more... Re: the Penguin
Jon Dowd (jondowd@jeffnet.org)
Sat, 25 Jul 1998 12:01:48 +0000
The following is a quote from Linus Torvalds:
I found it located at
http://www.linux.org/info/penguin.html
Somebody had a logo competition announcement, maybe people can send
their ideas to a web-site..
Anyway, this one looks like the poor penguin is not really strong
enough to hold up the world, and it's going to get squashed. Not a
good, positive logo, in that respect..
Now, when you think about penguins, first take a deep calming breath,
and then think "cuddly". Take another breath, and think "cute". Go
back to "cuddly" for a while (and go on breathing), then think
"contented".
With me so far? Good..
Now, with penguins, (cuddly such), "contented" means it has either
just gotten laid, or it's stuffed on herring. Take it from me, I'm an
expert on penguins, those are really the only two options.
Now, working on that angle, we don't really want to be associated with
a randy penguin (well, we do, but it's not politic, so we won't), so
we should be looking at the "stuffed to its brim with herring" angle
here.
So when you think "penguin", you should be imagining a slighly
overweight penguin (*), sitting down after having gorged itself, and
having just burped. It's sitting there with a beatific smile - the
world is a good place to be when you have just eaten a few gallons of
raw fish and you can feel another "burp" coming.
(*) Not FAT, but you should be able to see that it's sitting down
because it's really too stuffed to stand up. Think "bean bag" here.
Now, if you have problems associating yourself with something that
gets off by eating raw fish, think "chocolate" or something, but you
get the idea.
Ok, so we should be thinking of a lovable, cuddly, stuffed penguin
sitting down after having gorged itself on herring. Still with me?
NOW comes the hard part. With this image firmly etched on your
eyeballs, you then scetch a stylizied version of it. Not a lot of
detail - just a black brush-type outline (you know the effect you get
with a brush where the thickness of the line varies). THAT requires
talent. Give people the outline, and they should say [ sickly sweet
voice, babytalk almost ]"Ooh, what a cuddly penguin, I bet he is just
_stuffed_ with herring", and small children will jump up and down and
scream "mommy mommy, can I have one too?".
Then we can do a larger version with some more detail (maybe leaning
against a globe of the world, but I don't think we really want to give
any "macho penguin" image here about Atlas or anything). That more
detailed version can spank billy-boy to tears for all I care, or play
ice-hockey with the FreeBSD demon. But the simple, single penguin
would be the logo, and the others would just be that cuddly penguin
being used as an actor in some tableau.
Linus
The second quote is from when Linus announced Linux v2.0 on Usenet:
Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really
embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen
a angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot
more careful about what they say if they had. -- Linus Torvalds
Jon Dowd - Ashland, Oregon USA
jondowd@jeffnet.org
http://www.angelfire.com/or/LindaJesseJonDee/JonDee.html
The top of my head shines through my haircut
Even when I brush, shape and style
The top of my head smiles at the young man
Telling me I must have been alive awhile. ! :- )
--
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