<div dir="ltr"> <div class="gmail_quote">2008/7/23 Salane Ashcraft <<a href="mailto:salane89@gmail.com">salane89@gmail.com</a>>: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Read this article everyone. It is interesting. <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9419" target="_blank">http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9419</a> We do indeed need to step it up! But at least we have made more progress here latley! </blockquote><div> I absolutely agree with the article, and Mark. A few weeks ago I posed a question but got no reply, but I'll repeat it again in case it's relevant: Hi All, I have some thoughts, for what they're worth, about the direction and concepts that Intrepid could take. Firstly, if we're going to go orange then I think we should be careful about going too orange. A theme should stay in the background and enhance the focal point, ie the content. An overwhelming, or high contrast theme is a distraction - no matter how pretty it is. Orange is not a background colour! I think it should be the foreground colour - ie title text, titlebar buttons - close, minimize etc. This would also make the orange more striking, instead if drowning the user in it. Ever listened to a beautiful Chopin? Where it ends with a note, a pause, then solfly, the final note - perfection. This last note is what a theme should feel like. This is what Apple consistantly get right. Secondly, we seem to be thinking along the lines of "What does an Ibex look like?" as a cue for the themes. Perhaps we should be thinking about "What is it like to be an Ibex?". I think Intrepid provides a great opportunity to break the mold and take that last note from Apple! What does an Ibex see when it opens its eyes up there in the mountains? What does it feel like to breathe that crisp, clean mountain air? Or munch on that green grass or drink that clear, icy water? Feel like perfection? I think so. I've uploaded a screenshot of my current theme which is along these lines at <a href="http://readitsideways.com/screenshot.jpg" target="_blank">http://readitsideways.com/screenshot.jpg</a> This is based on the googol theme at <a href="http://gnome-look.org/" target="_blank">gnome-look.org</a> so the titlebar buttons are googlish, but perhaps we could take a cue from the Ubuntu logo and also use circles, but in the logo colours and make the circle thickness the same as the logo's circle thickness? If anyone else thinks that this is a direction worth persuing I'll do a mock up, and then a theme. Regards Duncan  </div></div> </div>