Nicu Buculei wrote:
Do you think is the case for us to start a 3 round process similar with
the one proposed for F7? - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/FC7Themes
We can easily adapt it with dates following the F8 schedule.
+1
I think this is a good idea. I agree with Matthias though and I think we
should try to tone the style down a bit. We can come up with a theme
concept collaboratively but I think when we actually create it, we
should try to not be quite so literal with the artwork, and instead try
for a bit more abstract and clean look for most of the theme.
I do not think that it's a matter of being 'hard to top', though. I
think especially for the artwork that is not easily changed by end users
(wallpaper and GDM theme are easiest to swap out), we have to think
about the artwork forcing a particular theme down user's throats when
their tastes are quite different. E.g., there's balloons in grub, if I
like a dark techno/shiny look for my system - well that's not going to
really jive with the fun happy balloons I will have to see up until
login ;-). It's not easy to switch those out. (I've seen quite a few
complaints to this end on fedoraforum and on IRC.)
We also want to make it easier for folks to remix and customize Fedora
for redistribution. We will make this much more difficult for these
folks if every nook and cranny of the OS has overly thematic artwork.
Fedora is even more of an 'upstream' now.
With those things in mind, a good approach I think could be to focus on
the wallpaper and GDM and tone down the rest. We can still make a big
impression and 'keep up the tradition' or whatever, and use the
wallpaper and gdm theme to showcase what FOSS graphics tools can do, but
still keep happy those folks who like personalizing their desktop and
don't agree with our style by leaving the rest plainer in comparison.
Another random idea - as each of us go through the process of actually
implementing the artwork, if we took good notes we could write up a
series of how-tos that would help folks who want to spin their own
Fedora distros figure out how to customize the theme of their spin. We
could even publish these in Red Hat Magazine under the Open Palette
column that Nicu and I started.
- Personally, I'd like to explore a somewhat different style of artwork
for F8; something much less branded and image-based (maybe stripes :-)
Heh ;)
-- if only because the F7 artwork is pretty much at the top of the
quality scale for this kind of heavily image-based, branded artwork (as
the initial F7 reviews show), and will be hard to top...
I agree about exploring a new style because I think we should bring
something fresh in each release and because is fun to explore different
styles.
+1
I can think of two potential next steps -
1) Let's start the theme concept 3-round process again. Let's nail down
all the details right here ASAP so we can write up the announcement -
what parts of the theme will be 'thematic' vs which will be toned down,
and a schedule of how the round process will go. I propose that we
basically announce that this go-round we are focusing mainly on the
wallpaper and login designs to serve as the 'showcase' for the release's
artwork, and the rest of the artwork (whatever the bootup process will
entail, whether it be something new or grub/rhgb, and the
installer/firstboot artwork) will be toned-down and less thematic.
2) We should have a general discussion here on list to get our thoughts
out on where F8's artwork could go. What desktop wallpaper are you using
these days? Have you seen any cool ones lately? Seen any cool current
graphic design in general lately? Have an idea for a nice style we could
use? Send it to the list and we can discuss and try to come up with a
general style to push for. :) What kinds of feedback have you heard on
the Fedora 7 theme? What have you heard about other distro's themes? Do
we want to get into photomanip, 3d rendering, vector-based, or some
combo of the three?
Does this sound reasonable?
~m
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