Talk:Light bulb and butterfly
Color Scheme Can Be Drastically Improved
(Picture at bottom of page)
The design looks great but the color is a blue that is too commonplace, so it contradicts the creativity message intended by the light bulb figure. Perhaps use some orange to have some continuity with the previous logo and have a more unique color? With freemind being about creativity, it makes more sense to have a bold, imaginative color scheme in the logo using some less commonly used colors, like orange, pistachio green, or any one of the millions of colors available.
The default colors in freemind are generally great, except there is too much commonplace blue everywhere.
I liked the mind map in the background of the title logo as it did show what it was used for. The color scheme is a little common place, but sometimes common place can be re-assuring.
- There's a reason that pretty sky-blue color is so popular these days: it's soothing, entiticing and screams "Web 2.0" - which is a good thing. I think, either way, the new look is 1,000 times better than the old. Well done.
The colors are fine on the new logo, but what I like is the imagery. It's obviously a light bulb, but with a pi symbol (the element) and a circle (the bulb) tied to it. Very cool.
For me the bulb is to technical, mathematical. I'd like to encourage you guys to re-design the butterfly and give up the bulb. From the design view, the warm colors are much better and I think you can have more success using the butterfly. Re-designing is good, but watch out not to leave the track. In your case perhaps redesign means a more abstract version of the butterfly (for example: I don't understand why you use two differnet Icons? The Splashscreen and the document icon?). "Free" is the butterfly, not the bulb which stands for "idea" ...
Really like the bulb! Understand (now) about the butterfly being free, but I use FM for developing ideas. Lightbulb is almost universally "idea" while butterfly is...? I agree that too much of everything is blue, and while it does scream Web 2.0, I like the idea of distinguishing it from every other thing out there. What if it were the new image based in orange. Orange and blue are complementary colors that work well together (e.g. Firefox logo!) so an all orange logo in a sea of blue would stand out without hurting the aesthetic sensibilities. Re two icons: I like one for program and one for documents.
I think the bulb is great. I would definitely endorse different colors however. Blue connotes stability and seriousness, which I don't think are FreeMind's aspirations. Deep, saturated green or orange would better communicate the application's uses and strengths. The beveled globe style is just fine; just change the hue.
I like the new design, makes it more fresh. Actually I like the new colors too, but would better prefer old colors, so maybe you can make it with blue background, and old butterfly color for the bulb, or second version - the new logo as it is, but keep a little butterfly with old colors (maybe a bit brighter though) inside the bulb. uldics
How do you like this?
I've always liked the butterfly but can also see why the bulb makes sense. My very quick hack is shown below which combines the 2 images and uses the butterfly as the light within the bulb. I know several on the blog have mentioned this but have not seen any work to date, so apologies for any copyright-type violations. This is only a hack of the small icon. If I could get a high res file, then I could do this a little more justice.
Hi -- Bill McClain on 4/10/2007 with a quick note: I'd like to suggest to anyone more artistically inclined than myself that the butterfly logo could, instead of having plain wings, have light-bulb-esque markings on them. Anybody game for trying this?
I Like the Light Bulb...
but either way this is a fantastic, indispensable program I use daily. Thank you. Atsakiris 06:10, 17 Apr 2007 (PDT)
Keep the Butterfly
Although I only came across this a few weeks ago, I have to say, keep the butterfly. The light-bulb is too overdone, and doesn't represent the "freedom" aspect of FreeMind too well. In addition to this, I think the butterfly shows the shape of what you can do a lot better, whether this was purposeful or not. Just my $0.02 on the issue. Slokunshialgo 17:07, 17 Apr 2007 (PDT)
Best of both...
The light bulb with the butterfly as the filament is an awesome idea. Keep the butterfly as simple as possible. The light bulb represents wisdom and the butterfly suggests the freedom that is gained from and is encompassed within that wisdom. The clean lines represent organization and the overall drawing is simplicity itself. Enlightening, Powerful and Easy to Use!
...MB
I like both, but ..
.. freemind is about growing ideas; relations of thoughts. A butterfly is a nice metaphor for lightness and beautiful fragility. A bulb puts light into darkness and shows allready existing things, previously hidden. So imho, kind of a plant would be an appropriate metaphor for freemind.
Problem with the lightbulb
The lightbulb is pretty, but it's about as generic a logo as I have ever seen. The white on that color blue scheme that was chosen is present in generic looking sites all over the web, and the lighbulb as a logo/metaphor for thinking has been done a million times. A logo is supposed to give you identity, not help you blend in with the crowd.
The icons of the butterfly logo are pretty ugly, but the butterfly used on the splash screen is just as pretty as the lightbulb, and the shape of it actually resembles the symmetry of a mind map, so it's easier to identify the logo with the program. It's also unique enough that you don't feel like you've seen it before, and it's color scheme has more personality.
Ideally, I would go for a new logo that actually incorporates the specific idea of a "mind map" rather than the vague ideas of freedom(butterfly) or of an idea(lightbulb). For example, look at mindjet's logo[1]. If you have ever seen or used mind mapping software, you immediately identify their logo with a node from a mind map. (I don't think their logo is really that great, but it does illustrate my point.)
But if I'm restricted to the lightbulb vs butterfly, I would say take the butterfly from the splash screen, use it to make some nice icons and go with that.
I do like the new font much better, so maybe use that. Here's a quick hack of what I'm picturing.
--Busy 15:19, 26 Apr 2007 (PDT)
Filament bulbs are on the way out
Just another thought - the incandescent filament light bulb is an inefficient item, currently being replaced by the more efficient energy saving bulbs. Might be a mistake to use such a symbol for the Freemind identity? The butterfly is an established symbol too, one which my pupils recognise at school. I like the idea instead of keeping the butterfly (Free) and map. I'd suggest losing the 6 words from that design. I like the blue and white stylised butterfly button which has been suggested.
Looks great
I like the lightbuld idea. "Ding! New idea" is what is says to me. I've used Freemind for about 3 years now, and have found the tool and its open-ended approach to be without parrallel. Icons and the splash screen are a small time-slice of what every user of Freemind sees, and I would posit that the only truly meaningful impact of the graphic is first impression and product branding on places like Sourceforge. With that said, and the minimal impact I perceive the graphic to have, and my preference of the lightbulb over the butterfly, I would have to say that I am fairly ambivilant about the decision to switch graphics, since the power of Freemind has alot more to do with rasterized (?) line graphics and bubble-graphic text boxes than with a small image that is associated with the application.
