In 2009, a small team lead by Mark Shuttleworth, conducted a review of our key brand values and identity. Based on that work, a set of visual treatments were produced, and shared with key members of the Ubuntu Art community, spanning the core distributions, derivatives, and aligned efforts like the Forums. Representatives from Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, SpreadUbuntu and more came to London and worked with the Canonical design team to refine the designs and work together. The results of that work are presented here.

Ubuntu rose to be the number one consumer Linux distribution pretty much since the day it was released, and it's no wonder why—it's the only distribution that even bothers thinking about design. It's nice to see how far come, but I feel like a lot of the roadblocks that will continue to prevent mainstream adoption are a result of focusing on the design elements that have to do with how the operating system looks and feels, and ignoring the design elements that have to do with how the operating system itself functions.

That being said, look and feel is a big part of getting people in the door, and stepping away from the brown humanistic theme is a giant leap forward. That theme was simple atrocious. Who thought that was a good idea in the first place?