Leap, Tumbleweed Get Makeovers

Branding for Tumbleweed and Leap 16.0 are moving along with the creation of a visual identity for these two distinct operating system flavors.

For two of openSUSE’s most notable Linux distributions, there is an updated logo and new digital wallpaper themes that feature beloved chameleons that represent the community projects.

The Tumbleweed logo has been revamped and transitions from a horizontal format to a new design that aligns with logos of other openSUSE flavors like Leap, MicroOS, Aeon, Leap Micro and Slowroll. Communication and input from Logo Contest participants helped the group to collaborate on crafting a new logo. This new logo decided on by the release team took elements from the contest. The new logo has recognizable brand elements that reinforce a connection to the openSUSE ecosystem.

During a Leap 16.0 branding focus group at an openSUSE Conference in 2024, community contributors began creating designs and developing plans for evolving visually engaging wallpapers that display day or night and light or dark variants.

Ideas from the session centered around nature-themed day and night variants featuring desert and jungle landscapes with complimentary stylized chameleons along with the use of creatively displaying the Leap logo. This Leap logo concept incorporated a constellation pattern in the night’s sky design and a subtle Leap logo concept as a cloud.

The new wallpapers reflect the versatility of openSUSE Project that blend creativity with the stability and reliability users expect, said Leap release manager Lubos Kocman. The goal is to offer visually stunning designs that capture both the light of day and the tranquility of night, all while showcasing the adaptability of our beloved chameleon mascot. A photo of the Bluetail Day Gecko, which aligns with Geekos.org, offers a timely opportunity to feature a gecko with a chameleon-like appearance.

Designs began to take shape through collaborative efforts on the project’s branding repository on GitHub. Contributors shared drafts and provided feedback. Kocman himself has shared several iterations, experimenting with gradients and textures in the night scene and refining the sky’s appearance with gradients of purple and blue. One design even featured Aurora Borealis; after some community feedback, the contributors realized that Van Gogh wasn’t coming back to paint it for the release, so the team opted for a simpler starry night sky that better complemented the openSUSE brand’s clean and minimalist aesthetic. Kocman tried incorporating more complex elements like the Aurora Borealis, but sometimes simplicity speaks louder, Kocman commented. The design with a clean blue sky and soft starry details of a constallation felt more in line with openSUSE’s overall philosophy.

Many contributors in the community suggested incorporating constellations such as Aquila, Sagittarius and Lyra into the night design. These subtle additions give the wallpaper a sense of place, further emphasizing the natural beauty the team aims to capture. And, hey, if people squint hard enough, the Leap constellation is basically the Big Dipper’s cooler cousin!

The new wallpapers are just one component of a broader branding overhaul for Leap 16 and openSUSE’s rolling-release Tumbleweed. The branding team is exploring more abstract, distribution-agnostic wallpapers that can be used across different openSUSE flavors like Slowroll, Kalpa, and Aeon.

The community’s role in shaping the new look of Leap 16 and Tumbleweed didn’t stop at design suggestions. The branding team announced a photo competition inviting users to submit high-resolution photographs featuring chameleons or objects resembling the mascot. This competition is open until Nov. 1 and encourages users to submit original, landscape-oriented images through the branding repository.

Submissions are already rolling in, with some stunning entries showcasing natural landscapes that align with the day and night wallpaper themes.

To learn more about the wallpaper development process and contribute to the conversation, visit github.com/openSUSE/branding.

Leap 15.6 started to use a new logo. Logos for openSUSE distributions and flavors can be found in the project’s distribution-logos repository.

The last update for Tumbleweed’s wallpaper happened in 2018 and Leap’s wallpaper changed in 2022 with version 15.4.

People who are interested in advancing the openSUSE Welcome package or those who would like to share ideas about advancing it, can join a group working on it during HackWeek.

Many thanks to the marketing teams that helped to create this change for the project.