[[identity]]
The CentOS Project Identity
===========================

The CentOS Project identity is based on a monolithic visual structure.
In a monolithic visual structure, the organization has one unique name
(<<centos-brand>>) and one unique visual style (<<centos-themes>>) in
all its visual manifestations, internal and external stakeholders use
to feel a strong sensation of uniformity, orientation, and
identification with the organization. No matter if they are visiting
web sites, using the distribution, or acting on social events, the one
unique name and one unique visual style connects them all to say: Hey!
we are all part of The CentOS Project.

== The CentOS Mission

The CentOS Project exists to produce The CentOS Distribution, an
Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely
provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux
vendor.  The CentOS Distribution conforms fully with the upstream
vendors redistribution policy and aims to be 100% binary compatible.
(The CentOS Distribution mainly changes packages to remove upstream
vendor branding and artwork.).

The CentOS Distribution is developed by a small but growing team of
core developers.  In turn the core developers are supported by an
active user community including system administrators, network
administrators, enterprise users, managers, core Linux contributors
and Linux enthusiasts from around the world.

The CentOS Distribution has numerous advantages including: an active
and growing user community, quickly rebuilt, tested, and QA'ed errata
packages, an extensive mirror network, developers who are contactable
and responsive of a reliable Enterprise-class Linux Distribution,
multiple free support avenues including a
http://wiki.centos.org/[Wiki],
http://www.centos.org/modules/tinycontent/index.php?id=8[IRC Chat],
http://lists.centos.org/[Email Lists],
http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/[Forums], and a dynamic
http://www.centos.org/modules/smartfaq/[FAQ].

[[centos-visual-manifestations]]
== The CentOS Visual Manifestations

The CentOS Artwork SIG has identified the following visual
manifestations for The CentOS Project organization:

* The CentOS Distribution -- to control the operating system appearance.
* The CentOS Web environment -- to control the web applications appearance.
* The CentOS Showroom -- to control the appearance of goods produced
  by industrial means.

=== The CentOS Distribution

This visual manifestation communicates its existence through software
packages.  There are packages that make a remarkable use of images,
packages that make a moderate use of images, and packages that don't
use images at all.  This visual manifestation is focused on rebuilding
the packages that make use of images affecting the visual style of of
the final product. Special attention is dedicated to change packages
holding upstream branding information (e.g., _redhat-logos_ and
_redhat-artwork_).

- The operating system itself (communicates the essence of The CentOS
  Project existence.).

- The release schema (lifetime) and all the stuff related (e.g.,
  release notes, documentation, erratas, etc.).

=== The CentOS Web Environment

This visual manifestation communicates its existence through web
applications.  These web applications are free software and come from
different providers which distribute their work with predefined visual
styles.  Frequently, these predefined visual styles have no visual
relation among themselves and introduce some visual contradictions
when they all are put together.  Removing these visual contradictions
is object of work for this visual manifestation.

- The CentOS Chat.
- The CentOS Mailing Lists.
- The CentOS Forums.
- The CentOS Wiki.
- Special Interest Groups (SIGs).
- Social Events, Interviews, Conferences, etc.
- The extensive network of mirrors available for downloading ISO files
  as well as RPMs and SRPMs used to build them up in different
  architectures.

=== The CentOS Showroom

This visual manifestation communicates its existence through
production of industrial goods carrying The CentOS Brand.  These
branded goods are directed to be distributed on social events and/or
shops. They provide a way of promotion and commercialization that may
help to reduce The CentOS Project expenses (e.g., electrical power,
hosting, servers, full-time-developers, etc.). Some of the goods
produced here include the following:

- Advertisements (e.g., posters, flyers, stickers, paper bags, stands,
  ...).
- Office Stuff (e.g., pens, folders, cups for coffee,  ...)
- Clothes (e.g., shirts, pullovers, sweaters, caps, ...).
- Installation media (e.g., pen-drives, CDs and DVDs with labels and
  sleeves included).

[[centos-brand]]
== The CentOS Brand

The CentOS Brand is the main graphical identification of The CentOS
Project.  The CentOS Artwork SIG uses The CentOS Brand to connect all
the visual manifestations The CentOS Project is made of (see
<<centos-visual-manifestations>>) and, this way, it provides visual
recognition among similar projects available on the Internet.

The CentOS Brand is composed of a graphical component known as The
CentOS Symbol and a typographical component known as The CentOS Type.
When The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type are combined, they create
what we know as The CentOS Logo.  All the components that make The
CentOS Brand can be used together or separately, considering that, in
hierarchy order, The CentOS Logo is rather preferred than The CentOS
Symbol, as well as The CentOS Symbol is rather preferred than The
CentOS Type alone.

The CentOS Brand must be exactly the same every time it is printed
out, no matter what the impression medium is.  A route to reproduce
The CentOS Brand this way must be used in order to avoid reproduction
mistakes of any kind when final images are branded with it. To prevent
such mistakes, The CentOS Artwork SIG creates SVGZ files only for The
CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type components. Then, using automation
scripts, final images in different sizes, colors and formats are
produced for them.  In this environment, if changes are introduced to
The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type, they will be propagated to all
images holding them, the next time they all are rendered. Since the
whole rendition process is fully automated, the fact of propagating
brand information through a variable number of images is fairly simple
and exact.

=== The CentOS Symbol

The CentOS Symbol is the graphical part of The CentOS Logo. The CentOS
Artwork SIG uses The CentOS Symbol to ``brand'' images produced by The
CentOS Project and provide visual connection between them so they can
be monolithically recognized as part of The CentOS Project.  The
CentOS Symbol must be exactly the same every time it is printed out.
To grant this uniqueness, The CentOS Artwork SIG designs The CentOS
Symbol in SVGZ format and uses automation scripts to produce final
images from on it. Final images produced from automation scripts vary
in format, color and size but The CentOS Symbol proportion is strictly
retained in all of them.

==== Construction

1. ...

==== Usage Restrictions

In order to apply The CentOS Symbol to other images correctly, the
following usage restrictions must be complied:

1. ...

==== Color Restrictions

In order to apply The CentOS Symbol to other images correctly, the
following color restrictions must be complied:

1. ...

==== Acceptable Variations

Printing too many different colors on specific sorts of media may
result very expensive sometimes, so the following acceptable
variations for The CentOS Symbol are also available:

1. ...

=== The CentOS Type

The CentOS Type is the typographical part of The CentOS Logo.  The
CentOS Type is used to ``brand'' images produce by The CentOS Project
and provide visual connection between images so they can be
monolithically recognized as part of The CentOS Project.  The CentOS
Type alone provides less recognition than The CentOS Logo and The
CentOS Symbol. Frequently, The CentOS Type is used to advert the major
release of CentOS Distribution on the first images shown as part of
distribution installation process.  The CentOS Symbol and any release
information printed out with it must have exactly the same proportions
every time they are printed out.  To grant this uniqueness, The CentOS
Artwork SIG designs The CentOS Type in SVGZ format and uses automation
scripts to produce final images from on it. Final images produced from
automation scripts vary in format, color and size but The CentOS Type
proportion is strictly retained in all of them.

image:corporate-fonts.png[corporate-fonts.png]

==== Construction

1. ...

==== Usage Restrictions

In order to apply The CentOS Type to other images correctly, the
following usage restrictions must be complied:

1. ...

==== Color Restrictions

In order to apply The CentOS Symbol to other images correctly, the
following color restrictions must be complied:

1. ...

==== Acceptable Variations

Printing too many different colors on specific sorts of media may
result very expensive sometimes, so the following acceptable
variations for The CentOS Type are also available:

1. ...

=== The CentOS Logo

The CentOS Logo is the combination of The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS
Type. The CentOS Artwork SIG uses The CentOS Logo to ``brand'' images
produced by The CentOS Project and provide visual connection between
them so they can be monolithically recognized as part of The CentOS
Project.  The CentOS Logo must be exactly the same every time it is
printed out. To grant this uniqueness, The CentOS Artwork SIG doesn't
create The CentOS Logo in SVGZ format, instead it combines final
images produced from The CentOS Symbol and The CentOS Type using
automation scripts.  Because final images related to both The CentOS
Symbol and The CentOS Type do share common proportions, it is possible
for automation scripts to combine them in a great number of ways to
produce a great number of final images for The CentOS Logos and with
high levels of exactitude.

==== Construction

image:corporate-logo-howto.png[corporate-logo-howto.png]

==== Usage Restrictions

In order to apply The CentOS Logo to other images correctly, the
following usage restrictions must be complied:

1. ...

==== Color Restrictions

In order to apply The CentOS Logo to other images correctly, the
following color restrictions must be complied:

1. ...

==== Acceptable Variations

Printing too many different colors on specific sorts of media may
result very expensive sometimes, so the following acceptable
variations for The CentOS Logo are also available:

1. ...

== The CentOS Palette

In addition to colors used in The CentOS Symbol (9ccd2aff, 932279ff,
262577ff, efa724ff) and The CentOS Default Background Color
(204c8dff), The CentOS Artwork SIG uses the following colors in their
corporate graphic designs:

image:../corporate-colors.png[corporate-colors.png]

Artistic motifs have not any limitation in the number of colors used.
If you are a graphic designer creating artistic motifs for The CentOS
Project, feel free to take your creativeness at its limit by creating
color-full artistic motifs. For final bootup images which require a
reduced number of colors, create palette of colors for them with the
appropriate number of colors and let the *render* module of
*centos-art.sh* script to do the rest.

[[centos-themes]]
== The CentOS Themes

The CentOS themes organize visual styles for all the visual
manifestation The CentOS Project is made of. In order to automate the
process of rendering images based on customizable patterns, themes
have been divided into ``design models'' and ``artistic motifs.''

image:identity-themes.png[identity-themes.png]

[[centos-themes-models]]
=== Design Models

Design models are compressed SVG files created with Inkscape. They
describe the image files used to implement the CentOS project visual
manifestations.  For example, in the specific case of CentOS
distribution, each final image you want to re-brand has a design model
associated used to set the final image dimensions, whether or not it
has round borders, and what background to use on it.  Design models
are created once and rarely modified through time. They are only
modified if the visual manifestation they refer to changes or needs to
be tuned up.

Localization of design models is also possible. It takes place in the
same directory of design models, through PO files which are
manipulated by automation scripts. The localization of design models
allows production of final images for different locales.  For example,
if you decide to use slide images in CentOS installer, you need to
create one design model for each slide image you want to produce in
English language.  Then, using *locale* module of *centos-art.sh*
script, you create PO files for each design model you have.  PO files
are created using the current language information of your terminal
(e.g., see value of +LANG+ variable).  Then, you use the *locale*
module again to edit the PO files and provide string translations from
English to your preferred language.  Once translations are on the PO
files, you use the *render* module of *centos-art.sh* script to
produce final images for your locale, based on the artistic motif you
initiate rendition for and the related design models set in the
rendition configuration file.

[[centos-themes-motifs]]
=== Artistic Motifs

Artistic motifs are PNG images holding the background information of
each design model available.  One important characteristic of artistic
motifs is preserving one unique visual style for all the PNG images
they are made of.  Artistic motifs aren't limited in number. It is
possible to have several artistic motifs and produce final images for
all of them using one single set of design models. Artistic motifs
give plenty of room for graphic designers' creativeness.  As
convention, artistic motifs are conceived without any specific brand
information on them. The brand information is set later using
automation scripts and final branding images, when final images are
produced.

== The CentOS Behavior

The CentOS Behavior is focused on the effective social interaction of
each member involved in the organization (e.g., core developers,
community members, etc.).  It is related to ethics and politics used
inside and outside the community. It is related to the sense of
direction chosen by the community and the way the community projects
itself to achieve it.

The CentOS Behavior is based on a meritocracy (the more you do the
more you are allowed to do).

== The CentOS Visual Structure

The CentOS Project has a monolithic visual structure. In it, The
CentOS Project expresses its visual identity through one unique name
and one unique visual style through all the visual manifestations it
is made of.

In order for The CentOS Project to express its identity according a
monolithic visual structure, it is required to consider all the visual
manifestations The CentOS Project is made of, not just one of them.
For example, if one different visual style is implemented for each
major release of The CentOS Distribution, which one of those different
visual styles would be used to cover the remaining visual
manifestations The CentOS Project is made of (e.g., The CentOS Web and
goods from The CentOS Showroom)?

Having one unique visual style in all visual manifestations for
eternity would give the idea of a visually out-of-dated project. So,
there is no problem on creating new visual styles for one of the
visual manifestations from time to time, in order to refresh the way
it looks and feels; the problem itself is in not propagating the new
visual style created, onto all other visual manifestations The CentOS
Project is made of, in a way that The CentOS Project does be
recognized in the new look and feel, no matter what visual
manifestation be in front of us.  Such lack of uniformity is what
introduces the visual contradiction The CentOS Artwork SIG is
precisely trying to solve by mean of identifying, organizing and
automating artwork production inside The CentOS Artwork Repository
(<<repository>>).

// vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
