That solves the mystery of how it was made, but not
why it's a spiral. I personally think it's ludicrous and rather amusing that the logo for Debian, the OS that prides itself on libre software, was built from a default Adobe brush.
EDIT: Is this a copyright violation? I've checked
this thread, but the artwork
is the brush, so it doesn't really help.
As to why it's a spiral, this post will help you:
https://www.debian.org/vote/1999/vote_0004
and this article:
http://stray-notes.blogspot.com/2011/04 ... swirl.html
The designer, Raul Silva, never made any public statements about the logo's symbolism
Because he stole it from Adobe?
The short answer is that no-one knows for sure why it's a spiral. The reason for the uncertainty is because of
the lamp that was part of the original proposal. I think the logo comes from two sources of inspiration. Firstly, the swirl on Buzz Lightyear's chin, which the designer has also used to represent the smoke coming from a genie's lamp. The idea here, maybe, is that Debian is a 'magic' OK with the swirl also representing '
magic smoke'.
Your designs are coming on very well, the subtle and abstract dachshund was excellent. I would caution against trying to change the default Debian logo and font though, I can't see there being much uptake on those, there are way too many traditionalists in the conservative Debian camp for that.