Closed Bug 495594 Opened 15 years ago Closed 14 years ago

Preparing for the distribution of the new Firefox icon

Categories

(www.mozilla.org :: General, defect)

defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED WORKSFORME

People

(Reporter: faaborg, Unassigned)

Details

If we release a new Firefox icon with 3.5, a lot of people in our community are going to want to quickly get copies of the new artwork for use in download buttons, reviews, web sites, and a wide variety of other promotional materials related to the release.  We will need to update the current logo page (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/about/logo/download.html) at same time we announce a finalized icon.

In addition to just getting the new files posted, I think we should consider a few additional changes:

1) register a url that is easy to blog, tweet, and verbally communicate.  

Currently if someone says "hey I need to update AMO, where do I get the new icon" the reply is "mozilla.com > about > logo guide > download logos." Unfortunately people will usually say "um, ok" followed by "Google Image Search > Using random file."

I propose we register getfirefoxicon.com or firefoxicon.com and forward it to http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/about/logo/download.html

Having a short URL isn't just useful for being able to tell people where they need to go, but as people blog, tweet and link to the files using that URL and images at it, we will ideally start to control the results of google image search a bit more.  Currently we don't control a single first page result in Google images for "firefox logo" or "firefox icon."

2) Images that are 512x512 and smaller need to be displayed inline so that the user can copy and paste, or drag and drop.  Also every other instance of the Firefox logo on mozilla.com needs to be presented with the correct alpha channel (without remnants of the background) so that these can serve as an ad-hoc logo guide that supports copy and paste and drag and drop.

3) We might want to alter the page layout and place the images above the fold, currently I can see people not scrolling down and running off to Google Image Search if they don't immediately see what they are looking for (although the logo bear is kind of cute).  The images are really self describing so they don't need a lot of textual lead in.

4) (depending on a possible policy shift) If we decide to release svg and ai files, we may potentially need to hide these vector files behind some legal copy that the user needs to agree to.

5) At the bottom of the page we may want to have an image documenting the previous 2 official Firefox icons with a title along the lines of "How to tell if your icon is out of date"  There is also a similar page over at spreadfirefox: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/3556
Is there an overall plan for our other websites, such as Spread Firefox, AMO, and SUMO (probably not a complete list), to get the new logo too?  (I know that's not this bug, but it made me think of it.)
Hey Alex. This is a good idea - thanks for filing the bug and getting it started. More comments below:

> If we release a new Firefox icon with 3.5, a lot of people in our community are
> going to want to quickly get copies of the new artwork for use in download
> buttons, reviews, web sites, and a wide variety of other promotional materials
> related to the release.  
Just to set your expectations (and anyone else's) there are actually quite a few 3.5-related materials from Mozilla (reviewer's guide, various videos, illustrations on the site, etc) that won't incorporate the new logo. A lot of that stuff was due already b/c of localization, printing deadlines or other factors, so that's purely a matter of timing. Personally, I'm fine with that (since we knew that'd be the case all along) but wanted to mention it.

> We will need to update the current logo page
> (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/about/logo/download.html) at same time we
> announce a finalized icon.
I would actually prefer to update this page with the 3.5 release at the earliest. Until 3.5 comes out, my take is that the current icon will remain the official one. In other words, it's more about when we release the software w/the icon rather than when we announce it.

> 1) register a url that is easy to blog, tweet, and verbally communicate.  
> I propose we register getfirefoxicon.com or firefoxicon.com and forward it to
> http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/about/logo/download.html
Great idea. I'd suggest getting both of the domains you mentioned, plus getfirefoxlogo.com and firefoxlogo.com. I'm not sure if anyone else needs to approve this, but as far as I'm concerned you can go ahead and file the bug to purchase the domains and do the redirects.

> 2) Images that are 512x512 and smaller need to be displayed inline so that the
> user can copy and paste, or drag and drop.  Also every other instance of the
> Firefox logo on mozilla.com needs to be presented with the correct alpha
> channel (without remnants of the background) so that these can serve as an
> ad-hoc logo guide that supports copy and paste and drag and drop.
I know this has been an issue for awhile. Steven, is this something you can do when you swap in the new icon on mozilla.com?

> 3) We might want to alter the page layout and place the images above the fold,
> currently I can see people not scrolling down and running off to Google Image
> Search if they don't immediately see what they are looking for (although the
> logo bear is kind of cute).  The images are really self describing so they
> don't need a lot of textual lead in.
I love that little guy and would prefer to keep him on the page, BUT he's wearing the 'old' logo all over the place so it might be better to remove him...at least until we can give him a new outfit.

It's worth noting that this page is part of a larger style guide, which contains a lot of content that would potentially need to be updated (like http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/about/logo/stop.html). Honestly, I'm not sure if we'll have time to do that before launch...my personal feeling is that it's not an urgent matter, so it's ok to wait. The download page is the most important one for this purpose.

> 4) (depending on a possible policy shift) If we decide to release svg and ai
> files, we may potentially need to hide these vector files behind some legal
> copy that the user needs to agree to.
True, but that's part of a larger issue so I'd rather not make it part of this little plan. Let's resolve the legal stuff separately and on whatever schedule works best for Harvey and then we can add things (or not) as needed.

> 5) At the bottom of the page we may want to have an image documenting the
> previous 2 official Firefox icons with a title along the lines of "How to tell
> if your icon is out of date"  There is also a similar page over at
> spreadfirefox: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/node/3556
It actually might be best to create an entirely new page within http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/about/logo/ and then just link to it from the bottom of the download page. 

(In reply to comment #1)
> Is there an overall plan for our other websites, such as Spread Firefox, AMO,
> and SUMO (probably not a complete list), to get the new logo too?  (I know
> that's not this bug, but it made me think of it.)
Not yet, but we'll definitely need figure this out. First, we need to settle the larger question of how the logo and icon relate to each other. Are they the same thing? Do they change at the same time? Or are they separate entities? (i.e., it makes sense to regularly change a software icon for each major release, but not so much to change a prominent logo every year)

Anyway, those are big questions and are out of scope for this bug! But, it's worth keeping them in mind.

Whatever we decide about the logo/icon situation, I don't think it's essential to figure it out immediately. If it happens, great, but when we originally kicked off the project Alex, Paul, Beltzner and I all agreed that because of the last-minute nature of this project it just wouldn't be feasible to update it everywhere all at once. The key things are to get the places that are most closely tied into 3.5, such as the download buttons, updated and then we can tackle the rest of it.
This bug is old.  Are there next steps here?  Or can we call this complete?
Marking this as resolved. Faaborg, we'll be updating our logo pages later this fall anyway...if you have ideas around that, just follow up with me offline.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 14 years ago
Resolution: --- → WORKSFORME
Component: www.mozilla.org/firefox → www.mozilla.org
Component: www.mozilla.org → General
Product: Websites → www.mozilla.org
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.