[ubuntu-art] Starting the Produce phase for Edgy Eft

[Frank Schoep]

Hello artists,

As you all might know I've been busy drafting the directions for the  
Produce phase based on all submissions that came in during Propose.  
I've been getting opinions and feedback from a whole range of people,  
from the Ubuntu community forums (thanks to Ubuntu Demon) to the  
members of the Community Council and as far as I can tell, we're good  
to go.

First things first, of course - so let me show you the results I  
summarized and turned into artwork directions based on the material  
available to me. These results of the Propose phase are documented  
here on the Wiki and will serve as the basis for steering artwork  
production during Produce:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Specs/EdgyArtworkPlan/Propose/Results

Before you start worrying, let me describe the contents of that page:  
to describe the artwork direction I've discerned three components  
that make up our artwork. The three components are style, look and  
palette. I'll explain each one.

A style is an overarching compositional guide for each artwork  
target. As you might remember, an artwork target is one of the  
following: usplash, GDM theme, login splash and the desktop  
wallpaper. Each style I described takes into account the global look  
and feel of each target and applies a single compositional theme to  
it. The three styles I described are Circles, Rounded and Failsafe,  
see the Wiki for sketches and references.

The next component, looks, is a guide for the textures of the  
elements in our artwork. A look describes the textural contrast  
between foreground and background elements. I've described two looks  
for the Produce phase: "Matte and Gloss" and "All out Gloss", both  
are described in more detail on the Wiki. A look also prescribes the  
use of a certain logo style, but we can interchange these if desired.

Last, but surely not least, is the third component: palettes. A  
palette provides base colors to use for your design. I've created two  
simple triangles to start with: one consisting of the base Human  
colors and one derived from the Dapper wallpaper image. I've also  
created two purple triangles for use with Kubuntu artwork. These are  
not officially endorsed by Kenneth Wimer, but act more as a starting  
point to create something purple.

The plan is to combine styles, looks and palettes to create concrete  
artwork in (3 x 2 =) 6 directions of which we'll continue to polish  
the most promising ones. I left palettes out of the equation because  
we'll be working in source formats for this phase which can be seen  
as palette-agnostic, because palettes can be changed quite easily  
once you have access to the source file for the artwork.

The source format point is actually very important. To be able to  
quickly accommodate to changes and to try different compositions we  
need to work in an open fashion using SVGs and XCFs as a base (please  
try to avoid PSDs and XARs as those formats might be troublesome).  
PNGs and JPEGs are fine for showing previews, but make sure to share  
the image's sources as soon as possible to allow for extensive  
collaboration.

I created a new "Incoming" page specially designed for posting  
submissions for the Produce phase. It is located under the actual  
phase status page on the Wiki:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Specs/EdgyArtworkPlan/Produce/Incoming

We'll be deviating from the initial time plan for Produce since the  
process has experienced a few unplanned delays. For now, we'll start  
producing artwork in the styles and see at what pace we're progressing.

If you decide to jump in and produce artwork in a given style and  
look, please update the Produce phase status page on the Wiki. There  
is a table on that page containing all combinations of styles and  
looks, please add your name and a short notice on what you're doing  
so that duplicate work / entries can be prevented initially. Once  
we've got all combinations in at least one variation, you can create  
and refine existing combinations as well. The table of combinations  
is located here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Specs/EdgyArtworkPlan/Produce

I hope this e-mail, and especially the new goal, are clear. To help  
you out, here's a one paragraph summary:

Choose a style and look from the Propose results page, check on the  
Produce status Wiki page if no-one else is working on the  
combination, then update the Wiki page. Create artwork for each  
artwork target in the chosen combination, then post preview and links  
to the sources on the Produce incoming Wiki page. That's all there is  
to it right now.

If you have questions or comments, let me know - I'll have a lot of  
Ubuntu time next week with the UDS in Wiesbaden so I'll be all ears.  
At the moment, we've got a lot of momentum within the artwork team  
and we've got a LOT of people who are really happy with what we're  
doing right now. Let's work together on making the Edgy artwork as  
awesome as possible, I know we can do this!

I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you all for reading  
and sticking with the team even through the hard times, you're amazing.

With kind regards,

Frank Schoep