Branding

Introduction

This page attempts to preserve the historical heritage of Elite/Oolite branding, specifically in terms of logos and icons.

Elite branding history

1984... Elite... David Braben, Ian Bell, Robert Holdstock, and... Philip Castle.

The first three names were responsible for the programming and the documentation (Elite Players' Guide; The Space Trader's Flight Training Manual and The Dark Wheel, Stock Code Numbers for the latter: SBG38/B1 and SBG38/B3, respectively, etc.), but it would probably not have had such a successful market-entrance had it not been for the fourth gentleman's eye-catching skills as an airbrush artist.

On the "FrontierAstro Elite - Various Items" page, approximately halfway down, we are briefly introduced to him, but his work is pretty much everywhere on that page.

On Ian Bell's website, in the Elite Archives, in the file a4120001.png, the "DECEMBER 1984" Acorn News report (scan), in the second column, third paragraph, Philip Castle is authoritatively identified as the originator of Elite branding.

Oolite branding history

7 April 2004, Aegidian'sOolite (progress) LiveJournal introduced the , which can be downloaded from that page (right-click, "Save Image As...") as a 100 pixels x 100 pixels .png image.

2006-01-03T16:15:35, Rxke apparently uploaded to the Elite Wiki a 128 x 128 version of the userpic.

2011-05-07T12:57:36, Ahruman uploaded to the Elite Wiki the 256 x 256 by Eugene Chernyakov (seventh).

Mon Oct 23, 2023 12:39 am, on the Oolite Bulletin Boards, in the Discussion forum, the "New splash screen and icon" thread was posted by phkb, in which was suggested that the Oolite splash screen and icon had been around for a while now, and it was proposed that they were about due for a refresh. This discussion led to the new, red versions of the and logo-images, both uploaded to the Elite Wiki six days later by Phkb, and incorporated in the official oolite.space website.