[ubuntu-art] Broader topics [Was: Thoughts on the calendar]

[Jeff Waugh]

<quote who="volvoguy">

> Hey Jeff, always good to see your name around here. Has the artwork
> deadline slipped? The date we got from Jane Siber was today (September
> 29th) as the final day for any artwork submissions.

So the artwork deadline is mainly intended for what's in the ubuntu-artwork
package (ie. the default artwork shipped with the distribution). It happens
to align nicely with a due date for the first ubuntu-calendar image though!

> Since we have your attention, maybe you can answer another question that's
> been haunting us. If you want the wallpapers to be our focus for Breezy
> (well, and Andrew's icons), how should we present them to Canonical?
> Should our team pick our favorite six and pass those along, or should we
> just keep throwing our stuff up on the art website and let you guys pick
> your favorites? I imagine the voting part is going to be the most
> difficult task, so if we don't even need to do that, we'll skip that
> headache.

So, democracy and art don't mix very well. :-) So, here's what I think, but
keep in mind that this is just opinion, not policy:

 * ultimately, the desktop team needs to be the decision maker when it comes
   to default artwork (and things like the calendar, which will be seen by a
   large proportion of users, and is essentially regarded as 'official' art)
   also, at the moment, this artwork is being done by a contracted artist,
   but that may not always be the case in the future

 * having all six calendar images in advance would be cool, but it would
   also mean that DEVIOUS PERSONS (ie. anyone subscribed to the artwork team
   list) would know what those images will be, thus ruining the surprise. if
   the artwork team could reliably create and choose the calendar image for
   'just in time' distribution at the start of the month, that would be way
   cooler (perhaps not safer, but cooler).

 * backgrounds should be proposed with two variants: 1600x1200 and 1600x1000
   (for widescreen), PNG format. if they're SVGs, in some cases we can avoid
   the extra widescreen image. (it depends on whether there is aspect ratio
   dependent material in the image, such as text or discrete objects, but if
   the SVG is made to scale vertically or horizontally as appropriate, that
   would save the separate widescreen image requirement - but I don't know
   if or how SVG can do that).

 * in the future (not breezy), we should ship contributed artwork packs in
   the distro - after some assistance with packaging, this should be 100%
   under the art team's direction! :-)

> If you DO want us to vote on our favorites, is there some functionality on
> launchpad (or elsewhere) to do a poll/vote type thing? Counting random
> votes via email and IRC could be quite a task.

If there aren't too many people, email or IRC shouldn't be too rough. Maybe
we can update the art.ubuntu.com codebase to include the new voting stuff
from art.gnome.org.

- Jeff

-- 
Ubuntu USA & Europe Tour: Oct-Nov 2005            http://wiki.ubuntu.com/3BT
 
                        Lego is the plural of Lego.