D brand identity repository

[Jonathan M Davis]

On 2011-07-03 11:03, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 7/3/11 12:35 PM, James Fisher wrote:
> > On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu
> > <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org <mailto:SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org>>
> > 
> > wrote:
> >     One thing that's going somewhat unnoticed in this discussion is that
> >     the site is at the end of a major redesign cycle during which people
> >     in this group gave extensive input on the logo, the color scheme,
> >     the fonts, the page design - pretty much all aspects of the website.
> >     I find it surprising that all that is now as if it never existed.
> > 
> > I don't want to give the impression that I want to discard everything.
> > 
> >   What I and the others in this thread are currently doing definitely
> > 
> > builds on that work -- which is clear in the potential refinements of
> > the logo, the palette, and the font choice.  I imagine the contents of
> > the site will remain 95% the same, too.  My proposed page layout is
> > perhaps an overhaul, though.
> > 
> > If you feel the proposals are a step back rather than forwards then I'm
> > happy to discuss that.
> 
> I'm not qualified to discuss aesthetic matters. I think once we're past
> fixing flaws, a lot of stuff is simply different without being either
> obviously better or worse. (All other things being equal, novelty and
> artistic je-ne-sais-quoi are definite assets.)
> 
> On my agenda for the website there are several important things: (a)
> make the homepage more dynamic, e.g. with the latest posts etc; (b)
> propagate the look and feel of std.algorithm to the other modules; (c)
> integrate Adam Ruppe's "try now" button everywhere; (d) make a pass
> through the content to improve it, fix examples, add articles and links
> and so on. Fiddling once more with color scheme and layout minutiae is,
> well, not on that list.
> 
> I didn't create either the current layout or the mockup at
> http://eegg.github.com/d-brand/mockup.png so I can candidly compare the
> two. I like the current layout better.
> 
> * The existing logo looks professional and well rounded. The proposed
> logo, with non-circular bubbles, the bare letter, and the color choice
> looks inferior to me.
> 
> * The proposed menu at the top is disproportionately tall compared to
> the font size. It looks like someone chose the wrong font/menu height
> combination in a windowing system.
> 
> * The mockup text is ragged right, whereas the current site has
> beautifully justified and hyphenated text.
> 
> * I like the color palette of the current site with the nuances of gray
> and the surrounding border.
> 
> * I prefer the blockquote indentation and color. In the proposed layout
> the blockquote is only distinguished with a crappy double quote sign to
> its left.
> 
> * I like the proposed brief code sample, but I'd rather integrate such
> within the current layout. (There have been discussions about that.)
> 
> There's nothing objective here, so anything could go either way.
> Furthermore some or all of these issues (subjective as they are) can be
> fixed, which takes us back to the question - what is wrong with the
> current design, and what is the next step towards improving it?
> Rehashing the layout into something different-yet-equivalent doesn't
> strike me as getting the best bang for the buck - it's not a step
> forward or backward, but a definite lateral one.

Overall, I'd say that I have to agree. I like the current look and feel of d-
programming-language.org, and I don't see anything wrong with its logo either 
(and it looks _way_ better than any of the logos suggested here IMHO). I'm 
sure that the site could be improved, but the kind of stuff being discussed in 
this thread is incredibly subjective and it doesn't generally seem like much 
of an improvement. d-programming-language.org is generally a step up from how 
www.digitalmars.com looks, and the website situation has been improving. So 
truth be told, I don't understand this discussion at all. It seems to me like 
it's a bikeshedding argument on website and logo design. I'm sure that help on 
d-programming-language.org would be appreciated, but working on redesigning 
the website _again_ seems to me like a waste of time which would be better 
spent elsewhere.

- Jonathan M Davis