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
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