Discussion of the logo contest

(See LogoContest.)

Note: please sign your comments. Otherwise it may appear that you're speaking in an 'official' capacity for the SpamAssassin project, which is not likely to be the case.

Topics?

1.0.8 - gives the image of a recycle bin in the main logo. That is not consistent with the idea of a spam filter IMO, and shows the unhealthy influence of a Windows user <g>. Recycle bins are not for trashing things! – MichaelBell

1.0.9 - The flames on the envelope may give the opposite viewpoint of 1.0.8 - instead of being too permissive, here's a fearful vision of the future where your mail will catch on fire or be destroyed. Again, this lacks the feeling of discrimination. – mikebell

I think that most people will draw the conclusion that black mail equal bad mail. – ChristianHansen

1.0.15 - the lock on the envelope. Well this is closer than 1.08/1.09 in my opinion but still doesn't give the right feel - it would be great for SECURING or ENCRYPTING, but maybe not right for spam.

Might I suggest (and I do so humbly for my artistic skill is nil) to the artists that if one wants to illustrate the action upon the mail itself that the motif of filtering or selectivity is paramount. – mikebell

Who are you? It would be nice if you would sign your comments! – ChristianHansen
Yes, of course. Sorry – mikebell

In my opinion, logo designs are free to use their own artistic license and whatever motifs they feel appropriate. – JustinMason Well, sure. And make no mistake – these folks are 1000x the artist I will ever be. – mikebell

Potential Design Motifs

One potential way of illustrating the concept of selective filtering would be showing a ninja/assassin (or perhaps just his/her sword) cutting a certain mail in half while letting another one safely by. Of course, this somehow needs to look like a decision by the ninja/assassin/sword to kill some while letting some pass, and not just that they're overwhelmed with enemies, or else we would be sending the wrong message on the server resources SA requires. Perhaps the assassin could motion for one piece mail to pass while skewering the other one. Just a thought from a graphically-unskilled fan of the software. - DanKohn

[http://article.gmane.org/gmane.mail.spam.spamassassin.general/51958 This] posting to the mailing list contained some interesting background infos on the words "assassin", "ninja", etc. Unfortunately can't I post it here as the japanese characters aren't preserved. (MalteStretz)

I'm personally not too keen on the violent imagery in a lot of the logos (such as the crosshairs). Considering the militant nature of a lot of anti-spam crusaders, I think that a logo with violent imagery would reflect poorly on our project and may cause people to associate us with the more militant folks. I'd like to see some more fun entries, like the old rubber ninja logo. (HenryStern)