[ubuntu-art] What are we working towards?

[Who]

Hi all,

Does sabdfl still read this list? Some of these questions here may
only be able to be answered by him (or kwwii - are you employed to
work on this at the moment?). After some deliberation I've copied him
in. Sorry Mark if you don't think you needed to be!

It's really cool to see this list alive again with so many ideas and
discussions - some of the stuff  looks really sweet, I wish I had more
time to contribute (though I think the standard's getting well beyond
me!).

While there's still so much energy around I think we need to get some
more definition of what the goals of the artwork team are here so we
can channel it in the right direction. I hope I haven't missed
anything about what exactly is being worked towards...I haven't been
keeping up with ALL the list mail recently and couldn't make the
meetings, but I couldn't see a clear description of goals or process
(emails like 'how far for Hardy' have gone unanswered... and
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArtTeam which supposedly contains UDS
conclusions is not very detailed) The minutes of the latest meeting
say in response to a question about what we will be changing:

"Nov 01 18:47:53 <kwwii>	install screen, usplash, gdm/face broswer,
Desktop Wallpaper, GTK theme, colors, metacity/emerald theme, icons,
splash screens"

That sounds mighty exciting, and a lot of what I am asking below has
clearly been discussed (from the minutes again)

"Nov 01 18:03:47 <kwwii>	we had a meeting at UDS today
Nov 01 18:04:07 <kwwii>	and talked about the form of the art team and
how we lead the process"

But I'm not sure enough info has made its way here yet. Maybe it has,
sorry if I've missed it.

In years gone by, I feel artwork effort has been misdirected due to us
(as a team) not really knowing what our aims were, not meeting
deadlines in the release process and not knowing who we were designing
the work to please and producing the style of work that was wanted. It
would be sad to see this flurry of enthusiasm ending in some of the
same mistakes being made again and people being upset about the
process. I am NOT trying provide  bunch of 'stop energy', but I am
trying to find out what the structure we need to work under
(/around/over/through...whatever), for the best things to happen is!

So, if we are going to start brainstorming and investing time once
more I would really like to clarify for all contributors.

1. Are WE (the artwork team) designing a DEFAULT theme or some
'community themes' to be shipped separately in another package? This
is important because it affects the kind of design we do, and I would
expect for some people, how much time they have to offer. Obviously,
there have to be caveats with respect to the quality of the work - if
for some reason (and the stuff so far suggests it will not happen) the
team produced something horrific it would not make sense to included
it. This brings me on to Q2

2. Who will decide what work will make the cut and what will not. If
we ARE designing for the default theme then how will we decide when to
stop brainstorming and settling on ONE of the ideas to hone (see 2.2).
How can we ensure we are producing work that IS going to be accepted?
There are a few important aspects to this

--2.1 How will we get the people who will be making FINAL decisions
about the work involved _at crucial points in the process_ well before
the end . If sabdfl is going to be choosing work then how can we get
his opinions before we reach crucial junctions at which we might turn
away from what is desired. There is certainly enough talent in the
team to work towards and produce what is desired, but communication of
that might need to be better than it has been in previous releases.

--2.2 What is the time-scale for our development? We need this to be
clearly defined _whether or not_ we are designing for the default
theme or for a bunch of community themes. If we are going for default
work then we need to be sure to make and meet deadlines for review and
feedback. The same is true even if we're just doing 'extra' themes,
except the community is more able to define what will and won't be
included. In the past with community themes lots of work has been
dumped on a few members of the team and Daniel Holbach when he was
already incredibly busy - I wasn't involved in the last few releases
so this issue might be fixed now....See 3 for more on this.  Another
reason the deadlines are important is so we give the documentation
team and the web team time to update to reflect the new art.

--2.3 I am not at all sure what other stuff relies on the art (docs
and web aside) - which other parts of the Ubuntu Jigsaw do we
interlock with?

--2.4 Who is in charge of what in the team/calling which shots? kwwii,
I guess is the head here? Is there going to be a hierarchy?

3. How are we distributing and packaging the work? We should be doing
this throughout the process so we can see how it is working - to avoid
last minute rushes on packaging. My understanding is that Launchpad
has very good facilities for making this 'JustWork' - are enough
people familiar with them now?

I am sad that I do not have much time to add at the moment - so I
guess I am asking these questions less for myself and more for the
people who will be spending a lot of time on design for the next
realease. By answering them I hope we will have a better understanding
of how to use people's time effectively.

I do not presume I have asked all the important questions, so please
jump in if you think there are other things to clarify.

I hope this whole email doesn't come across as pompous or
presumptuous, I know this was discussed at UDS, I'm sad I could not be
there (but I would be sure I'm not the only one!) - I only want to be
sure that the effort people invest is well directed and that the art
we make rocks as much as possible!

Happy Designing,

Who