[wp-design] Icons, branding, busy.

[Michael Heilemann]

Hey guys,

My apologies for not being active just now, I really want to. I'm all 
revved up and ready to rumble; but I just have a lot of things buzzing 
around me right now.

ICONS
We talked about icons for the interface. I think we all need to sit 
down and write down / illustrate / otherwise communicate our thoughts 
on what we're trying to accomplish with not only the icons, but the 
entire redesign. BUT, if we _do_ want icons, then I've secured one of 
the coolest guys on the planet for doing them. His name is Sascha, and 
he has agreed to help us out (even though he's a MT user ;)). His site 
is http://rad-e8.com/ though it's currently about to be relaunched, 
along with his latest icon series called Minium (which looks absolutely 
awesome, I'm using it now).

BRAND
Matt asked us what we thought of the current 'brand' of WP and what we 
had of thoughts for its direction.

My initial thoughts--biased by my design tendencies of course--go 
something along these lines:

* Colors used are too muddy, too many shades of grey.
* The blue in the actual WordPress logo is perhaps a bit 'stiff'.
* The letters could be kerned closer I think.
* The font feels a bit old. I'm not sure why.
* I personally feel better with sans-serif for headlines, but I 
recognize that WP has a 'serif' image.

And here are my general thoughts for what we can do about the brand to 
spiffy it up a bit:

* Add just a touch of color to the WP 'image'. I mean look at the 'Web 
application of the year' box on the frontpage, it alone adds a touch of 
life.
* Go for cleaner lines in general, remove some of the muddy 
monochromatic grey's and rely more on structure of the presentation (if 
that makes sense).
*

I've got lots more to say, but I'm out of time for now. I'll just leave 
you with a suggestion:

Go out and find one or more examples of brands that you think lie in 
the direction of what WordPress might be. Take screenshots for 
instance, and then circle the good parts in Photoshop and throw up here 
on the list.

Until next time, may the force be with you ;)

- Mike