Hi David, all, Round 3 - I didn't read these last few posts before posting the earlier bits... oh dear! Please, let's try to be a tad more patient with each other. Given how this discussion has turned, I'll weigh in with something more substantive than my initial +1 regarding screenshot #8 (http://www.libreoffice.org/assets/Shuffler/Screenshot-08.png)
On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 8:46 PM, David Nelson <comme...@traduction.biz> wrote: > Hi Sophie, Christoph, :-) > > I think you take some things too far. I fail to see the *need* to > remove this beautiful artwork, which is a tribute to LibreOffice that > we should be proud to showcase. I'm fully behind showcasing the talent of our community. However, to maintain a level of professionalism, there has to be a filter regarding the acceptance of people's work in official contexts - particularly when it comes to something as prominent as the LibreOffice home page. Sometimes that will mean sacrificing aesthetics for consistency (making the graphic fit into a broader whole). Here are the things that make me uncomfortable about having that specific screenshot on the home page (some of these may sound 'artificial', but that is because I'm attempting to put a gut reaction into words - something that takes time as you can appreciate). 1) It really violates our branding guidelines and it sends the wrong message, especially if we're going to have specific rules around trademarks, branding (including web buttons that people can use to promote LibO). We send conflicting messages by asking others to comply with our branding guidelines and then having a screenshot that violates them on the home page. It may sound pedantic and restrictive but this is how professional branding is done. Designers should understand this and work within the constraints they are given (or go through the proper avenues to see if they can be changed). 2) The image mimics a splash screen (the white 'loading' bar gives it away) rather than an actual template that would be used in a practical presentation. It does not show any additional slides (in the preview area) with a design suitable for the presentation of content. It makes little functional sense - it's just eye candy, and there are better avenues for that (i.e., the website design itself). 3) I hate to say it, but using that screenshot on the homepage emphasizes surface over depth. Other screenshots are 'closer to metal' in that they show *realistic* things that can be done with(in) LibreOffice. Screenshot #5 (http://www.libreoffice.org/assets/Shuffler/Screenshot-05.png) contains a bar graph whose colors make me cringe, but this is what peoples' bar graphs in LibreOffice will actually look like. Certainly, it would've been OK if the colors had been changed because that's still working within the confines of LibreOffice's tools. However, the graphic in Screenshot #8 was not created in LibreOffice (if it was, that person deserves a Nobel prize in Physics). All that it says about LibreOffice is that you can cover an entire slide in an imported image (I did that in PowerPoint XP when I was 13 and I thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time). Implicitly, it also says #1. I'd have no problem with showcasing a good looking template (which did not violate branding guidelines with regard to the LibreOffice logo) from the broader community. > [...] > But you need adopt a different approach to things, especially when > it's someone else's time and work, and not your own. Christoph has done plenty of time and work on the mimetype icons. These discussions also take time to respond to. I'm sure we'd all much rather be working on the huge stack of things that need to be done on the website, but we can't do that if we're disagreeing (so strongly and so quickly) over these sorts of things. We need to work them out first. > And as for "and please upload the source data, so that anybody can > jump in"... You cheeky rogue, Christoph Noack! a) Most people who > contribute artwork to this project do not provide their *source > files*. I asked Ivan multiple times to send me his source files for > the new theme, and never got any but 2 of them, even though I sent him > my complete set of source files produced for Nikash' template! Your graphics covered most of the design already - apart from the download button and the Twitter/bullet point images, pretty much everything else was CSS and HTML, which I used (and prefer to use whenever possible) instead of a graphics program. Using the source files from us two, it should not be hard to replicate the design if someone wants to do it (assuming they have Photoshop). If you're missing anything, please let me know and I will send you the source where I can. There are the 16x16 icons on the homepage, but they're a quick fix - I'm hoping we can develop better ones to replace them (in line with our branding guidelines of course ;P) > [...] > Now, I'm not arguing further with you. Respond if you want, but I > won't answer you further in this thread for a couple of days, while I > get some work done by *clients who pay me*. (And I can tell you they > don't do my head in like you guys do!) We're all volunteers here and things work a little differently than with clients. I've worked with my share of clients and have enjoyed having control over IA, design and UX... but I'm not in control of any of those here. Rather, I am given constraints particular to this context which, for the benefit of the wider community, my contributions are tailored to. Regards, Ivan. -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to design+h...@libreoffice.org List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/www/design/ *** All posts to this list are publicly archived for eternity ***