[ubuntu-art] Itrepid theme inspiration ?

[Sumit Agarwal]

I think both mock-up links presented (the Windows one and the Ubuntu 
one) are really great examples, though they may be a touch too dark for 
mainstream tastes (maybe I'm wrong. Vista's taskbar is very dark and so 
are a lot of other elements of its UI). I personally think the Windows 
shot is slightly better for the sole reason that the main engine 
(dialogue boxes, buttons, menubar, etc) is more color neutral.

And, above all else, I REALLY REALLY REALLY think Ubuntu needs a 
super-simple color changer!!! We should not expect users to be 
experienced colorists! We also should not expect users to like orange 
(orange is just about the more unusual PC desktop color theme. Not bad, 
but highly unusual)! As in Vista we should have a color picker that 
simply selects a main base color (default orange) with the rest of the 
color shades generated algorithmically by the back-end. What is great 
about the Vista color-chooser is that it is simple, intuitive, and does 
not allow the user to select a shade/hue/saturation that visually 
'breaks' the interface or makes it illegible. What is stupid about Vista 
is that regardless of what main color you choose, there are always 
hard-coded cyan accents and highlights that are based off of the default 
color.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/window-color-and-appearance.jpg

As far as choosing colors for icons, I sort of agree and disagree. 
Firstly, the logistics for that seem tricky. Secondly, I feel like the 
icons should 1) be photographically full-color, such that there is not 
apparent color 'scheme' to them, and 2) be recognizable by color 
independent of the desktop color scheme (i.e. Pidgin is recognized as 
much by its purple as by its bird; close/exit is conventionally red).

Maybe I'm wrong  =)  this is the kind of good discussion we need around 
here, and hopefully somebody more skilled than us will be able to code 
up a solution for 8.10!

François Degrave wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I think nobody will blame you for using this screenshot which is, in my 
> humble opinion, a really good example of how the black/orange theme for 
> the next cycle should look like.
>
> It reminds me of this one:
> http://mossblaser.deviantart.com/art/Ubuntu-8-04-GUI-Design-Idea-72574609
> but even better.
>
> I also take advantage of this mail to repeat my opinion, which is that 
> such a theme would be particularly nice if the colors of
> controls/windows/system icons were parametrisable (see
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-art/2008-February/005171.html).
>
> Cheers,
>
> François
>
> Bharat Varma wrote :
>   
>> Hi, 
>>
>> I am only an end-user of Ubuntu and I know squat about UI / UI 
>> guidelines or even how to present what I have in mind using Gimp etc. 
>> Could never understand how to use Gimp either :)
>>
>> But I would like to draw attention to a visual style I have 
>> encountered for Windows. I have used this myself (love it !!!) and I 
>> believe this visual style is close to what the original hardy 
>> guidelines suggested 
>> in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/HardyDesign
>>
>> http://lassekongo83.deviantart.com/art/Elements-VS-82691770
>>
>> If there is anyone who can take a look at the visual style above, it 
>> would be great.
>>
>> I didn't know if it was okay to put screenshots of a Windows OS in the 
>> /alternate link on ubuntu site. If it is, I will take permission from 
>> the author and do that. If it is okay to include those screenshots as 
>> attachments to this mailing list, I can do that too.
>>
>> Bharat Varma
>> -- 
>> d-_-b 
>>     
>
>
>