[Marketing] Pantone-361 green: the Nigerian connection

[Ron Feigenblatt]

Hello,

On 1/25/13, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.itworld.com/hardware/338268/why-white-and-green-negroponte-explains-olpc-colors

I apologize in advance for taking your time to opine on trifles. But
here goes anyway.

Perhaps the better-known symbol of the machine than the color scheme
is the logo - which I never liked. Yes, I mean the XO, which
immediately struck me as an austere version of a skull-and-crossbones,
the biologically-inspired (and hence rather universal) symbol of
death! But I guess it is also a symbol for maritime piracy, and gee,
isn't pirating intellectual property what digital technology is all
about? ;-)

The XO logo was supposed to represent a child, so I had suggested that
one instead use the related but clearly distinct symbol designed for
the International Year of the Child. An issue with the latter symbol
is that it does not scale down equally as well to very few pixels of
rasterization. But that problem could have been solved by instead
using a circle on top of a vertical bar as a logo. Not only does it
look like a head on a neck, but also a lollipop, beloved of not a few
kids. And since the food in a lollipop is basically a big sugar
crystal, you'd also have had a symbolic reference to the Sugar
software. But maybe some puritanical folks might have worried that
such a logo looked too much like the male gamete; ask France Gall for
advice? ;-P And a firm like Intel could have hinted that only suckers
would buy an OLPC!

Not that I ever was so keen about the name Sugar, with all its
negative associations. I had thought it better to leverage the fame of
the OLPC by calling the software developed for it OLPC Juice. And if
you stuck with the model name & logo, XO Juice would be ok too.

I had never much thought about the OLPC color scheme other than to
reflect on its thermal implications. Developing countries are nearer
to the equator than others on average and using a sunlight-readable
display in the - you guessed it - direct sun would argue for having a
case which reflects as much light as possible. White is best, but if
you simply demanded a two-tone scheme, then a pastel (i.e.
desaturated) second color was a good idea.

Wikipedia informs me that the Nigerian flag colors were intended to
represent peace (white) and the forest riches (green) of the nation.
One might add that green symbolizes chlorophyll, the chemical which
powers the development and sustenance of nearly all life - an
appropriate symbol for the nurturing of children. But I fear that I am
of an era that when I hear "Nigeria," rather than think of
questionable Internet-enabled moneymaking schemes, I still visualize
wretched children in a war-torn Biafra. Of course, green-and-white are
also the colors of the flag for Andalusia, the Iberian region whose
name sentimentally honors the edgy memory of the Vandals.

But since the X in XO might be seen as a Crusader symbol (remember St.
Andrew), then maybe using Islamic green takes the edge off that
interpretation in today's unhappy world.

On a more substantive note, I am eager to see what will come of
starting to sell, in single units, a low-cost commercial tablet which
uses turn-key Sugar. Years ago I enchanted more than one local
community neighbor with my G1G1 XO-1, only to disappoint them when
they wanted to buy a unit for a child or grandchild. Now I can tell
them their dreams have come trues at last. Heck, they might even have
an Applesque choice of colors!

Ron