I recently helped in the process of designing the logo and website for the new Hardware Perl Mongers group. I have been involved with them since their inception, which was during the 2012 YAPC North America when Robert Blackwell[1] gauged the enthusiastic reaction to his Hardware Hackathon to be indicative of a need to form such a group.
The nature of all artistic endeavour is that the audience is always going to differ in their opinion to each other, this is because all art is subjective and disregards the beauty is truth[2] at mind-buggering speeds. It was therefore somewhat of a surprise when this particular process was filled with positive support and encouragement.
The origins of the logo are found in the Open Source Hardware logo (the blue open cog that we use as part of our logo) which Robert showed to me and said he would love to have an onion (offically the logo for The Perl Foundation when used with the word Perl) in the middle of it. I instantly thought of the manner in which gears are used by other people where there is always more than one and thought we could do a riff on that.
My first group of ideas were sent to the wider world and posted on Twitter and I expected the usual chorus of naysayers and general complaints with the occasional 'okay'. What I actually got was positive feedback from all sides, Robert, Garu, John, Abigail all gave honest but supportative responses.
Embiggened[3] by the chorus of niceness I quickly incorporated their comments and refined this a little to the logo we currently have. We like to think it implies that Perl is a link in the chain between open source hardware and the wider (*) wildcarded world. You can use Perl to act as the tasty innards connecting the various parts of your hardware hacking.
The website is a 1st Generation pass at building a site suitable to reflect the various concerns we hope to grow with our fledgling organisation. The design will mature and shape with the input of material and the evenetual evolution of direction. For now it is a simple site to act as a host/landing page for links to resources.
Once again there was positive feedback from the community on the site and for that I am very grateful. I don't hold that much pride[4] in most of the sites I have designed but it is always nice to be thanked and to hear praise, I am human and my ego likes to be stroked so that I might indulge in a nicely fondled hubris.
If you want to join in with Hardware Hacking and Perl then simply follow the links and join in. We welcome anyone and you don't have to be a hardcore Perl hacker, just someone with a willing to learn, share and enjoy.
-mdk
If anyone has feedback (and until we have a commenting system) please don't hesitate to email me at: m.keating [at] shadowcat.co.uk, if your comments are useful, fun, or just plain interest to me, or if I think will be useful to others, then I will add them to the end of this post, let me know how you would like to be named (anon, nick etc.).
Comments
[1] Robert 'the dealer' Blackwell as I recently referred to him in a post on mdk.per.ly.
[2] And truth, beuty that's all I know and all you need to know...or something similar in Keats'
Ode on a Grecian Urn, being at direct odds with beauty being in the eys of the beholder
[3] see The Simpsons.
[4] I don't think I am awful, just mostly ordinary and functional, I always appreciate positive feedback
and help but I don't attach a great deal of emotional attachment in my general design work. This doesn't
imply I don't feel enthused or emotional, just that I don't over invest in something that is subject
to the criticisms of the wider world.
Mark Keating is: Managing Director of Shadowcat Systems Limited
Director and Secretary of Enlightened Perl Organisation
Chair of the Marketing Committee for The Perl Foundation
Co-Founder/Co-Leader of North-West England Perl Mongers
Work Blog: Mark Keating on Shadowcat
LinkedIn Profile: Mark Keating on LinkedIn
Perlesque Blog: Mark Keating on per.ly
My Public Blog: Mark Keating's Personal site
Twitter Feed: Mark Keating on Twitter
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Mark Keating is the organiser of the London Perl Workshop (since 2008), has joined the organising team for the
QA Hackathon in 2011, the TPF GSoC Mentors/organisers 2011, the Dynamic Languages Conference 2011.
