dshadle: Bravo on the Channel 9 meme! question?

First of all - I applaud you on the meme creation: which co notates happiness, easy to talk to, intelligent.. + its cool to boot ( pun intended

what do the 4 ( easy to remember and recognize) tubes from his head mean?

my guess?  the 4 pillars of ms success:

1. ease of use
2. consistent, strong programming
3. Willingness to change
4. to provide the best

k - that’s a bit "nice"  but isn’t that what ms does?

Or perhaps they just mean:
- love - hate - good - evil

inquring minds want to know

Yes... You do that Jam. What the .... is a meme?

logo = symbol = brand = meme

the representation of an idea communicated within a brand as illustrated in a symbol thats used as a logo

Doctor scholes recenty ran an adcampaign with nothing but a huge bottom of foot with their logo on it's soul.  thats a good example of a meme - bottom of foot = dr scholes

A carboard bucket = kfc
3 stripes = adidas
flag = windows
butterfly=msn  ( this is the best meme ms has..)

4 "points" head guy = channel 9

i guess i was just asking - what were you thinking of when you put 4 things up there?  maybe it just looked good

( * google is a meme that just - looks - good - doesnt really represent anything except cheerful/ colourful)

Maybe there turning Homer Simpson


Into a robot

If you look at it at an angle where you just look at homer's head and his hair not the body and put some imagination into it.

AH - inspiration!?!

When we first started talking about creating Channel 9 the idea was to have UI that did not look as if it was created by MSFT. Afterall, a heavily MS branded site would be less inviting for community involvement which was the real goal.
 
Lenn presented a concept and I started playing with variations of it. At the same time, I had/have been itching to get back into more illustration and less "brand-restrictive" projects. While I am not part of any product group there are many guidelines that need to be followed when creating prototypes and demo related designs for Longhorn (my primary job).
 

As a designer, I like to play with various styles and recently was finding inspiration in "pixelart". This was something I have always wanted to play with but always found myself coming back to a more "polished" look. Another inspiration (and where the original idea for the red banner developed) was from a recently attended David Bowie concert - he has a huge video screen which displays amazing animations, etc. It was my goal to replicate that screen and while it is not there it is a start! Basically everything came out of this banner. Next was "Channel 9 Guy" (although at that time it was simply refered to as "the logo") Again, Lenn had this idea of a simple character that you could perhaps see on the bottom of a skate or snowboard - very graphic and flat. While I liked the concept, it was not fitting in with the direction the site was heading. My approach is to imagine what a design would look like if it was fabricated out of wood.The challenge was to take this "block of wood" and pixelize it. I wanted to avoid the need for logotype which lead the body into a "9". The hair on the original concept was two swoopy strands - this element did not lend itself well to design so I simply added the pillars. I wish there was some clever meaning or representation of the hair - but there is not. 

I am really excited that Channel 9 guy is beginning to take on a persona of its own and look forward to seeing (and creating) more deviatives of it.

Here are some initial concepts leading to what is now known as "Channel 9 guy" 

very cool.

for sure the final version is the best one - but interesting to see how it came about