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Written by kaddar the 10 Mar 08 at 16:57.
Category: Look and Feel.
Related to:
Nothing/Others.
Status: New
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Description
There has been some confusion, but to clarify this brainstorm:
There is an official deviantart "theme" competition which requests new wallpapers and allows new themes to be inside the submission. However, there are two issues:
1) the contest requires the construction of a wallpaper
2) themes and mockups are ungraded and unacknowledged.
This brainstorm argues two amendments:
1)Mockups-only submissions with previous ubuntu wallpapers should be allowed. Wallpapers should not be required. Mockups shouldn't have to be GTK themes.
2)Even if only wallpapers get prizes, there should be a best-mockup recognition award to the best non-wallpaper aspect of submissions. (arguably, themes are harder to judge than wallpapers.)
This would allowed skilled UI designers who are unskilled artists to compete to win consideration by the ubuntu team. I'd like to see mockups of theme ideas that are abstract and un-artistic, like https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/round_edge , be able to be in the running for this competition. We want to improve the ubuntu look and feel, not just reskin it.
Sorry for the confusion. Here's the original brainstorm text:
Recently, a brainstorm idea was created for a DeviantArt theme mock-up competition for Ubuntu 8.10. It was accepted, but canonical changed the competition's scope from themes to just wallpapers only.
There's a great deal of interest by the general ubuntu art community to create a new theme for ubuntu, as seen by the Hardy incoming "alternate looks" page, yet this competition was changed from its original scope to a far less interesting scope.
Citations:
Original idea: (Has been edited) http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/384/
Launchpad talking about how the scope is changed: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/deviantart-theme-competition
Interest in new themes existed for hardy: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate
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Comments
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kaddar wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 16:59
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I understand Kenneth's reasoning behind "wallpaper only", in that it allows more people to compete, but I think that this undermines the creative talent of deviant art. This change should have been discussed with the community so that a compromise could have been worked out, not merely removing the premise of the competition. D'oh.
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kaddar wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 18:12
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If I had to design the competition, the rules would be something like this:
* Users submit a part of the look and feel of ubuntu, any part.
* Mockups are encouraged, ranging from highly prototypical, to mockup themes, to fleshed out themes to wallpapers
In other words, this should be a mockup competition, setting the plans of Canonica’s Ubuntu look and feel.
* Allow Multiple kinds of winning: You could win for innovative ideas that aren’t implementable with current software, and you could win for an idea that will make it into the next ubuntu.
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Lee wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 18:46
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Not just wallpaper/themes. There are games out there, icons, websites, logos...
I think it should be more like summer of code, where projects say what help they need, and ubuntu encourages deviants to get involved. Also, a very similar project should exist for music.
For some reason, all of the starving artist friends I have shun open source contribution, despite the exposure it could give them. Maybe they realise how small a community opensource really is, relative to pop stardom or whatever, but a company like ubuntu could really change that perception.
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ubunteando wrote on the 10 Mar 08 at 22:01
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I think one contest should focus only on the Wallpaper, given some guidelines, to attract more people.
Another contest could be for themes, which requires much more work and knowledge I suppose.
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mikemaccana wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 00:45
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Hey!
Wait!
I'm the author of the blueprint! Read it here
The competition includes other UI elements!
"Include a picture of the wallpaper on an Ubuntu desktop, with one file manager window open, showing with the wallpaper with the entrant's preferred combination of icon / application / window themes."
This allows:
* entries where the wallpaper is the only original element (using existing themes). This allows artists who are not experienced in GTK engines etc. (eg, most of DeviantArt) to submit themes.
* entries where the wallpaper is one of many original element (using new themes). This allows artists who are not experienced in GTK engines etc. (eg, Linux hackers) to submit themes.
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k99goran wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 01:00
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I think there should be a second competition for themes, it couldn't hurt. Intrepid Ibex IS going to get a new theme anyway, so where is it going to come from?
With Edgy Eft, the default theme was upgraded from OldCouch 0.11 to OldCouch 0.12. I fear that unless the Ubuntu art team gets some new blood, for Intrepid Ibex we will be left with OldCouch 0.13.
Please don't let this be Ubuntu's future:
http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/blog/uploaded_images/FreeCouch-727670.JPG
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kaddar wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 03:19
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mikemaccana , I made some edits to clarify the issue.
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mikemaccana wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 06:03
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Hi Kadder.
'1) the contest requires the construction of a wallpaper '
is correct, but
'2) themes and mockups are ungraded and unacknowledged. '
is a little misleading.
Themes are a required part of every submission and the work is graded as an overall look - hence the instructions showing Windows and OS X users how to configure those elements and take a screenshot with other elements in Ubuntu. The minimum amount of work, however, is a wallpaper - this allows entrants to participate without being GTK hackers.
In order to reach out to traditional artists, we need low barriers. Most great artists aren't GTK or Compiz theme hackers, and vice versa.
Icon themes are just as acknowledged as the artwork inside the OS. 'Icontheme by Foo' will be acknowledged just as much as 'Wallpaper by Bar'
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kaddar wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 06:21
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Mike, respectfully, I agree, we don't want to require GTK hackers.
But that entirely misses the point. Why would theme mockups NEED to be made using anything more than Photoshop or illustrator?
They're mock-up window themes as JPEG/SVG files, not GTK themes. UI artists aren't implementers, they're designers. You don't need GTK hackers for unimplemented designs.
The winner of course would be something that could actually make it into ubuntu 8.10 without design overhead, therefore, a wallpaper. But why are we turning away people who can't make a wallpaper (can't draw an ibex), but has a great idea for the look-and-feel direction of ubuntu?
What if someone wants to pose something like the round edge example? If Shuttleworth deems it innovative enough, it should have a chance of being awarded recognition for innovation, and make it into Ubuntu even if he didn't draw a great background.
The idea of the contest should be to generate interest in implementing a new direction for the ubuntu look-and-feel.
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p4inkiller wrote on the 12 Mar 08 at 14:56
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I completely agree with the idea.
I'd like a great variety of GTK themes (and I mean good ones), with the release of ubuntu 8.10.
A wallpaper just doesn't seem enough for me.
I think that ubuntu community would appreciate it if we had a great range of themes, not just that "color palette" we're so used to.
There's already a lot of GTK themes in pages such as gnome-look. Some of them are good, but plenty of them really seem useless to me.
I think that a "prize" like this would encourage a lot of
artists to make the look and feel of ubuntu much better.
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