# New icon artwork for our Matrix rooms! (and, possibly, for other things...) **URL:** \ **Category:** Project Discussions\ **Tags:** feedback-wanted, fedora, community-wg, matrix\ **Created:** [November 7, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207 "2023-11-07T16:43:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/1 "2023-11-07T16:43:09Z")
Howdy folks! šŸ‘‹ Weā€™ve been aware (for _cough_ some time) that the room icons in Matrix are not great. I mean, sure, **some** of them are great (looking at you, Docs!) but most are placeholders. I approached Fedora over the summer to find out how they deal with this, and they were kind enough to walk us through the process for using a single template base image, along with a CSV file of data and images, and produce a directory full of images. Huge thanks to Emma Kidney for her time and patience! ā¤ šŸŽ This seemed like a good thing to have in the open, so with Emmaā€™s permission Iā€™ve created [GitHub - ansible-community/icons: Ansible Community icons & icon generation workflow/files](https://github.com/ansible-community/icons) - for now this holds the Matrix icons weā€™ve been working on, but in the future, I can see multiple subdirs for other things (forum badges perhaps? šŸ˜›) Back to Matrix, the goal was to have a consistent image set, using our community colours. We landed on using the colour for the space, and an icon for the room content. Hereā€™s a couple of notes from [Emmaā€™s original epic](https://gitlab.com/groups/fedora/design/-/epics/27). Firstly, hereā€™s the template, along with the base colours: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/2/28eacfe5f5c5a0658ce7ae896d11a24f31e17c85.png) Using the Inkscape merge process, that lead to this output: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/8/8c1fae86962fe398e0bd66c2d1ed365ffb2f20e5.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/d/da88f0e8c414708c82093fd9755c13eadd63d201.png) ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/2X/4/4efa528a872dfd7dc7af256823e0879a912b1dd1.png) (click for detail) So! That brings us to today - @cybette and I have been excited about these for a while, but first I want to know some things: 1. How does this feel **in general**? Is the base-template & colour use OK (because thatā€™s hard to change in the future, weā€™d have to change every icon) 2. If you frequent certain rooms, does the icon work for your rooms? 3. Are any icons flat-out wrong? I feel like flags for language rooms probably isnā€™t right (there are more French-speaking people than just in Franceā€¦) 4. Specifically to our own design people (ohai @rebeccahhh šŸ‘‹) is this OK with you? My goal was to learn about this automated process so we could have all the templates and images in one place, rather than bothering you ad-hoc all the time (this will be a bigger problem with forum badges :P) Assuming the feedback here is not awful, Iā€™ll work on rolling out the ones our team is directly responsible for (Social, etc), and work with room owners on the rest of the icons. Give me your thoughts! ---
**Author:** ![maxamillion](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/maxamillion/32/98_2.png) [@maxamillion](https://forum.ansible.com/u/maxamillion)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/2 "2023-11-07T22:54:13Z")
This is FANTASTIC! Kudos to all involved ā¤ ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 7:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/3 "2023-11-08T07:06:54Z")
I really like the icons and the design/color theme! They are great! The country icons are also fine (flags = countries), and the Europa icon is also fine (most folks think that thatā€™s the flag of the European Union, which is true, but it also is the flag of the Council of Europe, which makes it include all European non-EU countries as well: [Flag of Europe - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Europe)). Using the country flags for Spanish and French, on the other hand, is something I donā€™t like, and which is generally considered a bad idea; see for example [https://www.flagsarenotlanguages.com/blog/why-flags-do-not-represent-language/](https://www.flagsarenotlanguages.com/blog/why-flags-do-not-represent-language/) or [Indicating the language of a link destination](https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-link-lang#flags). How about using an icon similar to social/help/community icons, but with the language name, resp. its 2- or 3-letter ISO codes ([ISO 639 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_639))? (Though in the cases of French and Spanish these codes are close to the name of the country as well, but as opposed to a flag there is ambiguity, while a flag only specifies the country.) ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 9:21am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/4 "2023-11-08T09:21:08Z")
> [@felixfontein](#): > > Using the country flags for Spanish and French, on the other hand, is something I donā€™t like, and which is generally considered a bad idea; see for example [Why flags do not represent languages ā€“ Flags are not languages](https://www.flagsarenotlanguages.com/blog/why-flags-do-not-represent-language/) or [Indicating the language of a link destination](https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-link-lang#flags). @felixfontein Right, I was thinking of that problem with the flags - no blame to Emma, that was a long list of rooms I provided so it was a lot to do. Where I got stuck was indeed thinking about possible replacements, which is why I decided to present it as-is and get suggestions (even though I already knew we wouldnā€™t deploy those ones). > [@felixfontein](#): > > How about using an icon similar to social/help/community icons, but with the language name, resp. its 2- or 3-letter ISO codes That could work - weā€™re using the Iconify Material Icons, so something like [this E](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/mdi/alpha-e-circle/) would be trivial. Thereā€™s no 2-letter icons that I can see, but we could work that up, Iā€™m sure, itā€™s all SVG. ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/5 "2023-11-08T20:30:53Z")
> [@gwmngilfen](#): > > That could work - weā€™re using the Iconify Material Icons, so something like [this E](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/mdi/alpha-e-circle/) would be trivial. Thereā€™s no 2-letter icons that I can see, but we could work that up, Iā€™m sure, itā€™s all SVG. You can simply add text to a SVG. One downside of i is that it renders wrong if the font used is not present in the environment that renders the SVG. For that to not happen the text has to be converted to shapes. But that can also be automated as well (Inkscape can do it IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![samccann](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/samccann/32/18_2.png) [@samccann](https://forum.ansible.com/u/samccann)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2023, 9:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/6 "2023-11-08T21:39:19Z")
For the Ansible diversity, can we use the [rainbow](https://github.com/ansible/logos/tree/main/ansible-logo-pride) icon? ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2023, 9:16am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/7 "2023-11-09T09:16:55Z")
Of course! In general I plan to work with room owners on individual icons, the goal with this topic is to check we havenā€™t missed anything obvious with the template & process. ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2023, 5:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/8 "2023-11-13T17:18:09Z")
Bumping this for great justice! šŸ§Ø I donā€™t see any dissent yet, but I likely wonā€™t get back to this until next week anyway, so if you have concerns, fire away šŸ˜‰ @gotmax23 I should tag this with #community-wg to get the WG input, right? ---
**Author:** ![russoz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/russoz/32/127_2.png) [@russoz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/russoz)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2023, 2:57am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/9 "2023-11-14T02:57:10Z")
No dissent here, I loved the new icons. ---
**Author:** ![Andersson007](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/andersson007/32/89_2.png) [@Andersson007](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andersson007)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 12:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/10 "2023-11-16T12:29:40Z")
I like the icons, they look very good to me @hunleyd @laurent-indermuehle are you OK with the c.postgresql, c.mysql groups ones? ---
**Author:** ![laurent-indermuehle](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/laurent-indermuehle/32/289_2.png) [@laurent-indermuehle](https://forum.ansible.com/u/laurent-indermuehle)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2023, 7:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/11 "2023-11-16T19:04:49Z")
I like the new icons. If I may just suggest something: Some icons donā€™t feel well centered. Itā€™s especially noticeable on the Elephant for PostgreSQL and a bit with the dolphin for MySQL. The Switzerland flag got the rights colors, so I canā€™t be more happy šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Leo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/leo/32/23_2.png) [@Leo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Leo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 3:39am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/12 "2023-11-24T03:39:51Z")
> [@gwmngilfen](#): > > 1. How does this feel **in general**? Is the base-template & colour use OK (because thatā€™s hard to change in the future, weā€™d have to change every icon) They are looking great! It looks like the pool/teal are for general purpose (social, help, meetings), and dark blue for work groups. Is that right? Or it was to show the two alternatives? > [@gwmngilfen](#): > > 1. If you frequent certain rooms, does the icon work for your rooms? A couple of suggestions: - The DaWGs logo might need a white stroke path to improve contrast with the background around dark areas - Storage and Packaging look a bit too similar, maybe Storage could use the [mdi:database one](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/mdi/database/) which is also quite common for data store, or the [mdi:nas one](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/mdi/nas/) one. - We seem to be missing the Release Management one. @anwesha might have a suggestion on that one. I like the [rocket launch icon](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/mdi/rocket-launch/) šŸ˜† - The Meetup Org room could use the one from [Font Awesome brand set](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/fa-brands/meetup/). cc @cybette > [@gwmngilfen](#): > > Are any icons flat-out wrong? I feel like flags for language rooms probably isnā€™t right (there are more French-speaking people than just in Franceā€¦) +1 to comments above by @felixfontein on using the 2-3 letter code for languages. I didnā€™t see letter codes within the mdi set, but there are a few in the material symbols one, like [this one for ES](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/material-symbols/language-spanish/). ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 12:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/13 "2023-11-24T12:27:33Z")
> [@Leo](#): > > They are looking great! It looks like the pool/teal are for general purpose (social, help, meetings), and dark blue for work groups. Is that right? Right, the first image shows the room colour scheme and hex codes. > [@Leo](#): > > - The DaWGs logo might need a white stroke path to improve contrast with the background around dark areas PRs welcome to [https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/blob/main/images/Ansible-docs-logo.png](https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/blob/main/images/Ansible-docs-logo.png) - I am no artist, I just download things šŸ˜› > [@Leo](#): > > - Storage and Packaging look a bit too similar, maybe Storage could use the [mdi:database one](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/mdi/database/) which is also quite common for data store, or the [mdi:nas one](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/mdi/nas/) one. > - We seem to be missing the Release Management one. @anwesha might have a suggestion on that one. I like the [rocket launch icon](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/mdi/rocket-launch/) šŸ˜† > - The Meetup Org room could use the one from [Font Awesome brand set](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/fa-brands/meetup/). cc @cybette Iā€™ve added those: - used the NAS logo as the DB one has connections to PSQL, MYSQL, etc. - made Release Management a WG colour - put Meetups under ā€œConferencesā€ (perhaps better named ā€œEventsā€?) See [this commit](https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/commit/967b34ef4a34b7f677c315f00dc1de29fd92f728), PRs welcome if people want different icons šŸ˜› > [@Leo](#): > > there are a few in the material symbols one, like [this one for ES](https://icon-sets.iconify.design/material-symbols/language-spanish/) Iā€™ve done the ES one as a test, see [this commit](https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/commit/56940f182dbb19e57790d1e5fe9803eedd1747ea) for a diff. ---
**Author:** ![cybette](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/cybette/32/16_2.png) [@cybette](https://forum.ansible.com/u/cybette)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 12:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/14 "2023-11-24T12:47:31Z")
> [@gwmngilfen](#): > > - put Meetups under ā€œConferencesā€ (perhaps better named ā€œEventsā€?) Yes I think ā€œEventsā€ is better, and Conferences / Meetups are under events. Thanks!! ---
**Author:** ![gwmngilfen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/gwmngilfen/32/6_2.png) [@gwmngilfen](https://forum.ansible.com/u/gwmngilfen)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 1:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/15 "2023-11-24T13:12:23Z")
Iā€™ve deployed the top-level and Event room art. I will pause there for haggling on Working Group and Regional artwork, we can pick this up next week šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Leo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/leo/32/23_2.png) [@Leo](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Leo)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 3:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/new-icon-artwork-for-our-matrix-rooms-and-possibly-for-other-things/2207/16 "2023-11-24T15:28:37Z")
> [@gwmngilfen](#): > > PRs welcome to [https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/blob/main/images/Ansible-docs-logo.png](https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/blob/main/images/Ansible-docs-logo.png) - I am no artist, I just download things šŸ˜› Done, it wonā€™t show on a white background, but it has the white outline. Here: [https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/blob/main/images/Ansible-docs-logo-white-outline.png](https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/blob/main/images/Ansible-docs-logo-white-outline.png) > [@gwmngilfen](#): > > Iā€™ve done the ES one as a test, see [this commit](https://github.com/ansible-community/icons/commit/56940f182dbb19e57790d1e5fe9803eedd1747ea) for a diff. > [@gwmngilfen](#): > > Iā€™ve added those: > > - used the NAS logo as the DB one has connections to PSQL, MYSQL, etc. > - made Release Management a WG colour > - put Meetups under ā€œConferencesā€ (perhaps better named ā€œEventsā€?) They are all looking great!