[ubuntu-art] hardy gtk theme

[Günther Beyer]

Hey all.

This is my first atempt to activly join an open source project, although
I'm using Ubuntu for about two years by now.

Short intro: My Name is Günther Beyer, I'm an interface-designer from
Germany, using Gimp and Inkscape, doing icons, illustrations and mockups
of all kinds.

Here are my thoughts on the Hardy theme:

First of all I followed the discussion between the two main approches -
The Mac like interface from Neil J Patel and the darker theme derived
from Ubuntustudio. I wonder, why we should at any time imitate Vista or
Leopard. Why not use the best of both worlds and add a little extra
Ubuntu-linux flavour? If we want Ubuntu to look like Leopard, why not
just wait for Kubuntu featuring KDE 4 - compare:

http://pinheiro-kde.blogspot.com/2007/11/decisionsdecisionsdecisions-so-many.html

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=382776013&size=o

http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2006/07/02%20Peek.jpg

I think we should go down the other way and try a darker theme with the
style and astetics of Neils mockups. There were many of my friends, who
went from Windows to Ubuntu, just because of thouse fancy 3D effects.
Why not try to repeat this again? As somebody truly pointet out, that
new users are drawn to a desktop because of its looks, not if the
usability is much better than the competitors ones, see Vista. The
transparencies are horrible concerning interaction, but still today
people tell me how great Vista looks and how much they love it.

Anybody who's doing office work on Ubuntu can change the theme to a
lighter one with an handfull of clicks. All the other ones will be drawn
to that darker, unique one.

Imho Open Moko has a good start on an orange-black interface, but it
looks a little cheap. Maybe we could start here and try to merge this
with Neils stuff. The only problem I see is the fact, that I don't know,
how to get black and orange into an theme, tha looks both extraodynary
and business-style.

Here's a first test:

http://guentherbeyer.de/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/ubuntu_804_theme_test_02b.png

Cheerz
Günther