[ubuntu-art] Whats Up with This?

Julian Oliver julian at selectparks.net
Mon Jun 30 09:42:57 BST 2008


..on or around Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 12:14:41PM +0530 Bharat Varma wrote: 
> there will always be people who immediately oppose any change. this sort of
> criticism is essential to make a superior final product. i would definitely
> say that this is a good direction.
> 
> i am not a fan of the color scheme currently used - i think the colors are
> too dull for a theme which demands sharper colors. and it is true that it
> does look too dark for mainstream. but i am guessing that can be changed
> easily.

it's not a case of it being too dark, so much as it evidencing far too
much washed-out-flat-grey. frankly, i agree with those responses, it's
pretty horrible alright:

    http://phorolinux.com/images/u810a1/ubuntu810-nautilus.jpg

i believe dark colours in a theme /can/ work very well but to do this
requires some actual talent and care in making it work. dark colours can
themselves be a highlight. alternatively they can be deployed to
leverage other colours into having more presence in the canvas (as you
suggest). the above example does the opposite of either. 

to start with, the impact that dark-backgrounds have on existing icons,
text and dialogs needs to be given some actual consideration. in the
above case you can see they've spent almost no time refactoring to these
ends, merely inverting the text-colour. the result is a theme that
actively works against vibrancy. can you imagine using this theme on a
low-contrast display?  

for instance, why does 'dark' imply 'dark grey'? it appears there's a
little brown in the grey they've chosen but barely enough to unify it
with the other predominant colour in the desktop. if we must go with
brown (by way of law) then why not swing toward a dark brown rather than
the mix of white and black? 
> 
> I love the window decoration and the right amount of roundedness (for me).
> 

that's about the only good to come out of that theme so far. the rest is
pretty devoid of inspiration and thought.

i really do think Mark needs to consult someone with provable
understanding in colour-theory and design to ensure the next release
actually looks good. it would seem no-one that can actually make a theme
is near enough to someone that understands this stuff to pull off a good
result for Ubuntu. 

i suggested it a couple of years ago on this list: in the absence of
actual designers, perhaps a graphic design school could 'audit' the
default theme as part of a class project, coming up with a few mockups
within the scope of what's doable in GTK? at the least we could give
them existing screenshots and have them manipulate the colour field
until better results are found..

cheers,

-- 
julian oliver
http://julianoliver.com
http://selectparks.net
messages containing HTML will not be read.

> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 9:37 AM, Salane Ashcraft <salane89 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Hey Everyone...
> > What's up with this?
> >
> > http://digg.com/linux_unix/Ubuntu_8_10_Intrepid_Ibex_Alpha_1_Screenshots
> >
> > See the complaints? We cannot let this happen. This theme is even worse
> > then the default of Hardy....
> >
> > Salane
> > salane89 at gmail.com
> >
> > --
> > ubuntu-art mailing list
> > ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
> >
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> d-_-b

> -- 
> ubuntu-art mailing list
> ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art




More information about the ubuntu-art mailing list