What is this?

Well, isn't it obvious? We want to use this page to list the proposals and ideas so we can make them better and get the best design ever possible for the DebConf6 T-shirts.

Timeframe

Debconf starts very soon. As I write this, we are only 42 days away from Debcamp. We must design and decide quick. At the localteam meeting we held yesterday (March 24), we agreed to have all the design proposals ready in a week time.

Update

Ok, so it's settled: Please do not update this page anymore. The decision has been made, it will be closely based on http://mx.geocities.com/astronomiamex/psol/page15.html (i.e. no defacement, just a composition of the inner part of the calendar with the Debconf name/logo.

Ideas

I am giving the design ideas and design elements we have so far. I also give some opinions - Please don't forget that the opinions are completely subjective. I (Gunnar) try to be neutral, but as we say, I cannot pretend to be a judge and a part in this case.

Pixelgirl

Pixelgirl is the designer for the DebConf6 website, and has so far made two proposals:

Proposal 1: Swirly flag, black background

Proposal 1: Swirly flag, white background

Pros:

Very consistent with our webpage theme

Cons:

Does not say much, it's just the national flag defaced.
- Besides, in Mexico -under some interpretations- it might even be illegal.
three/four inks (depending on the version). I (Gunnar) suggest we try to make it two, at most three inks (price- and time-wise)
In general, people didn't go for it.

Proposal 2: Swirly sombrero

Pros:

Better identifiable as Mexican than the first proposal; no disrespect for national symbols
The lines are very debianesque!

Cons:

It might not be the most representative kind of sombrero. Some people noted it looked like a witch's hat.
As for the locals, instead of promoting the national culture, it promotes one of the most hated cliches about Mexicans. We are not Speedy Gonzalez!

Gunnar

I cannot say much, as I have not done much work - I have asked people who know about prehispanic art (my mother - Thanks! ) to give me some pointers. I suck at graphic design work... But here go some ideas. Instead of repeating the same stuff over and over, here is a link to a mbox with the discussion of the ideas we had between Andreas, Pixelgirl and me (sorry, the mailbox is not complete, it's only what I had right now). In one of the messages, I sent some files which I detail here:

calmecac.jpg: Calmecac and Cuicacalli were the two kinds of schools in the Aztec empire, Calmecac for noble kids and Cuicacalli for learning to work (IIRC)
patolli.jpg: The game of the ball. The red swirly signs coming from two of the players are their words.
great_tenochtitlan.jpg: Description of the foundation of the Great Tenochtitlan, which became Mexico City. The Aztecs migrated from Aztlan (see 'peregrination_scroll' below) until they found the sign from the gods: An eagle standing over a cactus eating a snake. That is today's Mexico coat of arms.
knowledge_translation.jpg: How was knowledge translated/transmitted to the conquerors. Read right to left, of course - An old Aztec explained his knowledge to Aztec scribans, which wrote it and translated it for the Catholic priest.
peregrination_scroll.jpg: A detail from the scroll where the peregrination from Aztlan to Mexico-Tenochtitlan was told. Here we see they left the eight houses (on top, each of the emblems symbolizes what that house was), prepared and ate food (bottom left) and cried (bottom right).
peregrination_scroll_large.jpg: A larger page from the peregrination scroll. It shows they arrived to a place they thought it was the chosen one: A broken tree that didn't fall down. That leads to what I just described above
oaxtepec.jpg: The glyph for Oaxtepec

By mere chance, I came along this drawing:

Something like this could also be a nice idea - Make the self-eating snake into a Quetzalcóatl, make the inner swirl a Debian one, and you have another nice possibility.

Andreas

Andreas acknowledges the value of Gunnar's proposals, but finds the drawings unsuitable for a T-shirt, specially for this group. He wants something more easily recognizable as Mexican, with more complex lines, and with more potential to be defaced - His main suggestion is the Aztec Calendar or Sun Stone (Piedra del Sol). Some links to sites that I found might be useful:

La Piedra del Sol: Una visión cósmica del México antiguo goes to details on each of the calendar's rings and elements. Perhaps we could just use the central area or up to the first ring as it can be seen in greater detail
Piedra del Sol details on the main elements, can be useful in finding important meanings and not just coming up with them.

Following with his theme of important Mexican art pieces that are easily recognizable, some other ideas I came up with are:

Coatlicue, mother of all gods
List of Aztec gods
The Toltec Atlantes
Quetzalcóatl, the Feathered Snake, giver of life. Taken from the Quetzalcóatl Temple in Teotihuacán. Another Quetzalcóatl sculpture, nice Quetzalcóatl image
We will quite probably visit Xochicalco, maybe something from its walls... Another gallery, one more

Anibal Avelar

I think there is another more representative figures or symbols (because I'm a Mexican). The mexican culture has for example:

The jaguar. This animal was a representative symbol in the cultures Aztec and Mayan. Many people knows it and the old pre hispanic people feels to identify themselves with the big cat.

Jaguar

The Aztecs were a warrior culture and the war symbols were very important for all his people. The warriors were a very important in our culture. To get to be a warrior was a honor for the Aztecs. The aztec army had two special forces: Jaguar warrior and Eagle warrior.

Religion was extremely important in Aztec life. They worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses, each of whom ruled one or more human activities or aspects of nature. However, they had two great gods:

HUITZILOPOCHTLI (the war/sun god and special guardian of Tenochtitlan) the deified ancestral warrior-hero, was the Mexica-Aztec patron par excellence.
QUETZALCOATL (the god of civilization and learning) "quetzal (feather) serpent," had dozens of associations.

I got the help of a local design worker and I have four concrete proposals:

http://fixxxer.cc/debconf6/debian-1.jpg

The Debian word with an aztec calendar to the left with the shape of Debian logo.
- http://fixxxer.cc/debconf6/debian-2.jpg
The Debian word with an aztec calendar to the left with the shape of Debian logo, but without unions on the calendar lambda-types.
- http://fixxxer.cc/debconf6/debian-3.jpg
The Debian logo with hieroglyphic around with shape of aztec calendar (the hieroglyphic has the shape of Debian logo too).
- http://fixxxer.cc/debconf6/debian-4.jpg
The same to the last but with another style.