[affs-project] Freedom, and Re: Mug and tee-shirt design

[Alex Hudson]

(I'm back, sort of ;)
On Wed, 2023-09-15 at 15:53 +0100, Richard Smedley wrote:
> Thanks - I like the William Cowper quote - perhaps 
> with a pic of a GNU, at a terminal, breaking free
> of its chains?
> Cowper also said ``They that fight for freedom undertake
> The noblest cause mankind can have at stake.''

If at all possible, the design won't feature a GNU or any other known
mascot. One of the problems we consistently face is differentiating
ourselves from the FSF(e) - especially since fsfe-uk (the mailing list)
is heavily associated with the AFFS. Also, if we do end up with some GNU
merchandise on the stand as well, we really need to ensure that we're
offering something different: if they have stuff with GNUs on and we do
too, then we're not really offering something different, and people
would probably want the official FSF version. (Although, I don't know if
we've confirmed that we will be selling GNU stuff yet..)
The logo also should feature, but I would prefer it not to be the main
design. This is really for a couple of reasons; it's not terribly
interesting, doesn't say much and isn't likely to make people want one.
Once our brand becomes as desirable as Nike or something then we could
get away with splashing our logo writ large on various products, but I
think until then we need to be a bit more inventive. You could play with
the gull in the logo, but that becomes complicated for various reasons -
it's a little ambiguous to say the least.
> Pictures are the problem - do we have any illustrators
> on this list? Perhaps we should appeal on the other list?

I will try posting up a design tomorrow; it would be good if we can
carry the same ideas across the range and the large 'born free' idea
would be fairly easy to implement with little design work.
Cheers,
Alex.