Create a better logo for Pure F# Web templates

[dmohl]

[ghost]

Ha, was going to suggest this but didn't dare. Happy New Year! :)

[dmohl]

@sergey-tihon Would you mind helping out with an awesome new logo for the web project templates? Maybe the new F# logo with a web spin?

[sergey-tihon]

I have a couple of questions:

• Could you point me out to the current image?
• What image formats are supported? Is PNG OK?
• What is desired size of image?
• Do you want same image for all file/project types or different?

[sergey-tihon]

Logo icon:

What do you think?

[sergey-tihon]

And logos for project templates:

[sergey-tihon]

Logos for empty projects:

[sergey-tihon]

We need your opinions too @dmohl @panesofglass @jjvdangelo @kunjee17 @sayedihashimi @jackfoxy @PatrickMcDonald @philderbeast

[kunjee17]

+1 from my end. I like the logo. Simple and cool.

[sayedihashimi]

I think the icons you guys have here look good. I'm not a UX guy but I own the One ASP.NET dialog so I do have opinions on project icons.

Let's compare this to the standard ASP.NET project icon, which I pasted a screen shot of below.

Here we are conveying the following info in the logo.

1. Visual Studio project
2. Web project
3. C# language

Now let's compare that to the messages your icons are conveying.

1. Visual Studio project
2. Web project
3. Language (via diamond logo)
4. Project sub type (mvc/katana/api)
5. Empty or not (based on shade)

I would suggest the following changes:

1. Simplify the icons, you are conveying too many messages. Having 4 adornments + shading is not a simple icon, its the opposite. I would suggest a max of 2 adornments.
2. For the background instead of the black box use the standard project logo (i.e. the grey box in the background of the icon).
3. Replace diamond logo with F#

This would make it simpler and more consistent with other VS project icons.

[jjvdangelo]

@sergey-tihon thanks for putting them together! I agree with the simplifications that @sayedihashimi mentioned. I like the logos but I think too much is being conveyed. For those of us thinking in this space already, it isn't too bad, but it might become noise for those on the "outside."

I am torn about using the F# logo versus just F#, though. The branding could help and hurt. Again, thinking about it from somebody who is not familiar with F#, it might not make sense to them. But, since these are templates you have to install, you're probably going to be familiar with the F# logo. Branding aside, making them look closer to what is already in VS could be helpful.

(Not much help, I know, but I'll keep mulling it over.)

[sayedihashimi]

"I am torn about using the F# logo versus just F#, though"

That's the one part I was not 100% sure of. The reasons why I recommend using "F#" instead of the logo.

1. It's consistent with other VS templates
2. Only F# users will recognize the logo

My point about 2 is that you can use this as a mechanism for others to discover F#. Having the logo doesn't help in that case cuz users must already know what it is.

[jjvdangelo]

users must already know what it is.

Is the F# logo going to obfuscate that when you have to install this project template? I could understand if this came baked into Visual Studio but since one would have to obtain this knowing what they are installing, it doesn't matter much. (Right?)

[sayedihashimi]

@jjvdangelo right the person who installs the extension is very familiar with the logo. Consider this fictitious scenario to help me convey my thoughts.

Chris, an avid F# fan, has recently discovered the F# web templates. He decided to share it with his work buddy Sam. These guys don't communicate well, they are better with code than they are words. Chris showed Sam how to create a new F# web project and his favorite aspects of it. Sam was impressed, but didn't have time to look at it that week.

Since Chris and Sam don't communicate well, assume there was no conversation between the two of them. If you used the icon with F# then Sam would have figured out it was an F# web template and would know what to search for. If it were the logo then it wouldn't convey any meaningful context since Sam isn't familiar with it.

In either case I think it's a minor detail, and there are certainly many good reasons to use the logo.

[jjvdangelo]

Right, I think it is really just nitpicking but something worth thinking about and investigating anyway. Your story is why I am torn. I think our goal with any of this should be to lower the barrier to entry instead of putting things in the way that cause distraction. The F# logo itself is very new and while the Twitter community probably knows that it exists, the rest of the "dark matter developers," as Scott Hanselman puts them, probably do not. I guess this all comes down to whom you are marketing. Unfortunately, I'm not opinionated one way or another enough to do much more than express my thoughts on it.

[sergey-tihon]

First of all, it is just a attempt to show that we can make logo more expressive and show all info project template. @sayedihashimi Do you have C# Web project logo in bigger resolution? I did not find it =( If you have we definitely can create alternative option and compere them visually.

F# vs new logo... I think that we should go with logo option. It helps to adopt it faster. Since we decided to use new logo on community projects we should go on the same way here.

[panesofglass]

Let's hold off on this for now. The MVC5 and Katana templates have been submitted to the Visual F# Tools for distribution with that project. The Visual F# Tools project is the right place to discuss the logo at this point (I think).