[ubuntu-art] Youth Theme

[sascha brossmann]

to quote my response from the wiki due to lack of time (sorry if it
gets partly OT here):

---<snip>---

While the mask may sure look stylish (though i associate e.g. not only
african tribalism but also a christian bishop with mitre) it still
lacks several qualities that are needed in a good sign to use in an
identity. Especially one of a mass product like Ubuntu which needs to
be able to be communicated to an extremely heterogenous public in
respect to cultural background, education, age, etc. This requires
amongst others extreme simplicity, universality (e.g. across
cultures!), recognisability, scalability & cross-media fitness (from
screen over small b/w fax header to large colour poster etc.) and
*still* needs to communicate something particular important about the
project. Unfortunately this normally leads to rather restrictive
requirements which might result in something which could be considered
a little bit more 'boring' than something which can be executed within
a more focused frame. Consequently, I consider the current sign to be
rather succesful at the given task and highly professional work (the
idea of togetherness seems very well abstracted) which is anything but
easy to top. Even as someone who has done identity work for some
rather succesful and well-sustained larger projects i currently
wouldn't dare to significantly touch it - lest replace it. Adding a
kind of mascot is another kind of story, though this should ideally be
also directly identifyable as an offspring of the current identity.
Still, before that one should IMHO think about possibilities to re-use
the current logo (or parts of it) for such purposes. Maybe it can be
made to 'come alive', somehow? SaschaBrossmann 2005-12-24 02:29:04

One more thing, slightly OT re "The reason young people like Mac OS X
so much is because it is stylish!": i do agree on the importance of a
certain stylishness if you want to appeal to a younger (i.e. < 35-40y)
crowd. Nonetheless, the success of Mac OS X cannot solely be
attributed to stylishness but much more to said stylishness paired
with rock solid and well concepted interaction design (resulting in
high usability). This is about much more than just looks, as it needs
to be considered at the very core of software design. And that's what
makes the real difference and keeps people using something. Having the
stylish looks without the interaction won't do. (NB: i don't think
that Ubuntu should copy Mac OS X behaviour, which sure has its own
flaws. It needs to get better than that, actually. And that's were the
really hard work waits.) -- SaschaBrossmann 2005-12-24 02:50:13

---<snip>---

all that criqtique withheld: yes, the mask *is* stylish and propably
will appeal to quite a bunch of (younger) people. nonetheless, this
stuff should IMHO in a certain way adhere more to the current identity.
though, FWIW i would really like to see the overly dominant brown
tossed for good, which i consider to have been a rather unlucky choice
(also in terms of colour psychology, but i won't go into depths here).
so, please, try to get either more powerful (brighter/saturated) or
more neutral in terms of colours. better the latter, and spare the
strong colours for significant accents to make a difference in
places/for events where strong stimuli are important.

best,


sascha
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