New Kubuntu branding

At last night’s Kubuntu meeting, among the many things discussed was the rebranding of the Kubuntu logo, to be used in such places as the bootsplash and the website. Here is the chosen result, designed by our very own Roman Shtylman, who in the very same meeting also became a Kubuntu member. He’s also the one behind our lovely KDM theme that is now the upstream default for 4.5, as well as the Ubiquity (Installer) artwork introduced in Kubuntu 9.10.  (And to avoid confusion, no, he is not a Canonical employee, just one really rocking guy)

As previously noted, the “k” in there is a placeholder, as the new Ubuntu font that Mark Shuttleworth recently blogged about is still in its infancy. But before you jump to conclusions and declare the lack of a “k” a scourge on the face of Canonical, consider that this font (which is targeted to be released in 7 months with 10.10) also lacks an “a”, “e”, “i”, and “o”; basically anything that’s not “ubnt”. If you think that Canonical discriminates between KDE and GNOME because of this font, then you must accept that they are also guilty of vowel discrimination.

And rest assured, we’ll get a “k” before final release.

So be on the lookout for spinning nixternal heads and angry vowels as we approach the release of Kubuntu 10.04.