A New Look For Second Life

[Prokofy Neva]

The Second Life logo is of course a variation on the Hamsa, or the Hand of Fatima, which is an Islamic symbol, or even a more ancient Egyptian symbol which you can read about.

The Lindens didn't deny this and would even give a nod to it in the early days. They would say that it was "the eye sees and the hand does," eye-see-hand-do. So it's creator-oriented, because not everyone can make their hand do what their eye sees.

The green or almost an olive seemed to me to harken to elven lands, woodland creatures, fairies, woods, the Old World and so on. 

So by moving to the electronic or cybertronic blue, the Lindens are moving away from "world" and more toward "platform," which has always been a struggle for them, and for some residents. There used to be big debates between the "worldists" and the "platformistas", those that saw SL as its own contained virtual reality which had its own inner dynamics, relationships, markets, referents etc, and those who saw it merely as a platform which you use to achieve this or that, it might be entertainment or socializing, but it's also education, science, military etc.

Just as they are re-doing the logo, the Lindens are announcing the re-appearance of the "Solutions Providers". I always thought this was really quite an awful thing. At one level, it's merely a list of consultants or designers or programmers who can be hired by businesses to do work for them on this platform. But it was always about the friends of the Lindens, the FIC (Feted Inner Core), those with connections, who would get themselves on it.

At one time there were the "Big Six," the top six developers who had this contrived name of "Solutions Providers" (a Silicon Valley buzzword signifying experts to whom you hand off problems and they find solutions).

What I didn't like about this turn of events was:

1. It siphoned builders and creators away from their own projects, and creative builds that sustained the world on its own terms, and put them to work, often at less than minimum wage for their state or country, making vapid cement or marble halls from the last century or two centuries ago in RL in the style favoured by university or business campuses. These builds suffered not only from Soviet gigantism and Bolshevik aggression towards the "masses," they were just dull and stupid. They sat empty.

2. It wasn't enough to just have this handy list, the Lindens went further. They decided to essentially create what in Soviet terms was called the beriozka, the special stores where hard currency could be accepted and you could get things like caviar or Scotch or orange juice or the novels of Bulgakov not available in the regular stores. So these businesses like IBM apparently demanded that they have these special stores, with special creators in a special list allowed to make things for them, because what they then did was essentially break the perms on them and provide them full-perm to the businesses because they insisted on this.

I objected to this -- again -- not only because it destroyed the society of SL itself, which I valued, by siphoning away the best labour, stalling projects, confusing prices, gutting out markets -- but because it was so pointless. In real life, IBM doesn't buy coffee or coffee makers or rugs or paper towels from some special store with items with special features -- it buys them in bulk from Costco or Staples or Wal-marts or whatever in fact like everybody else -- or they might go to Restoration Hardware if they needed furniture for the executive suit, but it was not like the Middle Ages, where only certain craftsmen could be admitted to the palace and serve the king. (Essentially it was that feudalism that the Lindens were replicating).

3. If the Solutions Providers are back, that means the Lindens have either because of a longer-term program, or due to COVID-19, attracted businesses and universities again so they want to make themselves look spiffy and modern and can-do and not mired in woods with little fae folk but at the very least, cybernetic, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. They have to put their energies in this direction for revenue, because they have a stall on their stock as they've explained. 

I could say a lot more about the history of this and its current iteration but imagine no one cares. At the end of the day, the Lindens have to make a dime. They are not here to make your leisure time interesting or help you have a weekend hobby. They're here to run a business and do what they have to do to stay afloat in these terrible times. So that means if they have to put away their Fantasy Faire elf tights and pink hair and dragons and put on Man Cave outfits with fade hair and ultra-cool jackets and glasses, they'll do that. And if that's what it takes, who could complain. There are reasons why all those schools and businesses came and went, and it's not because they were griefed. It's because while the managers may have wanted only a platform or a rounded line item or whatever, their customers or prosumers wanted a world, at least, something different, something cool, something sticky. And they found it too hard. 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Prokofy Neva

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Amina Sopwith said:

Titus Andronicus, wtf.

IKR?

Personally, I have never forgiven him for killing off Cordelia at the end of Lear. It's completely gratuitous and unfair, and . . . really, just WHY?

Dude was seriously bloodthirsty when in his cups, obviously.

[Prokofy Neva]

3 hours ago, TheDamed Spore said:

I don't disagree with the idea that you should stick with a known branding, if it is a good and justifiable branding, However it is very common practice to completely redesign a logo if that logo does not represent your brand. In the case of the hand with an eyeball on it i believe it does not represent what second life is, at least not more than the previous branding did. let me give you an example of what might make a better design lets look at the components of the logo, we have a hand and we have an eye. even a basic case study would tell you second life is about people and people creating objects. With that in mind i could envision a logo that was a man with a floating eyeball as a head inside a transparent circle, you could place behind him 2 other smaller copy's of himself or some outlined cubes to represent objects, in this way it would retain the eyeball and your previous branding, whilst modernising the look and drawing it inline with the brand in context of meaning. you could then choose blue if you so wish as part of the new brand recognition. This of course is only a quick word thumbnail of what should have been done in the preliminary of re-branding, what we have been given is a zero effort, and frankly i would have rejected this if it came across my desk.

We live in a time when the Planters people actually killed off Mr. Peanuts, and even during the Super Bowl -- before they thought better of it.

We live in a time when they totally messed with the Land O' Lakes logo under the mistaken belief that it was cultural appropriation of Native Americans, without realizing that the original painter was himself an Indian and designed it from his culture without modification.

We live in a time when Mrs. Dash of B&G Foods is now going to become Dash.

It's not a good time. It's worse than the time when they tried to do things like take "Kentucky Fried Chicken" and call it "KFC" in the theory that you wouldn't notice it's all fattening, fried, junk food.

They're not done yet with all this, and the Lindens have only gotten with the program. 

 

[Amina Sopwith]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

IKR?

Personally, I have never forgiven him for killing off Cordelia at the end of Lear. It's completely gratuitous and unfair, and . . . really, just WHY?

Dude was seriously bloodthirsty when in his cups, obviously.

Nothing will come of nothing. He needed to demonstrate just how destructive that kind of use of power and authority is. Reckon he killed the Fool too? It's not entirely clear who the "poor fool" who was hanged is. Cordelia and the Fool never appear onstage together...

There are the comedies though. I saw the best production of the Dream some years ago. Helena was hilarious and Oberon was chasing Puck through the audience with a stick while it transpired how he'd messed up.

[kiramanell]

Yep, definitely time for Taylor Swift again. 😛

 

 

[Anna Nova]

Aren't Marketing Folks lovely.  Talk about waste of money.....

[Seicher Rae]

I dunno what it is, but damn, I think that cat... whatsitsname...Gatoe? is adorbs.

Right? Cats, amirite?

(too soon?)

[Amina Sopwith]

Here, you'll all like this.

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Amina Sopwith
Better link.

[Gatogateau]

13 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The Second Life logo is of course a variation on the Hamsa, or the Hand of Fatima, which is an Islamic symbol, or even a more ancient Egyptian symbol which you can read about.

and quite possibly some other stuff

 

Right. That's what I was getting at about the old one reminding me of the Myst journey cloth and the jewelry they make for massage therapists, but I couldn't remember Hamsa and couldn't be arsed to look it up.

It's really a rather fascinating symbol and the Wiki provided is a good intro.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

13 minutes ago, Amina Sopwith said:

Nothing will come of nothing. He needed to demonstrate just how destructive that kind of use of power and authority is.

Yes, I suppose. If you haven't, read Samuel Johnson's take on it. He points out that the death of Cordelia violates the rules of poetic justice, and says he could never watch the play again because of how it impacted him. I'm with Dr. J on this one: it's just too bleak.

And I'm sure you already know this . . . but the Fool and Cordelia were probably played by the same actor . . . hence the ambiguity of Lear's "my poor fool is hanged."

ANYWAY, someone (not Cordelia) had way too much fun daaaaaancing tonight, and must now to bed.

Good night, sweet ladies. Good night, good night!

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by Scylla Rhiadra

[811Lord]

Insiders report that there were intensive discussions about the color of the update ....

[TheDamed Spore]

Prokofy Neva, thank you i actually did not know about the Hand of Fatima, and that greatly helps me understand the meaning behind the present logo.
With that in mind however its very obscure, and brings me back to the thought that it needs to be better executed, as another member of this thread Ben brougham also said.
or though the contention has been raised by Gatogateau that a complete over haul would be too drastic. i think in light of the political tensions specifically where second life is moving to a secure banking platform (tilla) due to worry about terrorism using their platform as a money laundering scheme the logo is in more desperate need of an over haul then it ever has been.

[Gatogateau]

29 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Would a scritch behind the ears help?

I love scritches behind the ears and right under my neck, but don't touch the spot right by my tail and it depends on the day whether you can come near my tummy or not. Do you feel lucky?

However, I know you like your toes kissed. Kittens are very good at that. I hope you're not ticklish.

[animats]

I can see the rationale for "Solutions Providers". Some company comes to LL and says "I want to buy some virtual space for my employees working from home". LL has a sales team for that, and there's even an in-world sales center where they once had offices. OK. So they buy a region or two. Now they need to set it up. LL doesn't offer that as a service. There's no obvious way to get such a service. Marketplace doesn't help; that's all goods. So LL needs some place to aim business customers. Somebody who can set up "office park, one each"  in a hurry. Someone they can call if something breaks.

That's neither good nor bad; it's just setting up a business-to-business service, something LL hasn't needed in years.

[Mollymews]

9 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The Second Life logo is of course a variation on the Hamsa, or the Hand of Fatima, which is an Islamic symbol, or even a more ancient Egyptian symbol which you can read about.

is interesting how we can see the Linden logo in different ways, from different cultural perspectives

i have always viewed what some see as an eye, as a koru. I don't mean that it is not an eye, just that I don't see it as one, from my own cultural pov

the koru begins as a dot and spirals out.  The outer curve of the koru symbolises motion and growth. The inner curve symbolises life and hope born from new beginnings

in my own culture this koru in the palm of a hand would mean: Entrusted into our (Linden) hands is new life born from new beginnings

life - residents, born/beginnings - resident creativity 

 

[kiramanell]

47 minutes ago, norajulian said:

I’m not going to lie, I looked at the announcement and said aloud “Huh. Something is kind of different.. it’s more blue?” But I didn’t really notice it. Oops! 

 

Same here, tbh. My eye caught something different this morning. Then I saw the blue, and thought 'whatevs!'

 

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by kiramanell

[811Lord]

1 hour ago, karynmaria said:

Can we all please just have a group hug now?   

[Dano Seale]

43 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

is interesting how we can see the Linden logo in different ways, from different cultural perspectives

In my culture, it's seen as 'the wife's bought the bloody kids hand paints again and now we need a decorator'! 

[Mollymews]

1 minute ago, Dano Seale said:

In my culture, it's seen as 'the wife's bought the bloody kids hand paints again and now we need a decorator'! 

might be  because of your ancient pagan ancestors culture surfacing itself.  The modern method being to stick your hand in some blue wode and face palm yourself. then take a selfie 😺

[Marianne Little]

I do not like or dislike it. I think the blue color is better, more visible. The old font is better, because it is quirky and fun, not formal and rigid. So... one change to the better and one to the worse. But nothing to care much about.

In my opinion, most logo changes is designer(s) arguing for a new logo because the company "need" to change it, while the users or customers is split in 2 large camps: The camp that prefer the old logo, the camp that does not care, and a smaller one that loves the new logo.

So a change of logo is good for the designers that get the money, that's all. They can also add to their portfolio: I made a new logo for (insert name here).

A waste of time and money for all others, the company included, unless the old logo is really old fashioned and not readable.

[Dano Seale]

11 minutes ago, Mollymews said:

The modern method being to stick your hand in some blue wode and face palm yourself. then take a selfie

Seems 'legit'. Not changing my name to "Mel" though!  

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

Quote

When it comes to what you can do with SL, the (blue) sky’s the limit!

Oh for heaven's sake, no! There's still people in SL trying to make a living selling planes here, Linden Labs! 😨

[OptimoMaximo]

5 hours ago, TheDamed Spore said:

This change is perpetuating a bad logo that is now further distanced from the platform it represents.

Probably you don't realise the implied connection to Vedic symbology used across all of Second Life, starting from the word Avatar, the grids names Aditi and Agni (and all other closed test grids we don't get to even see the names of, that at least existed years ago), the whole concept of a being that controls an unknowing body to navigate a 3d world and such. 

[Blaise Glendevon]

I really like that shade of blue. 

 

[OptimoMaximo]

2 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

The Second Life logo is of course a variation on the Hamsa, or the Hand of Fatima, which is an Islamic symbol, or even a more ancient Egyptian symbol which you can read about.

Not really, it's a Vedic symbol that the hamsa was derived from. See the hand with an eye in the palm in many depictions of Shiva, Ganapati/Ganesh, Brahma and the other countless gods in the Hinduism.