Time for a Geeko remix: openSUSE is looking for a new logo

LOGOWATCH Linux distro openSUSE this week parked its electric scooter outside the marketing boutique as it pursues a brand that somehow reflects the paradigm shift in its own not-so-corporate journey.

In a daring escape from the past, the familiar SUSE Chameleon icon, affectionately known as Geeko, may well be replaced by something more nuanced. The current branding has represented openSUSE since 2003, just with different text beneath.

So why change an icon? OpenSUSE tells the world: "the brands of both SUSE and openSUSE can oftentimes confuse people who don't understand the relationship between the open source company SUSE and the open source community project openSUSE."

But as said FOSS project doesn't have advertising execs who can ingest peyote and head to a desert to get creative, the team at openSUSE are crowdsourcing ideas, asking the more visually minded among the community to conjure a bit of non-corporate magic.

"To help reduce this cross-branding confusion," openSUSE adds, "the community seeks to create a unique brand identity, but to help provide a distinction between the company and the community project; hence, the chameleon inspired logo design contest"

"Differing logos is a first step to help people identify the difference between the two brands and should alleviate issues that have or could arise in community projects from oozing into the company's brand identity," it says.

Well, quite.

• Google rebrands 'android' as 'Android' to remove any doubt about its affiliations
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• Don't say Pentium or Celeron anymore, it's just Processor now, says Intel

openSUSE fans have mulled the new branding for some time, and more than 5,000 public votes were cast for the new "chameleon inspired" logos submitted by users or techies, most of which incorporate a stylized or otherwise remixed version of Geeko.

Judging by some of the options, maybe mind-bending hallucinogens played an inadvertent part in the contributors' minds afterall.

The current range of options on offer are limited (voters are asked to click and drag them in order of most to least preferred.)

There are just days to go, and there are plans to discuss the winning selection during the openSUSE Community meeting on December 12, 2023, at 1430 UTC.

Both old and new logos will then show up on merchandise – think badges, stickers, t-shirts and table clothes – during the transition period, something openSUSE hopes "should make these items unique collectibles." ®