[ubuntu-art] Mark has Thrown Down the Gauntlet!

[Ken Vermette]

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 6:48 AM, Salane Ashcraft <salane89 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Cory K. <coryisatm at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > Salane Ashcraft wrote:
> >> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 9:22 AM, Cory K. <coryisatm at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Salane Ashcraft wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> I just received an email from
> >>>> another Gtk programmer who I recruited to help out.
> >>>>
> >>> Get them on the ML. I *really* hope they work out. I know with Studio
> >>> I've gone through about 20 people I "recruited". It always comes down
> to
> >>> me and maybe 1 or 2 other cool people around our community. :(
> >>>
> >>> I'm my experience things got done best when the designers/artists
> worked
> >>> directly with the person who has the final word. I really don't think
> >>> Mark will get what he wants 'till he's on this list and involved.
> >>>
> >>> -Cory \m/
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> ubuntu-art mailing list
> >>> ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> >>> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> Mark made it clear to Ken and I what he wanted us to do - he wanted
> >> guidelines to be made, by the community, that were within his certain
> >> guidelines.
> >
> > Which are where?
> >
> >> They are well known- with Icons and the Theme, he just
> >> wants us to retain our identity.
> >>
> >
> > Too vague. Though *I* can work with it you still run the rick of people
> > doing alot work that that Mark doesn't like. That has been the history
> > of Ubuntu art and is quite disheartening to alot of people.
> >
> >> I do agree he should be even more clear, and more explanatory. But
> >> that doesnt matter if we dont have the people.
> >>
> >
> > Clear guidelines can also get people on board IMO.
> >
> > In the end the only way this really gets done is a small group of
> > talented people working with Ken that don't care about the wider
> > communities opinions. Come up with a vision/guidelines and go for it.
> >
> >> Are you planning on creating a new theme for US for the 8/10 release?
> >>
> >
> > Ubuntu Studio has a evolved theme for 8.10 in the works. Still very
> > familiar. Still dark. ;)
> >
> > -Cory K.
> >
> > --
> > ubuntu-art mailing list
> > ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
> >
>
> Ok well I posted them a while back, about a month ago. I am working on
> creating a small team, and hopefully I can get some things done. i
> almost think that we need to wait a bit for Icons - as what I have
> been working on looks great with the current icons. Mark wants in 2
> years for us to have moved to the point of surpassing OS X - So I
> think we can create this theme, change the fonts, the work on icons
> for the next release, while making improvements to theme in
> preparation for the next LTS.
>
> --
> Salane Ashcraft
> salane89 at gmail.com
>
> --
> ubuntu-art mailing list
> ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
>

2 years is doable.

What we really need to do, and again it's pounding the idea into the ground,
is create a set of guidelines and a strong focus of where we want to be in 2
years. Apple didn't just pick the OSX interface out of the ground yesterday,
if whatever we produce looks about as sharp as the cheetah interface I think
we'll be on good ground to build on our product. After looking at Kin
against Kims GTK work, I think silver is the way to go, but looking at OSX I
also beleive we might need something cleaner. Just like Apple, we also need
to keep in mind that technology will change, and we can build on that later
aswell.

One of the main things that I'm finding is stopping an Apple level of
polish, is that linux/ubuntu programs just don't follow the same standards
for interfaces. We can create an extremely polished interface, but side by
side the two wrong applications will still reflect badly. Be it a scrollbar
that's not positioned the same, or 2 completly different guidelines for
buttons (audacity, inkscape are huge examples) we should also consider
polish on the program level.

Throwing it out there as an example, the card games that are packaged with
gnome look like the windows 98 card games. What would bring a -deep- level
of polish, just on the level of these card games, would be to create a theme
for the game that blends in with our final GTK theme.

We aren't at that point yet, when we have our theme in cement will be when
were ready for it. When we have our interface standard, we will have the
luxury of slowing down instead creating entire new themes every release.
Without the extra overhead of building Emerald and GTK themes, the extra
time we get could go towards skinning chess, and going into the application
level of skinning.

That's what apple is on now. They stopped making new styles (brushed, for
example) and unified the themes. And now on individual applications they're
polishing. Time Machine is the perfect example, of where a utilitarian
program was made almost into art.

In summary; What we need is that standard, once we have our identity we
don't need to build it every release, and with the extra time we can move
onto polish in the application level.

-Ken Vermette
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