[ubuntu-art] More Mockups

[Dylan McCall]

> I'm not entirely sure about the direction Kin and Kith are taking,
> especially with the whole OSX smackdown - so I'm trying something new with
> the themes, posting mockups of the new directions the theme could go
> flailing into. When I hit something half-decent, I'm going to develop it
> similarly to Kith/Kin, but I'd like to know I'm getting warmer first. If you
> post links to other themes, I'll try to incorperate what you like, wether I
> personally like it or not!
>
> Below are with different backgrounds...
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/raraken/kin_piano_kith.png
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/raraken/kin_piano_grass.png
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/raraken/kin_piano_leaf.png
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/raraken/kin_piano_rocks.png
>
> With buttons...
> http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/raraken/kin_piano_btns.png
>
> The main difference is that I've broken the slab, and made the outer rim
> outline protrude even farther from the block while making it more subtle.
> I've also switched to gray for the window contents.

Quick question since I haven't played much at all with Kith or Kin so
far: Is there a border around the GTK stuff other than your glowy rim?
If so, I highly suggest you play with removing it. Programs that
display content look quite pretty without that border, it saves space
and in this case it does not cost us anything. For example, Totem and
Firefox both look really nice that way since they don't add their own
padding around the content. It gives the environment a smoother, more
open and less crowded feel. Content also looks less trapped and 'caged
in' from a technical standpoint, since it no longer is stuck against
an arbitrary white box.

Since your mockup is expecting compositing, this can work a lot
better. I think the reason we don't see borderless themes outside of
MacOS is because it requires drop shadows to keep windows visually
seperated. Drop shadows, of course, are quite attainable with Emerald
/ Compiz so there is now much less reason not to ;)
If you want an example, I posted here a few months ago about a little
mishmash of themes I had concocted, mainly featuring PlanoLM for that
borderless part. Just grab Plano from gnome-look and mix it with a
simple GTK theme like Clearlooks, then voila, you'll have a working
example! Here's a screenshot of my desktop with that kind of thing
going on (sorry, big file):
http://dylanmccall.googlepages.com/Clear-Desktop.jpg

Bye,
-Dylan M