fish, holding a Black Fork? 
Note: Fish in these photes are not puffed up though
Spotted Yellow Puffer…
Yellow Puffer…
Also, Microsoft really likes fish… they always add fish images or screensavers to their OS.
Ussually a shoal of peaceful fish, following a leader (Bill Gates?)
But Haiku (the killer puffer fish) can invade and take over! 
Well, to end this discussion, why not a pool, with all these options (including a small image) in the front page? As with what happened when choosing the name, this could be very effective. Maybe the “Creative Design” and “Website” team could came with an idea or two (creating a squeme to accept submiting samples, image sizes and format).
My suggestion for the image standard:
Vector-type graphics (er… SVG? Obviosly, please, NO bitmapped stuff, this can be generated later, we all know that).
If somebody is thinking in a “living form”, you could push it further and request a 3D model (hmm… sounds nice to me, but in which format?)
Base size for viewing: (I couldn’t think in a historical value through all those years being a BeOS user)
Folks, I know that a visual identity is indeed necessary but it’s not mandatory at a first sight. We all have a lot to accomplish first, so then we all could enjoy what this mascot represents and all the work behind it.
I know I’m not the one to came bossing around with this since I’m just another unknown, non expressive, non representative user, but it’s just what I’m thinking right now.
I don’t have time to breath the last weeks so I’m contributing with ideas and maybe building some documentation.
And I reaffirm: between the commercial option and Haiku, all my bets are on Haiku.
Time is the most precious resource to waste. You will know it when every project you want finished don’t have a single contribution of you, as with what happened to me and BeRDP: not even a single line in 3 years; all the credit goes to Sikosis.
Doca
An ashamed user.
I got it, a puffer fish! :)
hey look, there’s a pufferfish all puffed up =P
Well, to end this discussion, why not a pool, with all these options (including a small image) in the front page? As with what happened when choosing the name, this could be very effective. Maybe the "Creative Design" and "Website" team could came with an idea or two (creating a squeme to accept submiting samples, image sizes and format).
As of yet, the admin team has no official stance on the idea of a mascot. Once we can all agree on weather or not we want a mascot, we may end up doing something like this.
So, to review:
– Raccoon? (Tanooki… As long as we avoid making it look like Meeko from “Disney’s Pocahontas”)
– Pufferfish? (Potentially conflicts with current FreeBSD campaign for the latest release, 3.5)
– Hummingbird? (Potentially conflicts with a Seagate campaign for their Momentus notebook HDD’s, although their use of hummingbirds are bitmapped, and not iconized as a vector graphic.)
My suggesstion? Keep it distinct.
The Grey Heron, or as it’s called in Japanese, Ao-Sagi, is keeping with the implied theme of Asian/Pacific wildlife and indigenous to Northern Japan. The bird is diminuitive, agile, and is a waterfoul, which could easily incorporate the autumn leaves already in the Haiku logo.
Here’s a photo… The feather tuft at the back of the head caught my eye first as a photographer myself: this bird is distinct enough to be cartoonized like Tux or the BSD Devil, or formalized like most business graphics of animals. It’s also far away from the hummingbird we’ve all exausted as an option.
Grey Heron (This photo is copyrighted, otherwise, I’d have added it to this post.)
http://www.fsinet.or.jp/~bird/bird/photo/heron/aosagi.html
Heck, even the pose looks usable in the possible making of this graphic. If this sounds like something to go with, please reply, or if a different animal still screams to you “HAIKU ME!”, tell us about it. Otherwise, I’ll take this photo and play with Adobe Illustrator and see what I can come up with for y’all.
I saw some people talking about a mascot so I decided to start a thread about it. With a name like haiku I think the most obvious mascot would be the panda. Haiku is japanese so it fits perfectly, not only that its a very cute animal :).
Sorry, but I realy think that a mascot is only bullshit.
Haiku logo is perfect.
While I think that the Haiku logo is gorgeous in it’s simplistic elegance I do like the idea of a Mascot. It’s more hands on and tends to fit into various images/graphics in a way that an alphanumeric logo doesn’t.
As for my vote: I love the idea of an origami hummingbird.
– Raccoon? (Tanooki… As long as we avoid making it look like Meeko from “Disney’s Pocahontas”)
I’d vote for a raccoon if it looked like this:
I'd vote for a raccoon if it looked like this:
Lol, I think Nintendo might have some issues with that.
Well, uh… Survey says two against, one for a racoon (hopefully on the kidding side)… and zero likes…
(Why does this thread exist if no one realistically wants a mascot?)
Nevermind, I’ll just stick to development, then…
(Why does this thread exist if no one realistically wants a mascot?)
Also, Microsoft really likes fish... they always add fish images or screensavers to their OS.Ussually a shoal of peaceful fish, following a leader (Bill Gates?)
But Haiku (the killer puffer fish) can invade and take over!
I’m sure you mean a shoal of pirhana?
i think the leaf idea is a great idea. i also thought a bee would be cute, to kind of subconsciously remind you of “Be”…
i think the leaf idea is a great idea. i also thought a bee would be cute, to kind of subconsciously remind you of "Be"...
I really like that idea.
The idea of a bee is a good one. YT allready uses one, but that doesn’t have to be a problem, does it? I always liked the attitude of the bee on this wallpaper. (I don’t remember where I found the wall, although i guess the author is http://saderon.deviantart.com)
The idea of a bee is a good one. YT allready uses one, but that doesn't have to be a problem, does it? I always liked the attitude of the bee on this wallpaper. (I don't remember where I found the wall, although i guess the author is http://saderon.deviantart.com)
I thought that was a moskito… never seen a red bee with a “stinger” on it’s nose.
Yeah, I was a bit uncertain about the species. It just seemed so logical that is was a bee, that I kind of assumed it was a very bad design.
If YT was so close, but still didn’t choose the right insect, then I’m all for Haiku doing so.
