[ubuntu-art] Quick Update

[Niel Drummond]

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 07:53:27 +0200
Michiel Sikma <michiel at thingmajig.org> wrote:
> - snip -
> set is. It follows guidelines more strictly, hasn't gone overboard  
> with insane levels of orangification (does the user-desktop icon  
> really need to attempt to show the default wallpaper in the smallest  
> icon size? Does the Internet icon really need to be a large orange  
> sphere?) and has more probability of being consistent with pretty  
> much the whole general style of the non-Ubuntu Linux art of
> tomorrow. Consistency is still an important thing, and as of yet,
> Ubuntu is not a trend setter in the art or UI world. Tango seems to
> be just that.

Your discussion is good, and if you can write down in a spec exactly
which icons you do not like, how they can be improved, and more
importantly why they should be improved... that would be very valuable
to us.

It is very likely that the Art Council will pay more attention to the
situation, if there is proper documentation on the subject, than these
emails in the Message lists.

There are historic reasons why the upcoming cycle is unlikely to let us
change the human icon set. For one thing, we haven't "proved" ourselves
as a viable alternative for making ubuntu art yet. For another, the
Human set was outsourced, and we shouldn't step on their toes right
from the beginning. This does not mean that we cannot take over when
the time is right, so having these ideas on spec would be very useful
for the long term.

As per the decision-making: don't get your head under water because of
it. The reason we have decision-makers in artistic exploits, is
because art is very subjective, and also very prone to a lack in
quality, which makes decision making on a democratic level very
difficult. 

Additionaly, this is how it has always been done (Kenneth
Wimer can tell you, he has worked for Novel for 7 years). This is the
first time that a distribution approaches the art team with a more
open-ended work process, so there are bound to be questions on the
fairness of the organisation.

This doesn't mean your words will be lost on the Art Council though!
Write your thoughts in a spec, and they might get approved for the
following release cycle.

Kind Regards,

- Niel Drummond

> -snip-
> 
> Michiel Sikma
> michiel at thingmajig.org
> 
> 
>