Hello Pavel,
I'm pleased to meet you and glad you like the logo :)

Concerning the orientation of the bird, no problem I can prepare
mirrored copies for you, so you can try both. I believe however that
the bird should look to the left, even if the logo is left of the
text which, I agree, is better. You know I had the same problem with
a site of my own, the logo was a fish but the problem was the same. I
had sleepless nights ;) because of the direction of that fish. I
tried both and ended up with it swimming to left. Just last week I
asked a designer about it and he confirmed my fish must swim to left.
He couldn't give an intelligent explanation though LOL. But it's
interesting: In most photo work be it on internet or in magazines,
the animals, cars and other moving objects are alwayse heading left...

I think it's fine if the bird looks left, also on a letter head or
other material where it's at the top left corner.

The circle become an ellipse? No way! ;) I don't like the elliptic
aspect of the IBPhoenix logo. It's ok though, since it's flames and
it's open to the top. The new logo is more schematic and a circle is
a nice symbol for a logo. Turning the closed circle into an ellipse
would make it look like an easter egg? :)... No no, let's keep it a
circle please.

Concerning the colour, I opted for the more yellow ones to make it
distinct from the IBPhoenix logo, but also because it looks more
bright, which is something I like. Of course with the current colour
scheme of the Firebird site a more red logo would match better. But I
think you should take this logo change as a chance to also change the
colours of the site. Red is a very problematic colour for websites.
One big problem is that you need to use white font on the red, you
made the experience. The other is that generally too much red colour
on websites tends to drive people nuts. RedHat has meanwhile learnt
this too.

Well, in the details there are probably as many different opinions as
we have people in the group. Since the site is under construction
anyways, why not just try something and see what the general reaction
is?

I suggest you to try the following:

Change the main colour of the site to the same yellow like also used
by the MySql.com website. That should look nice with the new logo I
think.

Use the first logo/title combination I have on my site: Colour logo
left of black text title. This combination seems to have received the
most positive feedback.

Best regards
Markus

--- In IBDI@y..., "Pavel Cisar" <pcisar@a...> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Helen, you did render it down perfectly. Again, you saved me
> countless hours of writing which would not be more compact, clear
> and precise :)
>
> About the Firebird logo:
>
> The current one (mirrored IBPhoenix) was always a temporary
> solution (better than "cartoon one", IMHO), and now is the perfect
> time to make a new one.
>
> I liked the one's Markus created, with few comments. It would be
> better if bird will look in right direction and would maintain its
> position left to text. It's better for layout of any materials
(that way,
> logo will be in upper left corner). Also the colour could be a more
> (brick) red for my taste. The circle could be also an ellipse
(bottom-
> up) to save space and make the picture more compact.
>
> Just my 0.02c
>
> Best regards
> -- Pavel Cisar
>
> Firebird - the most addictive database
> http://firebird.sourceforge.net