[ubuntu-art] Moving things forwards.

[Troy James Sobotka]

Andrew Laignel wrote:
> Hey, I was only saying that votes are valuable in so far as to find out 
> what not to do and finding out what people hate is important.  Neutral 
> doesn't have to be bland or lacking in style, it just needs to avoid 
> polarizing people.

And this is the exact opposite as to what I have been trying to
stress all along, especially when it comes to a theme.

_Good_ design _will_ create extremely strong emotional attachment in
an audience.  It _will_ polarize.  It _will_ create zealots and
fanboys.  It will also create the opposite.

This is _not_ a bad thing.

Some people _hate_ Apple and would never buy one of their products,
but their stock is still probably one of the most upward expanding.

And your comparison to automobiles is exactly spot on.  There are
automobiles that you probably identify with and others that you
would not go close to.  That too is by design.  Are you an SUV
person?  No?  Its a huge market however.

1 - We have the ethical foundation in FOSS to design around.
2 - We have a superior piece of technology to design around.
3 - We have a core of extremely passionate, talented, and
amazing minds to design around.

Ubuntu _crrently_ is already the epitome of bland, undirected,
tepid, and vacuous presentations.  It hasn't worked.  The
technology has proved amazing, but in terms of actual _attraction_,
it has been sub optimal.  See any number of the silly complaints
about brown or other nitpicking off of Digg or like site to
see the symptomatic byproduct of poor design.

Our only way forwards is to _finally_ attack the low level,
fundamental issue as listed in nearly every introductory
art and design book on the planet:

From "Creativity for Graphic Designers":
"A single, clearly defined audience.  It is difficult to persuade
a sixteen-year-old and his seventy-five-year-old grandparent
in the same communication."
"A single message.  If the message to be communicated cannot
be distilled down to one or two sentences, you are saying too
much."
"You are ready to proceed if you can clearly and concisely
define the following:
 1 - The client.
 2 - The audience.
 3 - The message.
 4 - The client's motivation.
 5 - The audience's motivation.
 6 - The competition.
 7 - The environment.
 8 - The audience's desired response."
ISBN: 0-58180-055-X pgs 30-31

From "Design Basics Index":
"Designers are hired to create visuals that effectively deliver a
specific message to a specific segment of the population."
"Clarity:  Are the literal, stylistic and thematic messages of
this piece clearly and efficiently presented?"
"Audience:  Who is the target viewer for this piece?"
"Purpose:  What exactly is this piece supposed to do?"
ISBN: 1-58180-501-2 pgs 327-339


Sincerely,
TJS

PS:  This discussion obviously only applies to the missing components
within Ubuntu's default look.

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