[ubuntu-art] Some guidelines for consideration

[Michiel Sikma]

Op 25-aug-2006, om 0:20 heeft Chuck Huber het volgende geschreven:

> On Thu, 2006-08-24 at 10:35 +0100, Who wrote:
>> > > Note, on Fedora Core 6, the Bluecurve icons are being replaced  
>> by what I > think is a very nice new set called "Echo" >  http:// 
>> fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/EchoDevelopment > They're really  
>> great icons - I think they are too glossy in places, but  
>> definitely a good update to Bluecurve. I think the fact that they  
>> are more realistic than Human) makes them feel more modern. also,  
>> more of the icons are drawn on an angle, not just 'flat' on the  
>> desk, which I think contributes to the feeling that that is a  
>> modern theme for good, shiny computers!

Echo is a very nice icon set indeed. It also seems to be completely  
in SVG. Kudos to the Fedora design team for that! I don't really like  
the folder icon and the fact that the icons face left, though, which  
seems kind of awkward to me, as it is more natural for anything to  
face right.

> Really?  I find echo a bit more cartoonish than Human.  Take the  
> disk drive icons, or CD or printer icons for example.  That's not  
> to say that Human can't be improved by getting more realistic.  I  
> think it can, but the examples below are tough to beat.
> <gnome-dev-media-sm.png>
> <gnome-dev-memory.png>
> <gnome-dev-pcmcia.png>
>

Those are pretty okay icons in the Human theme set, but they still  
show some design decisions which I fundamentally disagree with. Such  
as the memory icon, which is heavily influenced by the fact it  
doesn't have a clear outline but _does_ have a heavy shadow  
underneath. Can you tell exactly where the memory stick's green ends  
and the grey of the shadow begins? It's not possible without  
inspecting the image at a zoomed-in size. This shadow messes up the  
contrast between the edge of the icon and the underlying background.  
A simple design feat that could easily have been avoided with some  
proper thinking beforehand.

Echo avoids this entirely by, like Tango, giving clear outlines (and  
clear inlines as well), and using a less overwhelming shadow that  
clearly discerns itself from the rest of the icon. Interestingly,  
Echo also doesn't use the typical generated shadows, which is also a  
big plus in my book.

Michiel