Re: Proposed Message for CSS Logo Feedback

Sounds like a good compromise to me. When asking for Logo ideas we'd get many proposals, when asking what people think a branding should communicate, we get information a design team can work with.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Schepers" <schepers@w3.org>
To: "logo" <public-logo-design@w3.org>, "Ian Jacobs" <ij@w3.org>, "Marilyn Siderwicz" <msiderwicz@w3.org>
Sent: Friday, 13 December, 2013 8:16:04 PM
Subject: Proposed Message for CSS Logo Feedback

Hi, folks–

On the telcon, two camps emerged on getting feedback for a CSS logo:

1) Widespread Messaging: this camp wanted to solicit feedback from the 
public (via www-style) on what impressions the logo should elicit.

2) Focused Messaging: this camp wanted to focus the call for feedback 
only to the CSS WG participants, and this list (and the organizations 
this list represents).

I can see both sides of the issue.

The community has many stakeholders, not all of whom are represented in 
this list or on the CSS WG; giving them some opportunity to provide 
feedback is fair.

However, logistically, it does make it more challenging to manage 
feedback, and announcing that we are working on a CSS logo would likely 
build up expectations and decrease the positive impact when the logo is 
announced (people like pleasant surprises!).

I have a proposal that I hope addresses both these points of view.

Rather than restrict who can know about this project, or who can give 
feedback, I've constructed a WBS poll that focuses the feedback into a 
set of specific questions, but labels it as a CSS *branding exercise* 
rather than specifically a *logo project*. It also doesn't provide a 
timeline.

That way, we can announce the poll on the public CSS list, without as 
much risk that we start getting a flood of logo suggestions or 
alternatives, or build too much expectation about the results.

This also dovetails nicely in other discussions W3C's Marketing and 
Communications team is doing around W3C branding as a whole.

Here's my proposed email to the CSS WG and www-style:

[[
Hi, folks–

W3C has been discussing how its technologies are used and perceived, as 
well as how they are talked about by the wider community.

We want to help reinforce the positive messages about CSS, and to 
reflect these ideas and impressions about CSS in our branding strategy.

If you are interested in giving feedback, especially in providing a 
keyword in

We've prepared a short poll to some specific questions. All questions 
are optional, so please provide all the feedback you feel is helpful. 
Anyone is welcome to answer this poll [1]. The poll closes at the end of 
December.

[1] https://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/1/cssbranding/

Thanks!
(-Doug Schepers
W3C Developer Relations
-or-
Whoever should send this message, maybe Peter as CSS WG chair?)

]]

Thoughts?

If someone asks for clarification on whether this means a logo, I 
suggest we say, "A logo might be one of the outcomes of this larger 
branding discussion, but we aren't committing to that right now." This 
is true, because even though we are all interested in a positive 
outcome, we might decide that what OcuPop comes up with doesn't meet our 
needs, or they might not be able to commit to the work on the expected 
timeline.

Regards-
-Doug

Received on Monday, 16 December 2013 21:51:30 UTC