On 5/1/07, Ravi Shanker <<a href="mailto:ra21vi@gmail.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"> ra21vi@gmail.com</a> > wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left: 0; margin-left: 0.80ex; border-left-color: #cccccc; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex"> This is in response to the <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/CommunityTheme" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/CommunityThem e </a> --------------------------------------------------------- I was too looking this to happen. I didn't know there are less people in the artwork community. Anyway, before we proceed, we need to put some time discussing about the current available theme on Gnome and other OS, what they represent, how they are good, and also which of them are better than other and why. This would probably lead us to know human feeling and reactions about the themes. We should not ignore what currently is available, they lead to better judgement and production.</blockquote><div> Yes, this is a great idea--but we also need to decide what <we> want to do, and make sure  we don't tally too long on what others have done. This is easily the sort of topic we could discuss on forever, without getting anything done. It may be better to do this quickly generally, and then focus on it as we work on specific aspects of the theme.  </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left: 0; margin-left: 0.80ex; border-left-color: #cccccc; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex"> Right now Ubuntu looks very general, Fedora is working on better than best, but no steps taken to break the limit on Ubuntu. DOnt forget to work on mouse cursor theme too, look at MacOSx mouse thme and also Redhat BlueCurve mouse theme, they are beautiful. </blockquote><div> Don't forget jimmac's great cursor work. Yes, this is something we should work on, but cursors are usually pretty general--do we want an Ubuntu themed cursor? (One thing I would definitely want to avoid is the logo/animals being splashed everywhere all over it.) </div><div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left: 0; margin-left: 0.80ex; border-left-color: #cccccc; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex"> One thing I would like to say (please dont flame :)) Tango is a good icon theme, but when I look at it, why doesnt it attract much, I came to the point that it totally lacks sharpness. In my designing time (though i am not a good and professional designer), I learn that sharpness gets more attraction, sharp edges are better with auto contrast they produce. Even a dull color but in sharp mode creates better visualisation than colorful less sharp objects. Try it working (take a pic blur the region around a small portion and then look at it in fullscreen, your eyes automtically attaches to sharp objects and regions). Current MacOSX and Vista has some sharpness in theme, (though vista lacks it in Folder views). So, the keywords in neXt theme production should be:         *Color         *Contrast         *Sharp         *Clean         *Real Space Objects (3d Feel) When we look at desktop, it should be in real sense. A desktop table, with light at a point, papers and objects on the table, shadows due to light above, minute details in the object to make it little more realistic, better contrast to figure the defference among objects and environment, sharp edges and corners. Look at the real desktop, and you can imagine it. Now, what about clean. My perception is that, a clean desktop and theme is more used (and used for more time than others in hands of those theme changing humans) than over modern and bright, glossy and very colorful themes(where color seems to pour out anytime). Real space objects are those which gives the sense of universal light, depth, space and 3d. It can be created using the consistent shadows, shines, perspective draws etc. </blockquote> </div><div>This, would definitely depend on what feel we want, and what we want to achive. For example we may want an african wilderness look--we would probably want more ragged, even fingerpaint like icons or rough earthy visualisations. In terms of Tango, its not meant to be super sharp--its designed to fit well on multiple sizes, and in all environments (MS, Linux, Apple--Light and Dark.) The colors are supposed to be middle of the line--and its strokes are supposed to fit well everywhere. Now, we can definitely mold an icon theme to be more daring than this. However, how much do we wish to take into account integration with other icons (that our theme may not cover) into this? The more we stray--the more jarring the impact will be when people wander out of our scope. </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; margin-left: 0; margin-left: 0.80ex; border-left-color: #cccccc; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex"> Let me know what you think. We should also fix time over IRC to meet at #ubuntu-art </blockquote> Thats a great idea! I'm sure most of you guys are in the US--throw some suggestions of a time next week most of you can make? A thought: What aspect of people do we want to target? The sense of community? Of hipness? Should they feel like they're using the most advanced system? The most friendly? What are we trying to achieve here? Lets throw some more ideas out there!