[ubuntu-art] Layout Examples for Book on Open Soure Publishing

[Rob Oakes]

Dear Ubuntu Artwork Team,

I am currently working on a book about writing and publishing using open source tools.  The book includes two chapters on visual communication which cover Scribus and Inkscape.

As part of these chapters, I would like to include examples of professional quality work.  These include newsletters, magazines, book spreads, posters, illustrations, and others.  The examples should:

1) Beautify the final volume and showcase examples of graphic communication
2) Demonstrate that open source tools can create high quality 
3) Provide templates and finished layouts that can be distributed both with and separately from the book (the files will be licensed under LGPL, MIT or Creative Commons) to help people master the programs.

(For more information on what I want to accomplish with the examples, see this article: http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/2010/09/01/awesome-examples.)

Naturally, I've raided my own portfolio to do this, but any book with the work of a single person is at an inherent disadvantage.  (Which is a way of saying that it's boring.)  Which brings me to the reason that I am writing.

I wanted to see if there are examples of promotional materials, newsletters, posters, or templates that might be appropriate to include in the book from the Ubuntu project?  I've already looked at the examples on the Share Ubuntu website, and found an option that might work.  Are there other locations that I might check out where the work is available under permissive licenses?  The work doesn't have to be related to Ubuntu or free-software.  Any example of graphic communication (regardless of source) would be appropriate.  I am more interested in inspiring and showing solid design principles than advertising for a particular product (even something as wonderful as open source).

These examples from my portfolio would all fit within the scope of the chapter:

http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/2010/11/29/kde02
http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/2010/10/06/formalism
http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/2010/08/21/modern-templates

Alternatively, would members of the team be willing to craft templates/layouts which could  be used to illustrate a particular principle?  (The differences between a column grid or modular grid, for example.)  If you have works that are part of a personal portfolio, those might be used as well.  (As long as you hold copyright to the layout and other assets.)

In addition to creating examples for the book, I also want to contribute back to the respective upstream projects.  For example, brochures would be sent to the Scribus project as templates.**  For this reason, I would prefer that all contributions be licensed under permissive terms (Public Domain, Creative Commons, LGPL).  There are few sources which provide examples and templates for open source projects.  I'm hoping that I can use this book as a way of plugging that need.

If you have interest in contributing, please let me know.  I can be reached either on the list, or via email at rob.oakes at oak-tree.us.

Most Sincerely,

Rob Oakes
Oak-Tree Engineering
www.oak-tree.us

* The book is set to be published next year by rapidBooks Ltd.

** I understand that this may be impossible in many instances.  In those cases, I would be happy to only include the work in the book only and not add the assets to the associated files.  This would act as a way of preserving copyright protections.  My preference, though, is for examples that can be incorporated as templates and donated back to the respective projects.