Re: [DISCUSS] Improved CouchDB logo

[Catherine Jones <ca...@gmail.com>]

This bike-shedding discussion seems almost played out, and I assume
people will go on making practical decisions about databases with or
without logos and mantras like "CouchDB has started, time to relax." 

So I should probably just shut up at this point. But it's hard to resist
adding one more anecdotal perspective to the mix.

Back in 2010, while bumbling my way toward writing a textile-design
application for artists, I heard about couchdb, its replication features
and its ability to store documents with varied and changing types of
data. "Great!" I thought, "Just what I need for storing and sharing
documents that describe textile designs in a still-evolving format."

There followed some bleak days and months as I struggled to learn
something about couchdb (plus nginx and nodejs -- all immature and
short on documentation back then) and to get all this software to work
together. Throughout that struggle the man-on-the-couch logo and wildly
optimistic "time to relax" tag line sustained me. I loved the logo for
its vaguely non-corporate feel (more human than pure abstraction, more
fine-art than pop-art). The logo felt empowering to me. I took it as
saying, in effect, that it's OK to put one's foot up on the couch
sometimes, OK to start a project without knowing where it's going,
without having reduced all foreseeable documents to a known SQL schema.

In short, the initial branding of couchdb (and what I read about Damien
Katz's intentions) seemed to me an invitation to developer creativity. 

--Catherine

Re: [DISCUSS] Improved CouchDB logo

[Dan Santner <da...@me.com>]

Catherine I went through almost the same thing at the same time except in a different field.

My little experiment turned into a biz and then I left the corporate job and now my app/biz is taking off.

I would miss that icon if it goes, but also think evolution is good. 


> On Oct 28, 2014, at 5:27 PM, Catherine Jones <ca...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> This bike-shedding discussion seems almost played out, and I assume
> people will go on making practical decisions about databases with or
> without logos and mantras like "CouchDB has started, time to relax." 
> 
> So I should probably just shut up at this point. But it's hard to resist
> adding one more anecdotal perspective to the mix.
> 
> Back in 2010, while bumbling my way toward writing a textile-design
> application for artists, I heard about couchdb, its replication features
> and its ability to store documents with varied and changing types of
> data. "Great!" I thought, "Just what I need for storing and sharing
> documents that describe textile designs in a still-evolving format."
> 
> There followed some bleak days and months as I struggled to learn
> something about couchdb (plus nginx and nodejs -- all immature and
> short on documentation back then) and to get all this software to work
> together. Throughout that struggle the man-on-the-couch logo and wildly
> optimistic "time to relax" tag line sustained me. I loved the logo for
> its vaguely non-corporate feel (more human than pure abstraction, more
> fine-art than pop-art). The logo felt empowering to me. I took it as
> saying, in effect, that it's OK to put one's foot up on the couch
> sometimes, OK to start a project without knowing where it's going,
> without having reduced all foreseeable documents to a known SQL schema.
> 
> In short, the initial branding of couchdb (and what I read about Damien
> Katz's intentions) seemed to me an invitation to developer creativity. 
> 
> --Catherine
> 
>