On the 29th of April, we will release Tails 1.0. This will be an important symbolic milestone about 5 years after our first public releases.

We want to have a great logo by then to give Tails the visual impact it deserves. The image and banner we have been using so far don't really do the job anymore...

So we're starting a contest for designers to create a logo for Tails. We have already brainstormed on the idea, and received some great proposals in the past. Still, we had a hard time making our collective mind on a single proposal, and wanted to give more people a chance.

Requirements

  • Free licence, compatible with GPL3+.
  • Source in SVG format.
  • An image with an approximate 1:1 ratio, like the onion logo.
  • Plus the same image along with the "Tails" word either:
    • merged with the image as in the Tor logo;
    • on the side of the image.
  • The "Tails" name must be spelled with an uppercase "T" only, and lowercase "ails".
  • The image should convey the ideas behind Tails: secrecy, privacy, anonymity, mystery, simplicity (Tails is ready-to-use).
  • The logo has to be a bit serious, but not sad.
  • Until now we reuse the colors from Tor (green and purple), but this can be changed.
  • We cannot reuse directly the Tor or Debian logo, but evoking it is ok (use Tor colors, or evoking the Debian swirl).
  • The image should be suited to print on nice stickers that people want to have on their computers, and on t-shirts that people are happy to wear.
  • Make sure that the fonts that you use are compatible with GPL3+. To be on the safe side, use fonts available in Debian main, otherwise we will ask you to prove their compatibility with GPL3+.

Complementary materials

As the logo will be used in quite different places, we encourage you to submit complementary materials. These are not strict requirements but will help us evaluate your proposal better. Besides, if your logo is chosen, we will need them anyway before we are able to put it to use publicly.

These complementary materials are:

  • A banner for the website. The current one is 986x60px, but the new one could be higher, maybe up to 150px.
  • A splash screen for boot. Must be 640x480px with a black background, 8-bit/RGBA. It has to be distinguishable by the user as Tails, but discrete enough not to attract too much attention from other people around.
  • A color palette for the website, if it needs to be adapted to match the logo.
  • Fonts to be used to create other material matching the logo.
  • A CSS patch for colors and fonts on the website, if you are into CSS.
  • A grayscale version of the logo.

Calendar

  • 31st of March: Deadline for sending proposals to tails-dev@boum.org. No attachments to the email, but link to a public place where we can find your work.
  • 9th of April: The winner is announced.
  • 15th of April: All the complementary materials have to be ready so we have time to include them in Tails 1.0. The designer of the winning logo is strongly encouraged to do this work, before or after the deadline for proposals.