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December 14, 2012
A question on changing our initials and an invitation to join the conversation on creating a new logo
By Rob Kall
We're thinking about changing the initials and logo for opednews from OEN to ON. And we're working hard on coming up with a new logo.
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One thing that putting this diary/page together has made me extra aware of is how very blessed we are at Opednews.com-- with amazing people who care and work so hard because we believe in the work and mission of opednews.
Shift from OEN to ON
Notable differences between the two letters (different fonts and/or colors)
Including website as OpedNews.com (instead of OpEdNews.com)
Using a gradation in the background, dark at bottom to light at top
Probable inclusion of a symbolic (not photo) earth image in the "O" (I think
this is important to ensure there is a thread of connection between the new
logo and the old one, since there are so many changes.)
Some color, not too much. (Probably one cool/receeding color such as blue,
the color of Truth, and one warm, advancing color such as a golden yellow
saffron-robe type color, in addition to "non-colors" black and white.)
Include the concept of "Bottom - up" (this might be accompllished with #4, but
might be something additional)
Include concept of progressive/progression/forward movement.
Include concept of light, that OpedNews brings light/information/new ideas etc
Question:
Are we still including additional text in the logo? (ie "Progressive - tough- liberal news and opinion" which was in the previous logo? Or something like "Bottom- up news and opinion, which was suggested in discussions?)
There's been a mention of incorporating a more "respectable" look, like the logos of the WaPo or NYT. I have no problem with a sense of respectability, but I believe what makes OpedNews great is what sets us APART from those stuffy, nearly lifeless organizations, not what we have in common. So I think that the logo should reflect that also.
I researched hundreds of fonts, I wasn't thrilled with anything til I saw this one, I really liked it a lot - I like the circular "o" rather than oval, and I also liked the repeated circle in the p and d. And I love the "n"...sort of like a bridge. I didn't like the upper or lower case "E" in this font ... and i did not like the original "s" - the one shown here is one i built. Note: these letters look a little funky because I am only using the free version I copies from the site. We'd either buy it or make up a higher res one if we use it.
There's more, but the comments refer to images that are copyrighted.
Part 4 Sample images and ideas
Then there have been endless emails back and forth.
John Moffet combed through a batch and put this together:
We asked for suggestions from the editors and this is what we compiled back in November of 2009. This includes pretty much all the suggestions. Some of them are definitely worth considering, and they get you thinking about possible variations and improvements. We discussed them at some length at the time, but then the front page remake project got set aside. It came up again several times since then, and we even had an artist come up with a few logo designs maybe a year and a half ago, but those also didn't lead to anything.
The list is pasted below. It is grouped roughly into related categories. If anyone wants to make additional suggestions, please do so.
John __________________
Progressives in Print
People Empowerment
Power of the People
Printed by and for the People Progressive News and Views Left of Mainstream Media People's Media Movement
Your Progressive Media Outspoken Progressive Thought Open News NetworkThe People's News Network
Visionary Views in the News Lighting Our World
Lighting Your World Democracy's LightLetting in the Light
Inform Inspire Progress
Your World, Your Thoughts Fostering Progressive Thinking Dare to Ponder
Cutting Edge for the CuriousYour Source for Progressive News and Living Progressive Citizen Journalism
The People's Paper
Citizen News and OpinionFostering Progressive Citizenship Your News, Your Way
Own the NewsThe progressive voice of We The People Where Your Voice is Heard
Voice of the People
United We SpeakThe Progressive Town Hall
Of the People, By the People, For the People Independent Progressives
Free-thinking Progressives
Progressives for the PeopleTough, Progressive, News, Opinion
Tough, Progressive, Outspoken News & Opinion News, Opinion, Activism
Progressive, Open, Provocative
Be Part of It
Ahead of the Times
News can get Personal
This is just a portion of the work. All of the OEN senior and managing editor team plus editor Roberta Seldon have been involved in the discussions-- and they've been going on since 2009, sometimes to our great frustration.
We've also gone over extensive discussions of the tag line that goes with the site. We've decided not to change it much, since that could effect our search engine optimization, and it pretty much says who we are anyway.
Any comments, suggestions or ideas are welcome.
Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
Check out his platform at RobKall.com
He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.
Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel
Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel
Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.
Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.
To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.
For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.
Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table
Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..
To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.
Follow Rob on Twitter & Facebook.
His quotes are here
Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.
Join the conversation:
On facebook at Rob Kall's Bottom-up The Connection Revolution
and at Google Groups listserve Bottom-up Top-down conversation