Mozilla Open Design

branding without walls

The Fight

6 responses

This is the final theme in a series of seven. We’ve developed these to help us decide on the future direction of the Mozilla brand, and now we want your thoughts as well.

Here, we’re seeing Mozilla as the independent voice fighting for an open Internet. Read the words, consider the pictures*, then ask yourself:
Does this reflect what Mozilla promises to the world?
Does this reinforce the experiences and values Mozilla delivers?
Does this communicate the ‘right’ image to the world?

Please use the comments below to let us know what you think.

* The images you see on these boards are for illustrative purposes only. Don’t take offense if we’ve used an image of your company or project – please be flattered.

6 comments on “The Fight”

  1. David Tenser wrote on

    I think this theme puts too much emphasis on the resistance against “the bad”, and it implies too much that we’re an (aggressive) activist organization. I’d like to see us balance more towards being visionary, seen as leading both the conversations as well as the solutions to a more open Internet. Less “the rebels who will fight against the corporate giants” – because after all, we’re more pragmatic than that.

  2. Eric Shepherd wrote on

    I agree with David. This theme makes us sound angry and pushy, rather than open, inviting, and cheerfully helpful. I actively dislike this one.

    1. Tim Murray wrote on

      Thanks, Eric. One challenge we’re grappling with is nudging people out of their lethargy and oh-well attitude when it comes to the Internet. People who wouldn’t let someone take advantage of them IRL willingly turn over their value online or accept limits on their freedom ad personal identity in return for content they like. Might The Fight be the thing that gets their attention and makes them think twice? Might there be some aspect from another theme that would might leaven some of the pushiness and anger you see in this one?

  3. Tambara Mbadiwe wrote on

    I don’t see why any of the above would make us angry and pushy. Occupy London, peaceful sit ins, Tienanmen Square, unarmed students massacred by the PLA, The Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution if I’m not mistaken, non violent street protests.

    The very fact that we perceive any form of protest as angry, pushy, aggressive and attribute negative connotations to the word activist is exactly why people are not doing anything about their shrinking online liberties. Make no mistake, we are in a struggle. An open internet is in direct opposition to the goals of almost every government world wide. Simply by raising awareness of how to avoid online tracking, before you look at anything else, Mozilla makes itself diametrically opposed to the claimed “national interest” of every nation conducting online surveillance. Same with its support of un-backdoored encryption. Same with its financial support for technologies like Tor and Tails.

    This is a fight. This has always been a fight. But as the images above show, there are many ways to fight and if we challenge our preconceived notions and think about these images critically we will see that fighting isn’t always “angry and pushy”. The fight can be a provocative yet nuanced theme that truly and honestly reflects the realities of the world, that powerful entities control the internet and they do not have our best interests at heart. They need to be stood up to.

    I vote for the fight.

    1. Tim Murray wrote on

      You make a good point, Tambara that opposition doesn’t have to equate with anger or pushiness, and that nonviolent protest is usually the most effective way to meet a greater force. Whether the larger power is governmental or corporate, individuals who are well informed and motivated to seek independence will ultimately prevail as history proves. Our biggest challenge with The Fight is its perpetuity. Can we sustain it? We see a future where the increasing corporate and government control of the Internet begins to reverse through the distributed actions of good people who make positive choices for themselves and others. We can help bring that about by empowering people to inform themselves and act on their conscience. The Fight we may need to wage is to shake people out of their feelings of complacency (and complicity) and paint a vision of an alternate future for them to seek. Thanks for leading this conversation.

      1. André Jaenisch wrote on

        Duran Adam (http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/performance-artist-symbol-anti-government-protests-turkey-article-1.1375779) would fit in here as well :-)

        “The very fact that we perceive any form of protest as angry, pushy, aggressive and attribute negative connotations to the word activist is exactly why people are not doing anything about their shrinking online liberties.”
        … you are right O:
        I must confess that I dislike activism because of its connotation.

        I thought about what made the images feel angry to me. I think, it’s the black/white colour palette + the poses (the risen clenched fist as symbol for protest). Red and yellow seem to be popular in the images as well.