sometimes a footprint represents humanity
sometimes, but in GNOME’s case i think it is not intended to be a human foot but rather the foot of a mythological creature (a gnome). note that it has a squashed aspect ratio compared to a human foot, and also has only four toes.
apparently it’s also problematic in some cultures: https://wiki.gnome.org/Engagement/FootAndCulturalIssue
it’s among the many OSes you can run in an emulator in your web browser at https://copy.sh/v86/