New Permies Overalls Icon

Nicole Alderman wrote:Any news?

I have a phone conversation with him scheduled for this afternoon. I will let you know.

So I spoke with Paul on the phone and he is grooving with the apple one. He doesn't like the scythe really. And he tends to still lean in the direction of the overalls. We are going to try to optimize the overalls one more time. Do you think anyone could try to make them a bit smaller, (like nicole said the white of them is way bigger than the white in other icons) and possibly put them straight on, instead of tilted. And maybe try removing some of the seams? Not the pocket of course. But yeah, keep the apple icons coming as well though because Paul liked those too!

W.O.W., a tremendous amount of work has gone into these designs! Love the Apple, and like the Overalls ! Here is where the KISS principle comes in,
to reduce the Overalls down to match the size of the icons means reducing detail, and you end up chasing yourself in a circle, There is No Law that says
that all the Icons can not be made bigger on our site, only that our Icon does not string well to other Icon size on everyone else's sites !

I am afraid that I don't have an Icon solution But- I Think using a Overall emblem on a campaign Button sized Button would be a clever way to
show a large group of people Who the staff are! Possibly with the hierarchy sorted by colors a la Star-trek.

Lets not abandon the Overalls if they can not work as 'OUR' icon ! Just my two cents ! Big AL

allen lumley wrote: There is No Law that says
that all the Icons can not be made bigger on our site, only that our Icon does not string well to other Icon size on everyone else's sites !
Big AL

True, but this icon will not only be on our site. It will hopefully be on every permaculture/sustainability/homestead/ website that has other social media icons. So we must make one that will potentially fit in with all of those other lists.

Here's my first attempt at smaller, with less stitching, and straight on. I had to fiddle with the shape to make it straight on and smaller. Not sure how it turned out. It can be whatever color you want, of course. Thoughts?

Is it better with little pants pockets?

Ha! Looking at it with the pockets, it looks like a little alien astronaut. LOL!!!

- or a shop apron ! Big AL

Nicole Alderman wrote:Here's my first attempt at smaller, with less stitching, and straight on. I had to fiddle with the shape to make it straight on and smaller. Not sure how it turned out. It can be whatever color you want, of course. Thoughts?

Nicole, I like that one (without pockets) quite a lot! I think just the upper half is better. But that is just my opinion.

Other people?

I like just the upper half, too. But, I couldn't figure out a way to make it smaller and it still just being the upper half. If I shrunk it without putting the bottom on, it would either:
(A) Be cropped, leaving a floating top of overalls, which probably wouldn't look like overalls anymore; or
(B) Have the overalls at the bottom, with the straps at the top with a lot of empty space above the straps.
Neither of those seemed like good options to me, but I could try them out if you want.

Did Paul say what type of apple logo he'd like?

Edit: Tried option (B).

Hmm, Nicole I have no idea how to fix your problem A or B.. Haha damnit!

But I think he liked both of the apple icons you made. Maybe you could come up with a few more and he could choose which one is the best?

I thnk the apple icon is refreshing after three threads of bib overall icons.........maybe it is time to let the bibs rest awhile and just use the apple award icon from permies with some color changes as nicole has done....size it as the 'tweet'ie bird and claim the 'no bite out of it' apple icon before someone else gets it

Nicole Alderman wrote:
Edit: Tried option (B).

I like that Nicole! I don't think it looks weird with space above the straps.

Here's some more ideas. One is a rather generic apple. The next is a stylized version of the permaculture card's apple. It looks kinda global, which I kinda like. For the last one, I put the leaf on the inside...which looks kinda like a heart. Not sure how it turned out. It's not my favorite, but you wanted ideas, so I through it in there. These are all rather rough and can definitely be cleaned up some, but here's some ideas for you! Background color can be changed too, of course!

I like the "bunny" overalls.

Nicole Alderman wrote:Here's some more ideas. One is a rather generic apple. The next is a stylized version of the permaculture card's apple. It looks kinda global, which I kinda like. For the last one, I put the leaf on the inside...which looks kinda like a heart. Not sure how it turned out. It's not my favorite, but you wanted ideas, so I through it in there. These are all rather rough and can definitely be cleaned up some, but here's some ideas for you! Background color can be changed too, of course!

Hmm, call me old fashioned but I like the first, generic one.

And julia I think I like the overalls the best too. I also think that I might just be unreasonably attached to them because of how much I have dealt with them.. Ha!

I'm liking the apple idea
I may have missed where it was discussed or it's assumed-this is foreign to me...
It seems to me that if an apple became our social media icon,
the apple awarded to members and permies' icon apple should be identical?
If we didn't having a single apple 'brand', I think it would be confusing and odd.
I assume it would be simple to change the 'award apple' to match an 'apple icon'?

How about reversing Nicole's design so the apple's a colour, and the background's white?
Then the apple could be used 'as-is' without needing a background behind it in 'award' mode.
I'm for design number one-in the spirit of keeping things simple and all that.

I'm not into the red delicious 'award apple' and always wanted a green one;
but I think that's just me being...me...

- - -- Only slightly off topic, it would be nice if we could have a dozen or more Icons adding them slowly over the years they could help cluster
'Like' Forum Names/Topics.

I vote for 'one apple' and would be happy with any !

Two more thoughts, the overalls are a great 'meme ' and should never be abandoned, but is not clear as an Icon, except in a is it a bunny is it cover-alls ? Way.
I would push for its future use as a Staff I.D., larger with legs and topped with a sweat shirt type silhouette possibly then topped with its owners 'head shot'

Finally, I am kinda glad the scythe got put to bed, It was a little too cutting things down, end of life, Grim Ripper-ish to represents to regular people !

If I may, can we get a look at a silhouette type Potato-Fork kind of Icon, it is a little more about harvesting and working in/with the earth, again as measured by
most people ?

Or not, just spraying out Ideas here ! For the Good of the Crafts Big AL

allen lumley wrote:- - -- Only slightly off topic, it would be nice if we could have a dozen or more Icons adding them slowly over the years they could help cluster
'Like' Forum Names/Topics.

What do you mean they could help cluster?

If I may, can we get a look at a silhouette type Potato-Fork kind of Icon, it is a little more about harvesting and working in/with the earth, again as measured by
most people ?

If you or someone could create it, go for it!

Leila Rich wrote:I'm liking the apple idea
How about reversing Nicole's design so the apple's a colour, and the background's white?
Then the apple could be used 'as-is' without needing a background behind it in 'award' mode.
I'm for design number one-in the spirit of keeping things simple and all that.

The reason they want the background a color and the apple white is to match the other little icons for facebook, twitter, pintrist, etc. They all have a solid color background and a white foreground. I do agree that the more we can link the image to the forums, the better. It gives us a "brand," so we're recognizable. Also, when you click on the icon, you want to know you went to the right place, and if the website looks nothing like the icon, you might feel a little lost. At least, that's my opinion.

I tried to remake the permie's award apple with a red background. I can fiddle with it to make it the permies olive green, too. Here's the award apple on a white background, too.

allen lumley wrote:If I may, can we get a look at a silhouette type Potato-Fork kind of Icon, it is a little more about harvesting and working in/with the earth, again as measured by
most people ?

I think someone already did on the original banner thread? Paul chose the overalls over it. https://permies.com/forums/posts/list/40/26632

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Leila Rich wrote:
How about reversing Nicole's design so the apple's a colour, and the background's white?
Then the apple could be used 'as-is' without needing a background behind it in 'award' mode

The reason they want the background a color and the apple white is to match the other little icons for facebook, twitter, pintrist, etc. They all have a solid color background and a white foreground

Thanks Nicole. So from what I've seen there's usually icon 'versions' for sites to select-with the colours inverted etc,
and that's the kind of thing we'd be doing here?

Thanks Nicole. You are being so amazingly helpful.

The award apple icon looks a bit blurry. I wonder if it's possible to fix that. I realize it is really small so enlarging it will cause the blurriness but just wondering if we can get around that at all.

Cassie Langstraat wrote: Thanks Nicole. You are being so amazingly helpful.

The award apple icon looks a bit blurry. I wonder if it's possible to fix that. I realize it is really small so enlarging it will cause the blurriness but just wondering if we can get around that at all.

I sort of redrew it, stylizing it a little, since I don't know how it looked before it was blurry. Is this better?

Yes that does! Now can you do that with the one with the white background? I do like that one though. I just think other people were wanting that signature red award apple ya know?

Leila Rich wrote:

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Leila Rich wrote:
How about reversing Nicole's design so the apple's a colour, and the background's white?
Then the apple could be used 'as-is' without needing a background behind it in 'award' mode

The reason they want the background a color and the apple white is to match the other little icons for facebook, twitter, pintrist, etc. They all have a solid color background and a white foreground

Thanks Nicole. So from what I've seen there's usually icon 'versions' for sites to select-with the colours inverted etc,
and that's the kind of thing we'd be doing here?

I have no idea! I'm just the one fiddling around in photoshop, trying to make what people ask for!

Leila Rich wrote:So from what I've seen there's usually icon 'versions' for sites to select-with the colours inverted etc,
and that's the kind of thing we'd be doing here?

Leila, I am not sure what you are referring to?

Cassie Langstraat wrote:Yes that does! Now can you do that with the one with the white background? I do like that one though. I just think other people were wanting that signature red award apple ya know?

This better?

Yes! I really like that! What does everyone else think?

Cassie Langstraat wrote:

Leila Rich wrote:So from what I've seen there's usually icon 'versions' for sites to select-with the colours inverted etc,
and that's the kind of thing we'd be doing here?

Leila, I am not sure what you are referring to?

This kind of thing:

Coloured apple for awards and coloured background for icon.
Does that make more sense?

I think it's been mentioned in passing, but there's no risk of Macintosh appearing and throwing their considerable legal weight around is there?
Even though the permies apple's clearly different, proving it could be...expensive...
*edited to make birdies more 'icon sized'*

Ah, I see what you're talking about with the inverted colors now. And yeah there has been some speculation about the macintosh dealio but I am not sure how paul feels about it. He seemed to like the apple idea when I spoke to him last so I don't think he is too worried about it.

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Cassie Langstraat wrote:Yes that does! Now can you do that with the one with the white background? I do like that one though. I just think other people were wanting that signature red award apple ya know?

This better?

Cassie Langstraat wrote:Yes! I really like that! What does everyone else think?

Works for me, though most icons are a single colour-maybe try the leaf red too?

Leila Rich wrote:

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Cassie Langstraat wrote:Yes that does! Now can you do that with the one with the white background? I do like that one though. I just think other people were wanting that signature red award apple ya know?

This better?

Cassie Langstraat wrote:Yes! I really like that! What does everyone else think?

Works for me, though most icons are a single colour-maybe try the leaf red too?

Does it look too much like a cherry, though?

Yeah I like the green leaf. I don't think the tiny bit of green really matters to the while two-tone concept we are going for.

I wonder what it would look like if it were just a stem and no leaf? probably then it would look like a cherry:)
I am liking the apple though...

Aha, I had a feeling it would look funny to me in all red, but I needed to see!
Thanks again Nicole; I really appreciate your skills and patience
Unless there's some icon 'rule', any reason not have red AND green?

Hmm, I know there'll be loads of apple designs around
*shrug*.
I followed this from permies, so I thought I'd better put it up.

Leila Rich wrote:
Unless there's some icon 'rule', any reason not have red AND green?

No, there isn't an icon rule. We just wanted to match the other icons but 3 colors instead of 2 isn't going to make it THAT much different it would be fine.

Hmm, I know there'll be loads of apple designs around

Yes, that is a real concern.

Nicole Alderman wrote:My photoshop skills are lacking, but here is brown with a light denim blue. Just the two colors, for the simplicity other's mentioned...

I got to thinking of what Cassie said about folks recognizing the icon after a while but not right away probably....so, I had to go back through these pages and this one is looking really good again....I think without the buttons (eyes) it could work fine ...maybe without the center stitching, also.....even the jaunnty angle works for me...after likeing the apple as a break from bib overalls... it is starting to feel too common place to me and maybe overused...permies is a different way of looking at things so maybe the icon could reflect a little of that.
cassie, thank you for your enormous patience and you too, Nicole....we critics have the easy part:)

Judith Browning wrote:I got to thinking of what Cassie said about folks recognizing the icon after a while but not right away probably....so, I had to go back through these pages and this one is looking really good again....I think without the buttons (eyes) it could work fine ...maybe without the center stitching, also.....even the jaunnty angle works for me...after likeing the apple as a break from bib overalls... it is starting to feel too common place to me and maybe overused...permies is a different way of looking at things so maybe the icon could reflect a little of that.

Here it is without the buttons and the stitching down the center.

Judith Browning wrote:and you too, Nicole....we critics have the easy part:)

I'm glad to use my limited photoshop skills for the cause. I've learned quite a bit through all my tinkering, too! I also have much more respect for my brother who is a graphic design artist: it's hard to create an image for people when we haven't even discovered what that image should be yet! Now I know why he often bashes his head on his desk during the day, lol!


I also made one a little bit smaller, without the buttons, just to see how it would look.