[opensuse-artwork] introduction
Hi folks,
I'd like to welcome everyone on the list and start an initial discussion
to get the project move forward a bit.
Historically the openSUSE look has been designed internally. I believe
we aught to change that and make use of a broader community even in this
area.
I've been involved with GIMP and GNOME project initially. While being
free software projects, we have developed the artwork in a fairly closed
manner. We thought doing everything ourselves will give us better
control of the consistency and avoid horrors of design by committee [1].
But the amount of work required to keep things consistent is way bigger
than two blokes could handle.
With the Tango project[2] we took a different approach, setting up some
basic style guidelines and allow community members to focus on
particular projects' needs. And I think this worked out much better.
Yes, art direction is needed, but it would be nice to make use of the
talent in the community. We make use of the hacking, translation or
documentation skills of the community. Let's leverage the pixel pushin'
power as well!
Pixel Brainstorming
-------------------
This is all food for discussion, but I'm proposing a three stage
approach. We come up with some basic infrastructure to allow members of
the openSUSE community submit ideas and mockups of how they would like
the next release to look. I think a mediawiki is a good-enough solution
for posting image mockups.
We wouldn't necessarily limit the scope of this idea-brainstorm phase,
just some core style guidelines I'm going to talk about later. People
will go wild and post their ideas. The next stage would be to pick the
best elements from these ideas and work out final designs. Most of this
work would best be done with the resources available at Novell/SUSE. The
last step would be implementation.
Alternatively we narrow the scope of each new style change. Say the next
version of openSUSE will include focus on machine virtualization, so we
try to come up with adjectives that describe such functionality --
virtual, artificial, non-physical, emulated, maintainable... and then
develop themes based around these adjectives. The next stage would
remain the same as above, cherry-picking, polish and implement.
Major vs Minor
--------------
In the past, each version of openSUSE looked radically different from
the previous one. While it does bring some excitement to the product,
there really isn't any evolution and gradual polish involved. So my next
proposal is to only do the radical changes for major version releases
and do variations of the the theme for the minor version updates. I hope
to illustrate that a little if time allows.
Infrastructure
==============
WIKI
----
The opensuse.org mediawiki is quite sufficient for managing artwork
mockups, we just need to figure out some structure for this.
SVN
---
To better manage and share graphical assets we probably want to set up a
public svn repository. While not a typical tool for an artist, SVN
allows for relatively easy version control, deals with binary files
well, and allows to check out the latest version through a web
interface. The barrier for entry isn't impossible to overcome.
In the past we've maintained branches for individual products/versions
(SLED10, SUSE10.2, etc.) and put the common reusable assets in trunk
(logos, palettes, templates, etc.). I belive that sort of structure
would work for us as well, but on opensuse.org.
Of course there are some challenges. We need to have some legal
evaluation regarding the use of the logos. While I believe we should
allow the use of the openSUSE and geeko logos, there are some strict
guidelines regarding the use of Novell logos and trademarks[3].
This Mailing List
-----------------
This ML is meant to be used for discussion around specific designs as
well as general openSUSE artwork-related issues. It's not meant for
upstream project artwork discussions even though openSUSE ships it.
Action Items
============
* Write down basic style guidelines for openSUSE theming. (me)
* Create a list of thing that need theming and some tips for each
(based off the current styling status pages [4]. The list should
be extended with widget and window manager themes) (me)
* Set up svn repository at svn.opensuse.org/svn/opensuse-artwork/
(??)
* Unify and structure the artwork related documents on the
opensuse.org wiki. (??, martin seemed interested in giving the
mess some structure ;)
Let's rock!
[1] http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci874014,00.html
[2] http://www.tango-project.org
[3] http://www.novell.com/company/legal/copyrights/images.html
[4] http://en.opensuse.org/Branding_Overview:os10.3
--
Jakub Steiner
Hi,
Alternatively we narrow the scope of each new style change. Say the next version of openSUSE will include focus on machine virtualization, so we try to come up with adjectives that describe such functionality -- virtual, artificial, non-physical, emulated, maintainable... and then develop themes based around these adjectives. The next stage would remain the same as above, cherry-picking, polish and implement.
I like this alternative more.
* Unify and structure the artwork related documents on the opensuse.org wiki. (??, martin seemed interested in giving the mess some structure ;)
Right :-) OK, let's see: * Maybe it would be nice to have a small introduction at the top of the page. Just two sentences about the goal of this site. * Screenshots should be presented as a gallery. That gives the user a better overview and minimizes the time it takes to open the wiki page. * What about putting the users name as headline for his/her mock-ups? That would be more meaningful than: "another wallpaper". I would suggest the following structure: * Intorduction What is a wallpaper? * User 1 ** Mockup 1 *** Text ** Mockup 2 *** Text * User 2 ** Mockup 1 *** Text ** Mockup 2 *** Text * Archive/Wallpapers from previous distros * openSUSE 10.1 ** Wallpaper 1 *** Text ** Wallpaper 2 *** Text I am looking forward to your comments :-) Kind regards, Martin
Let's rock!
[1] http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci874014,00.html [2] http://www.tango-project.org [3] http://www.novell.com/company/legal/copyrights/images.html [4] http://en.opensuse.org/Branding_Overview:os10.3
-- Martin Schmidkunz User Experience Specialist martin.schmidkunz@novell.com +49 (0) 911 740 53-346 ------------------------------------- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) ------------------------------------- Novell, Inc. SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10 Your Linux is ready http://www.novell.com/linux -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
On Thursday 05 April 2007 16:00, Jakub Steiner wrote:
So my next proposal is to only do the radical changes for major version releases and do variations of the the theme for the minor version updates.
What is a "major version"? Dot zero version are pure marketing decisions. Bye, Steve -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
On 4/15/07, Stephan Binner
On Thursday 05 April 2007 16:00, Jakub Steiner wrote:
So my next proposal is to only do the radical changes for major version releases and do variations of the the theme for the minor version updates.
What is a "major version"? Dot zero version are pure marketing decisions.
Hi Steve,
...so is branding.
All the style shifts every single release is what a typical korean
carmaker does right now. You cannot really tell it's Kia, unless you
look at the logo. Lets start stabilizing a little.
cheers
--
even a stopped clock
gives a right time twice a day
Jakub Steiner
Den Sunday 15 April 2007 12:40:12 skrev Jakub Steiner:
What is a "major version"? Dot zero version are pure marketing decisions.
All the style shifts every single release is what a typical korean carmaker does right now. You cannot really tell it's Kia, unless you look at the logo. Lets start stabilizing a little.
If this is really necessary Let's stabilize _after_ 10.3. You've gotten people's hopes up with the 10.3 mockups - escpecially grub+boot. Making 10.3 some variation of 10.2 now would be a big blow. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-artwork+help@opensuse.org
В сообщении от 15 апреля 2007 Jakub Steiner написал(a):
On 4/15/07, Stephan Binner
wrote: On Thursday 05 April 2007 16:00, Jakub Steiner wrote:
So my next proposal is to only do the radical changes for major version releases and do variations of the the theme for the minor version updates.
What is a "major version"? Dot zero version are pure marketing decisions.
Hi Steve, ...so is branding.
All the style shifts every single release is what a typical korean carmaker does right now. You cannot really tell it's Kia, unless you look at the logo. Lets start stabilizing a little.
cheers
-- even a stopped clock gives a right time twice a day
Jakub Steiner
It's worth stabilising, but only since we have original style and overall look'n'feel. openSUSE 10.2 in my opinion unfortunately is way to abstractive. Hence no freezing should be done at the current stage. -- Regards, Nikolay Derkach
participants (6)
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Jakub Steiner
-
Jakub Steiner
-
Martin Schlander
-
Martin Schmidkunz
-
Nikolay Derkach
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Stephan Binner