[ubuntu-art] What are we doing? (Vishnoo)

[John Baer]

Vish,

Thank you for starting this thread. To place everyone on the same page
Saleel Velankar submitted a message to the Ayatana list titled
"Community Artwork and Lessons learned from Gaia10" where he describes
his "art" experience with the Gaia10 project this past summer.

Thank you Saleel for sharing your thoughts. You may want to post your
comments here as well.

Before I continue let me caution there will be no favorable outcome to
this discussion if this thread turns into a rant. :)

IMO Ubuntu artwork activity is busy, just not here.

http://design.canonical.com/2010/09/this-week-in-design-17-september-2010/

1) I believe the primary reason for this is the importance of the tasks
and the amount of effort required to complete theme.

For example, creating the new Ubuntu font is huge and I assume consumed
the full time talent of many. 

2) Getting it right is important. Our recent experience with the default
wallpaper is a good example.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/09/revamped-default-wallpaper-coming-to-ubuntu-10-10/

3) Our Community Processes are Broken. The creation of the Ubuntu Free
Culture Showcase ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuFreeCultureShowcase )
did not receive the commitment required to make it work as desired. For
example if your desire was to submit an "Illustrative wallpaper" for
consideration the "deviantart" solution appears to be a dead end as
there was very little if any discussion as to how this may happen. In
addition this task was given to the Artwork Team but again I don't
remember any discussion as to how this would happen and who would lead
the effort.

4) The pace of the release cycle is brisk. I know I received critique's
some of my submissions are too simple in design. :) The reality is
complex designs take time to prepare and create and if you miss the mark
you have nothing to contribute. As the themes change from one release to
the next this is not good.

Solutions?

* Recognizing we have a problem and starting a meaningful dialog is a
very good start.

* My suggestion is "improving the artwork community" be a formal or
informalthread at UDS ( http://uds.ubuntu.com/ ). 

IMO, in the area of artwork Canonical and Community have drifted to far
apart and need to discover new ways to add value to Ubuntu. 

John