Having been inspired by the comments on this thread I quickly sketched out some characters which might work. The idea is to have something recognizable like the Lemmy lemming or Mastodon elephant which symbolizes the project.

At the core these are Kbeans, with the possibility of dressing them up as Kbeanauts/Kbinauts with the appropriate costume. These can be also be used like Reddit Snoos with a character creator where users can select facial features, hats, bins (baskets or boxes to sit in), props, and so forth.

I also tried sketching out some Koala mascots but it’s hard to make them identifiable when scaled to profile pic size. Figure wise they also don’t really fit well into a square frame unlike the beans.

BTW these mascots are made for the community. Please feel free to modify them, polish them up, and make your own variants. Developing a mascot should be a community effort.

  • arkcom@kbin.social
    9·
    1 year ago

    how dare you use talent and skill to make these! I was working making stable diffusion spit out something useful.
    full prompt below
    anthropomorphic bean, astronaut, large helmet, mascot, low poly
    Steps: 40, Sampler: LMS Karras, CFG scale: 10.5, Seed: 2922498144, Size: 512x512, Model hash: 6ce0161689, Model: v1-5-pruned-emaonly, Version: ## 1.4.0

    • dairokkan@kbin.social
      4·
      1 year ago

      AI art is terrible and destroys human creativity. OP worked hard to make the mascots himself and you think you can do something that’s better with a bunch of words on a screen? Please do not

      • arkcom@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        Are you being dense on purpose? Please reread my post and show where I said I thought mine was better or more creative. Literally the opposite.

      • parrot-party@kbin.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        It has it’s place. In this case, it’s a fine jumping off point for exploring a new mascot. A real mascot design (if we get one) should still be done by a real artist, but non-artistic people can use AI to help give ideas.

  • blightbow@kbin.social
    7·
    1 year ago

    With it being pronounced “kay-bin” (named after Linux directories with a -bin suffix), I personally vote for a smug trashcan avatar with a suspiciously snoo-like mascot sticking out of its mouth. Maybe just the antennae should be visible…that would help avoid legal claims.

    Edit: Or maybe a recycling bin? It’s more eco friendly, and comes with the implication that the old is being recycled for the new. :D

  • fr0g@kbin.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    I think it might be worth exploring making them more bean-shaped as opposed to the more ball-shaped appearance they have now.

    • digitallyfree@kbin.socialOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      The issue is that they don’t fit well with our square profile pics and leaves a lot of whitespace on the side. I want them to fill the frame.

  • MassiveCelebration78@kbin.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    This might actually get my gf to join and attempt to understand the Fediverse.

    Plc haff dis kbinnnibinni - my girlfriend probably (not me, I’d never ever talk like that ever)

  • RheingoldRiver@kbin.social
    4·
    1 year ago

    Hey @digitallyfree, I’m not actually affiliated with anyone, but I want to draw your attention to this issue which I helped to open - in case that happens could you make a comment there granting permission & maybe polish one of these icons to be used?

    Again, I’m NOT AFFILIATED with kbin or anything, and I have no idea if any of the contributors will actually want to use your art (or even agree with the ticket). Just trying to help out as a community member to smooth processes!

    • digitallyfree@kbin.socialOP
      1·
      1 year ago

      I’m not set up for Codeberg yet but I’ll tag @ernest to see if he’s interested in taking these further. Other users are free to modify these characters and submit variants as well - this is a collaborative effort!

      I’ll also respond to the comment in Codeberg which mentions that this looks a bit like Kirby. There are only so many ways one can create a cartoon talking ball (basically it’s either a Kirby, Pac-Man, or an armless sphere with a face). The Kbeans are squashed on the y-axis so they aren’t a full sphere (see the angled one on the left) and their arms and legs are stubby appendages fixed on the sides and bottom.

      • ernest@kbin.social
        3·
        1 year ago

        Yep, I have marked it as high priority, and after consultation, I will indeed replace it with the kbin icon. Thanks.

  • watchdog@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    I agree the top right one has just enough detail to be a good mascot. I’m also glad to see the kbinaut/kbeanaut name taking off haha

  • parrot-party@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    I think bottom right is the best for official direction. Bottom left is super cute as a template for putting the character in different costumes.