[opensuse-artwork] how we do distro artwork
Hi, I am not an artist and do not contribute very much to artwork (except ideas with which I annoy Robert), but I like to propose something as I think we are in a difficult situation when it comes to artwork. What I see on the artwork ML shows me that we are not working after a plan or concept. Here and there people come up with backgrounds or splashs which is great and shows a direction, but honestly I think that is not enough. Obviously there is more to design on the distro than just the wallpapers, the login page or the splash screen. There is widget theming, fonts, application spash screens, the Yast installer and probably more. We need everything two times in a branded and debranded version to get our new trademark policy going. Thats a lot of work, but can of course be simplified, the least effort version is to have 'just' a wallpaper, which is going to be used as splash and login manager background. Given the timeframe we have for 12.1 thats probably the only solution. But after 12.1 we face the problem again. And to make it a success I'd like to propose to rather discuss about a concept of design than about examples of design. IMO an example of a concept could be like this (just as an example, not as concrete proposal for the distro): ==> Old Industrial Grounds ====================== The next openSUSE Distro will be in a design in the idea of old industrial grounds. On the ground you find big rusty iron parts, most of them are broken as nobody took care for years. You find big iron girders, some are bent, with wholes and damages. Big screws lie around, holding fragments together. Rarely there is a larger part giving an impression of power and work that was done with this engines back in its times. The main colors here are dark brown and dark gray tending to black. Some surfaces are glossy as they are wet. Some plants bring a glimpse of dark green. Details show a bit of brighter rusty brown to red. <== Something like that could be a starting point of discussion where all involved people could develop their imagination of the scene. After we agreed on this little "atmospheric story", the work starts to transfer it on actual design elements: Fonts, colors, images, icons, logos etc. Again, discussion, but along a commonly agreed idea. The question would not be "Is it a nice picture?" but "Is this picture representing the old industrial ground well?" - still enough room for personal like and dislike.... Again, I am not an artist, but I work in software for long and learned that a concrete common idea really helps if you develop something in a group. And often it can be developed in a different space than the end product will be, ie. a basic idea of a software is best sketched on a whiteboard... Maybe that can help us to get to a more conceptual working style in artwork? I am not sure, but I am looking forward to reading your opinions :-) regards, Klaas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
On 08/30/2011 05:04 PM, Klaas Freitag wrote:
Hi,
I am not an artist and do not contribute very much to artwork (except ideas with which I annoy Robert), but I like to propose something as I think we are in a difficult situation when it comes to artwork.
What I see on the artwork ML shows me that we are not working after a plan or concept. Here and there people come up with backgrounds or splashs which is great and shows a direction, but honestly I think that is not enough.
Obviously there is more to design on the distro than just the wallpapers, the login page or the splash screen. There is widget theming, fonts, application spash screens, the Yast installer and probably more. We need everything two times in a branded and debranded version to get our new trademark policy going.
Thats a lot of work, but can of course be simplified, the least effort version is to have 'just' a wallpaper, which is going to be used as splash and login manager background. Given the timeframe we have for 12.1 thats probably the only solution.
But after 12.1 we face the problem again. And to make it a success I'd like to propose to rather discuss about a concept of design than about examples of design.
IMO an example of a concept could be like this (just as an example, not as concrete proposal for the distro):
==> Old Industrial Grounds ======================
The next openSUSE Distro will be in a design in the idea of old industrial grounds. On the ground you find big rusty iron parts, most of them are broken as nobody took care for years. You find big iron girders, some are bent, with wholes and damages. Big screws lie around, holding fragments together. Rarely there is a larger part giving an impression of power and work that was done with this engines back in its times.
The main colors here are dark brown and dark gray tending to black. Some surfaces are glossy as they are wet. Some plants bring a glimpse of dark green. Details show a bit of brighter rusty brown to red. <==
Something like that could be a starting point of discussion where all involved people could develop their imagination of the scene. After we agreed on this little "atmospheric story", the work starts to transfer it on actual design elements: Fonts, colors, images, icons, logos etc. Again, discussion, but along a commonly agreed idea. The question would not be "Is it a nice picture?" but "Is this picture representing the old industrial ground well?" - still enough room for personal like and dislike....
Again, I am not an artist, but I work in software for long and learned that a concrete common idea really helps if you develop something in a group. And often it can be developed in a different space than the end product will be, ie. a basic idea of a software is best sketched on a whiteboard... Maybe that can help us to get to a more conceptual working style in artwork? I am not sure, but I am looking forward to reading your opinions :-)
regards,
Klaas
Klaas, thanks so much to have written down what I believe as the perfect way to have an artwork-group which embrace the whole aspect of artwork. Perhaps it's kinda of illusion, as most of artist/designer work alone, but I will fight to get that done too. About the industrial, I would change the dark brown by a dark green, and push tags ( a tags cloud about the part of openSUSE project on the wall) and to give a strong signal for 12.1 geeko breaking the wall :D /me start to believe, nights will be short next osc .... -- Bruno Friedmann Ioda-Net Sàrl www.ioda-net.ch openSUSE Member & Ambassador GPG KEY : D5C9B751C4653227 irc: tigerfoot -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
Hey you all, i was trying to come up with an interface for kde. I
think it's got potential. What do you say?
http://imageshack.us/f/692/roughmockup.png/
Andy
On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Bruno Friedmann
On 08/30/2011 05:04 PM, Klaas Freitag wrote:
Hi,
I am not an artist and do not contribute very much to artwork (except ideas with which I annoy Robert), but I like to propose something as I think we are in a difficult situation when it comes to artwork.
What I see on the artwork ML shows me that we are not working after a plan or concept. Here and there people come up with backgrounds or splashs which is great and shows a direction, but honestly I think that is not enough.
Obviously there is more to design on the distro than just the wallpapers, the login page or the splash screen. There is widget theming, fonts, application spash screens, the Yast installer and probably more. We need everything two times in a branded and debranded version to get our new trademark policy going.
Thats a lot of work, but can of course be simplified, the least effort version is to have 'just' a wallpaper, which is going to be used as splash and login manager background. Given the timeframe we have for 12.1 thats probably the only solution.
But after 12.1 we face the problem again. And to make it a success I'd like to propose to rather discuss about a concept of design than about examples of design.
IMO an example of a concept could be like this (just as an example, not as concrete proposal for the distro):
==> Old Industrial Grounds ======================
The next openSUSE Distro will be in a design in the idea of old industrial grounds. On the ground you find big rusty iron parts, most of them are broken as nobody took care for years. You find big iron girders, some are bent, with wholes and damages. Big screws lie around, holding fragments together. Rarely there is a larger part giving an impression of power and work that was done with this engines back in its times.
The main colors here are dark brown and dark gray tending to black. Some surfaces are glossy as they are wet. Some plants bring a glimpse of dark green. Details show a bit of brighter rusty brown to red. <==
Something like that could be a starting point of discussion where all involved people could develop their imagination of the scene. After we agreed on this little "atmospheric story", the work starts to transfer it on actual design elements: Fonts, colors, images, icons, logos etc. Again, discussion, but along a commonly agreed idea. The question would not be "Is it a nice picture?" but "Is this picture representing the old industrial ground well?" - still enough room for personal like and dislike....
Again, I am not an artist, but I work in software for long and learned that a concrete common idea really helps if you develop something in a group. And often it can be developed in a different space than the end product will be, ie. a basic idea of a software is best sketched on a whiteboard... Maybe that can help us to get to a more conceptual working style in artwork? I am not sure, but I am looking forward to reading your opinions :-)
regards,
Klaas
Klaas, thanks so much to have written down what I believe as the perfect way to have an artwork-group which embrace the whole aspect of artwork. Perhaps it's kinda of illusion, as most of artist/designer work alone, but I will fight to get that done too.
About the industrial, I would change the dark brown by a dark green, and push tags ( a tags cloud about the part of openSUSE project on the wall) and to give a strong signal for 12.1 geeko breaking the wall :D
/me start to believe, nights will be short next osc ....
--
Bruno Friedmann Ioda-Net Sàrl www.ioda-net.ch
openSUSE Member & Ambassador GPG KEY : D5C9B751C4653227 irc: tigerfoot -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
Le 30/08/2011 21:06, Bruno Friedmann a écrit :
Klaas, thanks so much to have written down what I believe as the perfect way to have an artwork-group which embrace the whole aspect of artwork. Perhaps it's kinda of illusion, as most of artist/designer work alone, but I will fight to get that done too.
same for me!
About the industrial, I would change the dark brown by a dark green, and push tags ( a tags cloud about the part of openSUSE project on the wall) and to give a strong signal for 12.1 geeko breaking the wall :D
we could imagine a jungle rotting a power plant (let alone to accomodate geckos :-), and may be openSUSE as the tree growing to the light (the power plant being the old IBM empire or the Msoft one - we could have a plant full of windows :-) jdd -- http://www.dodin.net http://www.youtube.com/user/jdddodinorg http://jdd.blip.tv/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
Hi all.
I am not an artist and do not contribute very much to artwork (except ideas with which I annoy Robert), but I like to propose something as I think we are in a difficult situation when it comes to artwork.
What I see on the artwork ML shows me that we are not working after a plan or concept. Here and there people come up with backgrounds or splashs which is great and shows a direction, but honestly I think that is not enough.
You may have noticed that we tried to work on a concept which was mathematical shapes, where in first step everyone agreed, but when it goes live complains. Mathematical shapes also have some disadvantages, so maybe this really was not the best idea but at least it was something to stick with. For other concept you need something like a starting ground and a cliffhanger for the upcoming release (like e.g. Fedora does it). As oS does not have release names, this is a bit difficult. Just starting with 'something' is not the best solution imho (besides I feel that a rusty industry-style background is not very attractive ). So I would suggest to first define processes. Release names would make it easier to find artwork concepts. This is something that you could perhaps initialize Klaas. If we do not want concepts or cannot implement them that easy/soon I guess the most common ground is that it has to be at least green. Besides that we have to figure out what needs to be done? Which files needs to be branded. Afterwards calculate an amount of time this would take. From that we could define a timeline, and a concept submission end-date (which is already overdue for 12.1 I guess). After we have chosen a winning concept, we can sharpen it together and provide the necessary sources for package builds. This is not a solution for the lack of artists we have in this group. Greets Marcus -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 08/31/2011 11:01 AM, Marcus Moeller wrote:
For other concept you need something like a starting ground and a cliffhanger for the upcoming release (like e.g. Fedora does it). As oS does not have release names, this is a bit difficult.
Actually, openSUSE does have release names. cat /etc/SuSE-release shows Celadon for 11.4 and Asparagus for 12.1
Just starting with 'something' is not the best solution imho (besides I feel that a rusty industry-style background is not very attractive ).
I actually liked the sunny 11.3 theme, which is why I thought of a sunny summer landscape (with grasslands, rivers, trees and possibly even geckos on warm rocks) when making my drafts http://www.zq1.de/~bernhard/linux/opensuse/12.1/opensuse-12.1-draft13h.svg.p... http://www.zq1.de/~bernhard/linux/opensuse/12.1/opensuse-12.1-draft13f.svg.p... Ciao Bernhard M. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk5eAcoACgkQSTYLOx37oWQcrACeKm7BLbp2ybPXEuNV16cEiUJ9 FHIAoLuyddLFD0i/1MdOwMsMBZEpbsse =NZSU -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 2011-08-31 at 11:41 +0200, Bernhard M. Wiedemann wrote:
I actually liked the sunny 11.3 theme, which is why I thought of a sunny summer landscape (with grasslands, rivers, trees and possibly even geckos on warm rocks) when making my drafts http://www.zq1.de/~bernhard/linux/opensuse/12.1/opensuse-12.1-draft13h.svg.p... http://www.zq1.de/~bernhard/linux/opensuse/12.1/opensuse-12.1-draft13f.svg.p...
Ciao Bernhard M.
Except that Geeko is a chameleon, not a gecko. :-) As a reminder to everyone,, we do have a 12.1 Artwork BoF scheduled for the Conference and this is the oppotunity for you all to continue this discussion face to face. Good luck! Bryen -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
On 31.08.2011 Marcus wrote:
Hi all.
I am not an artist and do not contribute very much to artwork (except ideas with which I annoy Robert), but I like to propose something as I think we are in a difficult situation when it comes to artwork.
What I see on the artwork ML shows me that we are not working after a plan or concept. Here and there people come up with backgrounds or splashs which is great and shows a direction, but honestly I think that is not enough.
You may have noticed that we tried to work on a concept which was mathematical shapes, where in first step everyone agreed, but when it goes live complains.
Mathematical shapes also have some disadvantages, so maybe this really was not the best idea but at least it was something to stick with.
Yup, and in essence, this was already a step in the right direction which Klaas also points too. And indeed, maybe it wasn't the perfect one (I still like it, but I like Klaas' example too) but it was a concept we could stick to. I really hope we can, at the openSUSE conference, come to some kind of consensus on a 'story' we can stick to for 12.1...
For other concept you need something like a starting ground and a cliffhanger for the upcoming release (like e.g. Fedora does it). As oS does not have release names, this is a bit difficult.
Just starting with 'something' is not the best solution imho (besides I feel that a rusty industry-style background is not very attractive ).
So I would suggest to first define processes.
Release names would make it easier to find artwork concepts. This is something that you could perhaps initialize Klaas. If we do not want concepts or cannot implement them that easy/soon I guess the most common ground is that it has to be at least green.
Besides that we have to figure out what needs to be done? Which files needs to be branded.
Afterwards calculate an amount of time this would take.
From that we could define a timeline, and a concept submission end-date (which is already overdue for 12.1 I guess).
After we have chosen a winning concept, we can sharpen it together and provide the necessary sources for package builds.
This is not a solution for the lack of artists we have in this group.
Greets Marcus
Halloa! On 30.08.2011, at 17:04, Klaas Freitag wrote:
Hi,
I am not an artist and do not contribute very much to artwork (except ideas with which I annoy Robert), but I like to propose something as I think we are in a difficult situation when it comes to artwork.
What I see on the artwork ML shows me that we are not working after a plan or concept. Here and there people come up with backgrounds or splashs which is great and shows a direction, but honestly I think that is not enough.
+1
Obviously there is more to design on the distro than just the wallpapers, the login page or the splash screen. There is widget theming, fonts, application spash screens, the Yast installer and probably more. We need everything two times in a branded and debranded version to get our new trademark policy going.
Thats a lot of work, but can of course be simplified, the least effort version is to have 'just' a wallpaper, which is going to be used as splash and login manager background. Given the timeframe we have for 12.1 thats probably the only solution.
But after 12.1 we face the problem again. And to make it a success I'd like to propose to rather discuss about a concept of design than about examples of design.
IMO an example of a concept could be like this (just as an example, not as concrete proposal for the distro):
==> Old Industrial Grounds ======================
The next openSUSE Distro will be in a design in the idea of old industrial grounds. On the ground you find big rusty iron parts, most of them are broken as nobody took care for years. You find big iron girders, some are bent, with wholes and damages. Big screws lie around, holding fragments together. Rarely there is a larger part giving an impression of power and work that was done with this engines back in its times.
The main colors here are dark brown and dark gray tending to black. Some surfaces are glossy as they are wet. Some plants bring a glimpse of dark green. Details show a bit of brighter rusty brown to red. <==
Funny example! ;)
Something like that could be a starting point of discussion where all involved people could develop their imagination of the scene. After we agreed on this little "atmospheric story", the work starts to transfer it on actual design elements: Fonts, colors, images, icons, logos etc. Again, discussion, but along a commonly agreed idea. The question would not be "Is it a nice picture?" but "Is this picture representing the old industrial ground well?" - still enough room for personal like and dislike....
Good point. A very important thing about Artwork and Design (Yep, these are two different things!) is to keep in mind that we are not making art! We style a _Tool_! That means that the artwork/style/design has to meet the goals of our tool, not someones personal favor. Thomas Wirth, a germany web-usability-guru, wrote in his book "Missing Links" about website design: "You can recognise a good designed website, if you did not notice the website." The same is IMHO true for every UI. It should look good, but it should not catch you attention while you are focusing on something you do. An Example: Green Wallpapers ... I saw during the time many green wallpaper proposals, which are often nice art-work. But imagine you have the whole time something green shining on you. It catch the whole time you attention. And, green is a very tricky colour because we can see much more shades of green then from other colours. And the motional associations for green reach from relaxing to "danger-poison-thing-Alert". So, green is nice, but be careful :-) To have a starting point like Klaas suggested is really important to even get a goal! So, +1 for this! Cheers, Robert
Again, I am not an artist, but I work in software for long and learned that a concrete common idea really helps if you develop something in a group. And often it can be developed in a different space than the end product will be, ie. a basic idea of a software is best sketched on a whiteboard... Maybe that can help us to get to a more conceptual working style in artwork? I am not sure, but I am looking forward to reading your opinions :-)
regards,
Klaas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
--- Robert Lihm, Webdesigner - openSUSE Boosters Team SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstr. 5, D-90409 Nuernberg Tel: +49-911-74053-0 - rlihm@suse.de ____________________________________________________________ SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) ____________________________________________________________ SUSE - a Novell business -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
participants (9)
-
andi robert -
Bernhard M. Wiedemann -
Bruno Friedmann -
Bryen M. Yunashko -
jdd -
Jos Poortvliet -
Klaas Freitag -
Marcus Moeller -
Robert Lihm