Thank you for the comprehensive answer Damian. I have used dark themes in Ubuntu and think that they are not appropriate either. I agree that some dark accents may greatly improve the usability, though. Here you can see some shots from my Ubuntu:
http://dilomo.blogspot.com/ By the way when will be the official guidelines released? We don't know what to do and our will to create something will soon disappears. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Damian Vila" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Discussion on Ubuntu artwork" <ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com> Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2007 3:52 AM Subject: Re: [ubuntu-art] Wallpapers > Hi Anton, > > Of course, I'm glad to share the way I work. It will be lengthy, I must > warn you. :-) > First of all a disclaimer: excuse me, because re-reading my previous > mail I think that my translation of the phrase you are mentioning, wich > I'm glad to answer, didn't sound in English as I intended in Spanish. It > looks like I can do people "like" my work at will, something any > designer knows is impossible. What I wanted to say is that I usually > analize what happens to my designs afterwards and try to identify why > they have worked or not. Something that I was taught to do in college by > my professors. Having some kind of feedback about your work is as > important as knowing your audience beforehand. My teachers insisted in > this kind of behavior. They always told us that we had some kind of > responsibility for the messages we were helping spread, so it was > important for us to know if it reached the audience as intended or not. > So, as I said, I'm glad to explain why I believe my work was supported > by so many people, something that gladly surprised me, but that has a > reasonable explanation. > > - The first step in creating the Animal series was observing. > As you may see in my profile at the Ubuntu forums, I registered some > time ago, but I have not posted a lot of messages. I spend a lot of time > observing, lurking if you want, before taking part in something, or > collaborating in a community. > One of the mistakes some designers make at the beggining of a project is > being too impulsive about it. I tend to be passionate about my work, so > sometimes I restrain from sending something before I have some decent > knowledge of the community (or the job at hand) and its dynamics. And > specially, before knowing what is expected. Most of the times, this > knowledge really helps. > I believe the best place to know what the Ubuntu user wants is to have a > look at the forums. > The "regular" user don't read specific mailing list, or enters specific > channels at IRC. They express what they want in forums or blogs. > So I read a lot about what people wanted in the forums before sending > something. > > - The second step was getting an idea, something to start with. > This was prety easy with Ubuntu. It's african roots are very inspiring. > The sense of freedom from the FLOSS movement had to be reflected also. > I'm the kind of person that finds inspiration everywhere. So, It was > clear at the beginning that it should be african inspired. > I also try to isolate myself from trendy design sites around the time I > start working on something. Some people like to look those kind of sites > for inspiration. I don't need that and feel those sites contaminate my > work. But this is just a personal choice. > So, my first idea was to look for images that could inspire me. I got to > this picture: http://flickr.com/photos/evmurdock/84671834/in/set-1808168/ > As a wallpapers it was rather obvious and not very suitable, but it gave > me enough inspiration to start with. > > - The third step was to see previous artwork and try to understund its > rules. And also document myself a lot about the subject. > It was clear that all the previous artwork had a similar palette. So, > sending something in greens or blues was out of the question. I also > read the wiki, so, I had enough elements to start playing around. It had > to be brown, with a touch of yellows, oranges, etc. "Earthy" was what > came to my mind. > > So, by mere association I came to the idea of the animals. It started > with "african", and then "freedom", "plains", "animals", and then, > specifically to "lions" and "elephants". I added more animals, to see > wich ones gave the best results. > I started my search of animal pictures. I found lots. So I tried several > approaches. > > - The fourth step was to apply what I know to the ideas I had. > I know that, by Fitts' law, the edges (and specially corners) of the > desktop are the most useful places, so because of that people tend to > leave icons near the edges (gestaltic associations takes a role, also). > It's not a fixed rule, but it helps to start taking decisions. And also > peripheral vision helps you distinguish what's not in the center of the > eye, so, the edges needs to be darker than the center to offer more > contrast and help peripheral vision. I also know that the human eye can > distinguish more the contrast than the color (the principle used in JPEG > compression algorithm), so a wallpaper with lots of contrast, or with a > very clear and contrasted object (like a macro of an object, for > example, or even the landscape I used as reference) is not the best > approach because it's too distracting. A good picture is something nice > to see, but not to have as a background as you try to do your job. It > was clear to me that a texture was going to work best. > > So, so far I had: > - African animals (Lions, elephants, giraffes, etc.) > - Texture with few distracting elements > - Earthy tones > - Dark edges > > So, I started to make the wallpapers. (You can see the proposals at the > wiki). > > -The fifth step was self-criticism > When I got something I liked, I used it in my own desktop to see if it > really worked. I thought it was pleasing, and no distracting at all, so, > it looked good so far. > But still I had more concerns. I knew that it was very different to > everything I have seen so far in an OS. And it was specially very > different from most design trends in other OSs. Ubuntu is a very special > distro. It's the brown distro. This is very unusual, so it looked > natural to have an unusual wallpaper. But, was it good enough for the > most popular Linux distro? > Since it satisfied the formal needs, I decided to give it a go. And I > thought it looked pretty decent. So I put them in the wiki. > > -Sixth step was listening to the feedback > From then on I just adjusted the wallpapers as the feedback from other > designers and users started to reach me. I removed the branding, > adjusted the lightness and made some minor corrections until I got to > the final designs. > I really thought that the Lion wallpaper was going to be the one with > more possibilities, since the lion fur is more close to brown, but I was > surprised to see that the elephant was the one people liked most > (elephants being mostly grey, not brown.) > The "secret" of the elephant was given to me by my 3 years old son: even > though I erased the most prominents aspects of the photograph (the eye, > the ear fold, etc.) he immediatly recognized it as an elephant. The > "Lion" was more abstract, less emotional (inspiring I'd say). > > So, by what people told afterwards at the forums, it was a popular > wallpaper not only because I put all my knowledge into it and tried to > make it work, but because people thought there was a connection between > the wallpaper and Ubuntu (the Ubuntu site stress a lot that it's an > african distro), it was a "fair" and not whimsical use of brown, and > although it was a texture, the motif was easily recognizable, without > being intrussive. And also, I believe a lot of people thought it was > original, very different from Windows' or Apple's wallpapers, and that > really helped. > > So, there you have it. > > I took the time to read what people said at the forums after Gutsy was > launched, and that gave me more ideas. But it was too late to use them. > If I feel in the mood, I'll probably make a couple more of that series, > for people to use with Hardy, but those would not be submitted to the > wiki, since the requirements are different now. > I also have a couple of ideas that respect the guidelines, but I feel > less inspired by the idea of a dark UI. I just don't like dark > interfaces and believe that are harder to read than light ones. I try to > have my own style, and I'd try to avoid a dark interface for a popular > product if it was by me. And I strongly believe that a dark interface > for a LTS Ubuntu is a bad idea. But that's only my personal opinion > based on my taste. I think everybody will have his/her own opinion on > the subject. > > That's all. If you have further questions I'll be glad to answer. I hope > this mails can be of some use to somebody. I always liked to share what > I know, that's why I gave Web Design lessons many years ago and write a > blog about design (though, not very frequently.) I think that, if you > share your knowledge with your colleagues and learn how to take and give > a good advice, you're contributing a lot to your profession. Of course, > always having respect for others and being courteous. > Regards, > > Demian > > Anton Kerezov escribió: >> Hi all, >> >> I would like to ask Damian (if it is not too impudently) to tell me >> more about the way he creates wallpapers and how are they accepted by >> so many people? Any specifics on the elephant wallpaper? >> >> Thanks > > > -- > ubuntu-art mailing list > ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art > -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art