[ubuntu-art] Breathe - The beginning.

[Thorsten Wilms]

On Sat, 2008-09-27 at 18:25 +0100, Danny King wrote:

> Look, feel & personality: The idea is to mix Human and Oxygen themes I
> believe. Should it be hyper-realistic (as proposed in the IRC chan) or
> does anyone propose anything different?

Well, I hope Breathe can be developed with the target audience from
Kyūdō in mind:

Trendsetters who will lead others to follow. People who are visible in
their computer use. Those who have interesting capabilities to add to
our community. Those who have the glamour we would like for Ubuntu
itself. Young web-savvy professionals.

To appeal to them, I think we have to extend trends set by the web 2.0
style and what Apple is doing. Note, not follow, not copy, but to find
our place at the very front. A look at gadgets, fashion, cars,
architecture and general graphic design might also be a good idea.

The icons should:
- have a distinct language, a character pulled through like you would
expect from a professional font.
- have a positive, friendly feel without appearing childish
- convey precision, reliability, sophistication. High-end, but without
appearing cold.
- have rich gradients and highly realistic material impressions.
- be very realistic, but optimised for style and recognition. Not the
plain portrait shoot, but the photo-edited model in the Vogue (well, the
good ones, no photoshopdisasters :)
- With the possible exception of warning symbols, every icon should be
so appealing that you would want to have it printed in 3d, carefully
hand painted ... to then take it with you to bed in place of your
teddy-bear.


> Perspective: Should we go for table view, top-down or a mixture (or
> something else?) See this for an idea:
> http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGIcons/chapter_15_section_7.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000967-TPXREF106
> 
> Lighting: where should the light come from? Directly above?

Directly from above would help for compatibility with Tango and Oxygen.
Although I mean to recall that it's meant to be slightly to the left for
Tango.

You also have to think about consistency with widget themes here. Silly
to have differing lighting directions.


-- 
Thorsten Wilms

thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/