[ubuntu-art] Announcing Project Kyūdō

[Rico Sta. Cruz]

Re: The Kyudo foundation document:
(https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/KyudoGuidelines/Foundation)

WOW! I think this is spot on. We need a vision to keep the contributors on
track, and I think this is just the right initiative to make that vision and
push it forward.

The "target audience" I think is particularly valuable. Whenever something
big comes along, people would voice out their distaste over brown/orange or
small buttons, which leads some artworks to a mediocre direction via
design-by-committee. What we instead need to do is keep a good *vision* and
work with a *target audience* in mind.

At any rate, this is a good 'brief' to steer the direction of the Ubuntu
brand. We have always worked with the guideline "make something kickass" --
which, IMHO, is not a very good brief.

So what's next for Kyudo? Here are some of my thoughts on where to go from
here:

 - Polish, distill, disseminate.
   The current 'Foundation' document has a good message to it. Perhaps it's
time to polish this, make it into something that can easily be communicated,
and spread the vision to those interested in contributing.

 - Involve people.
   I'll personally try to contribute whatever I can to this. Anyone else?

 - Make proposals into how to 'concretize' the vision.
   Once we got the vision down, it's time to make that into something
clearer. Define the constraints. What one-sentence statement do we want to
put across? What elements of the current Ubuntu brand should we retain? Do
we work with a dark palette? etc...

 - Define the short-term goals.
   The Kyudo project has quite an astronomic target ("optimize
presentation", which I guess can extend to branding, upstream projects,
etc). Not exactly a bad thing, we but gotta define the next steps. We can't
do all of these in one go, but what are we to do now? Do we work on themes?
Icons? etc...
   

* * *

Re: "Our current process may not be efficient, but it is very free in
allowing people to create what they would like to see Ubuntu use."
(--Smartboy)

The current process encourages participation alright, but this includes
serious and thoughtless participation alike. I've seen some contributions
that stray far from the vision of Ubuntu -- IMHO a protocol like the one
proposed will help guide these contributors to the right direction.

Participation may drop, but IMHO we're not after a large number of
participants contributing noise. "Signal" contributions would be much
better, even if in lesser quantity.


Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> 
> Hi!
> 
> While the theme team process seems to work very well now, I think we
> could do better. My allies and I would like to push things towards a
> solid design process.
> 
> One that starts with the question what it actually is what we want to
> achieve, what our message is and who we are addressing. Goals we can
> agree on and that will lead us through the design, helping us to
> collaborate in a larger team in a meaningful way.
> 
> A process that will lead us out of the shadows of purely personal
> opinion and hidden assumptions towards the light of reason.
> 
> A process where we will not jump unto the first idea, but develop and
> test several designs for each little part. Where we will not restart on
> the next cycle, but build upon the existing. Continuous refinement.
> 
> One that will offer anyone a chance to learn about design in a deeper
> way and that will show onlookers that we are damn serious while we enjoy
> the ride!
> 
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/KyudoGuidelines
> 
> 
> Please read through it carefully. As you can see, it is by no means
> complete. That's where you come in! All content, all questions and
> suggestions can be discussed right here. Consider to start new threads
> for specifics. Tell us how you think and feel about this!
> 
> 
> -- 
> Thorsten Wilms
> 
> thorwil's design for free software:
> http://thorwil.wordpress.com/
> 
> 
> -- 
> ubuntu-art mailing list
> ubuntu-art at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
> 
> 

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