Symbian Foundation: day one and a new logo
Yesterday marked 'day one' of the Symbian Foundation. This announced the commencement of the beta testing of its new web site and that 81 companies have applied for membership (50 of which are first time endorsers). The new logo of the Symbian Foundation was also unveiled: Symbian, in stylised letters, underlain by a yellow heart. Read on for more.
The Symbian Foundation brand and logo is a marked departure from typical corporate branding. It is designed to reflect the new direction of the Symbian Foundation - with openness, community and collaboration at the core.
The reaction to the new brand has been mixed, but, on a personal note, I rather like the departure from the norm. Being different is a good thing and the Symbian Foundation needs to communicate its radical ideas and processes to the rest of the industry; branding seems a sensible place to start.
Yesterday there was also an assets transfer from Nokia, with office leases, IT equipment, trademarks and Symbian-related domains being passed over to the Foundation from Nokia. The offices, including a much needed reception, are being refitted at 1 Boundary Row. This will draw on the Symbian Foundation brand themes - watch out for ducks of doom, rocket-powered reindeer, deaf fish, unicycle-horse cross breeds, ray-gun wielding tentacles and the idea-generating toaster.
The Symbian Foundation Blog has provided a number of desktop wallpapers, featuring a number of the brand elements, including the new logo. They can be downloaded from Share on Ovi.
From the Symbian Foundation press release:
The Symbian Foundation today announces the start of its beta website test programme marking a significant milestone in the launch of the Symbian Foundation. Community involvement is paramount to the evolution of the Symbian Foundation platform and as such several thousand friends and members of the Symbian community are being invited to feedback on the website which will launch as a public beta in this quarter.
The website will include a full developer offering which includes platform release information, council charters, wikis, forums as well as access to the SDK, code repository, tools, documentation, wiki, bugtracker and forums.
If you haven't already, now would be a good time to update your bookmarks from Symbian.com to Symbian.org.
The press release also notes:
The foundation continues to receive encouraging support from companies across the industry. Since the membership programme first opened in February, 81 companies have applied for membership and are either going through the formal process or have become members, 50 of which are first time endorsers.
To put this into perspective, seventy-eight organisations had endorsed the Symbian Foundation, as of 12th February 2009.
Published by Rafe Blandford at 15:01 UTC, April 3rd
Categories: Links of Interest, Developer, Industry
Platforms: General, S60 3rd Edition, UIQ 3, MOAP, S60 5th Edition
News Discussion
Honestly, I'm sure yellow heart has lots of ramifications on your health.
BTW if going so radical, why not abandon this "parasite-sounding" name altogether?
(You know, some people still "dunno" the spelling... simbiant, symbion)
Just compare this to "WebOS". :o
The end users will (probably) continue to only see manufacturers' brands and logos on Symbian devices, so the Symbian Foundation logo is completely irrelevant to them because they'll never see it.
[quote]the name Symbian has almost no recognition or traction here in the U.S. Not sure why. [/quote]
The reason is because Symbian devices haven't sold well in America, despite selling well practically everywhere else in the world (including Japan).
There are various explanations for this, but perhaps the most interesting theory is that Americans seem to prefer more PDA-like smartphones, whereas the rest of the world seems to prefer more phone-like smartphones.
In favour of this theory is that Apple's iPhone is basically the same proportions as a traditional Palm-like device (to make it more computer-like), whereas the latest crop of upcoming Symbian devices use a narrower and longer screen which puts them closer to the shape of a traditional mobile phone (perhaps to make them easier to operate with one hand just like normal phones).
The reason is because Symbian devices haven't sold well in America, despite selling well practically everywhere else in the world (including Japan).
There are various explanations for this.[/quote]
Mmmm.... you didn't mention the possible, [I]slight[/I] branding problem. Have you ever tried googling for "Sybian"?
Hehe, yeah I was just about to mention that word. :)
It's not only in NA though, Symbian OS isn't exactly well known in the rest of the world either. Certainly not to the end users. Most people (practically everyone) buying a Symbian phone has no idea about the underlying OS, the UI, nor that they have just got themselves a brand new pocket sized 'multimedia computer'. :tongue:
Btw, hate the new logo.
[quote]I find that when people see how all the different elements of the branding cartoons and doodles fit together - in the animations and other creative designs - then they lose any initial scepticism they had about the brand design.[/quote]
Big it looks horrible, but as a dinky logo - no complaints. Have a look at some other corporate logos scaled up to be as big as the logo on this page - many look pretty awful as well! (OK,OK, not the apple one, I said 'many' :P )
It also seems a bit light hearted which I think is a nice twist for and OS company who are normally seen as very serious.
Big it looks horrible, but as a dinky logo - no complaints. Have a look at some other corporate logos scaled up to be as big as the logo on this page - many look pretty awful as well! (OK,OK, not the apple one, I said 'many' :P )[/quote]
I agree with this. I hated it when I saw it on AAS, but on Share on Ovi there are some other images that kind of put it in some context; then my attitude changed considerably.
Perhaps AAS should put one of the other images up here, since this bare image is misleading - I doubt it's designed to be used on it's own like this.
all else looks interesting :)
Granted that in the context of the Symbian website it looks more at home and for the most part, it is not going to be consumer facing. But this does not excuse the impression it conveys - amateurish rather than different.
I'm all for something 'different' as design language would never progress. But this is a mis-step up there when BA jettisoned the Union Lack for the 'international' theme a decade ago.
Ask yourself whether they would go with this design were Symbian looking to create consumer awareness?
That's the kind of stuff that needs qualifying by the sentence "I am not making this up" if you try to explain it to outsiders, together with a quite helpless shrug.
Now, being through with my alternating thoughts, I settled on the following conclusion, which I think would also be a good claim to complement the new logo: "Symbian Foundation - Where the lunatics took over the asylum".
Great tagline rbrunner!
Rafe - 'the logo experience' - [I]surely[/I] a great discussion piece for the next podcast! ;)
By introducing “Day One” with such an atrocious logo (almost universally accepted), Symbian Foundation have assured themselves far more publicity than they would have got if they had done something ‘presentable’.
I just hope the expression “all publicity is good publicty” holds true…
Can't see any other explanation for it :)
Zuber
Tell Gerald Ratner that!
On the subject of logos; Isn't it about time you guys sorted you're own logo out? What's with all that letter spacing? Are you trying to convey openness? (^_^)
It doesn't inspire any of the things Symbian should given its rivals: History, quality, robustness, maturity, strong corporate backing. It's trying SO hard to be the little guy fighting against the system when what a handset manufacturer or network which is betting tens of millions of dollars on an OS wants is the system.
To me it sends a message of "we'll fight for our independence", that's not what customers want they want to see all the (rubber) ducks lined up together.
Simon Rockman.
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