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Author Topic: [EN] Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!  (Read 21556 times)

Offline devil

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[EN] Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« on: 2014/04/11, 22:20:38 »
Sorry for the clear words, but the shit is getting deep. Our artwork is worse than non existent. We have noone to do artwork at the moment. For the last release agaida and me agreed on a photo and it shows. The desktop icons need an overhaul badly. This is a community project, so fill that concept with life and help us recreate our icons and design good looking release artwork. Artwork is the business card of a distribution and I as the ambassador of siduction to the outside world and the media am ashamed to hand it out at the moment.


Please make me feel better representing siduction, fill the thought of community-based with life, it only works two ways. If you have skills in that direction, please help us to match the greatness of siduction in our artwork.

timc

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #1 on: 2014/04/12, 01:42:30 »
I would gladly help if I did have the skills, but graphic design has never been one of my strengths.  ???

Tim

Offline GoinEasy9

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #2 on: 2014/04/12, 05:57:29 »
Which Icons need the most work?  I may not be an artist, but ... that would be a good place to start.
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Offline devil

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #3 on: 2014/04/12, 07:46:45 »
From my point of view the ones on the desktop, namely manual, irc and installer. I personaly would move away from the dots for these three and, until displays become round, move away from round shape as well. The dots for the menu button are ok imho.


greetz
devil

Offline titan

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #4 on: 2014/04/12, 09:29:08 »
Is it really that important ? I don't think I have used the distro artwork for years. Artwork is a personal thing and as shown in previous threads on the subject consensus is not easy.

Offline devil

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #5 on: 2014/04/12, 12:53:37 »
I think, the default should be at least decent, which imho it is not at the moment. I know that many users change it anyways, but I think, first looks have something to do with early decision making. I know it is stupid, because it says nothing about the technical qualitiy of the product, but that is how we  humans function.


greetz
devil

Offline dibl

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #6 on: 2014/04/12, 15:54:37 »
@devil, I understand and agree.  I personally have not a drop of graphic artist blood in my body, unfortunately.  I use gimp for resizing and touching up images, but that's the limit of my skill.   :'(
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timc

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #7 on: 2014/04/12, 16:34:40 »
I think, the default should be at least decent, which imho it is not at the moment. I know that many users change it anyways, but I think, first looks have something to do with early decision making. I know it is stupid, because it says nothing about the technical qualitiy of the product, but that is how we  humans function.


I agree. I have read reviews of Siduction where they basically say it is a very good distro, but it gives such an ugly appearance that they can't really take it seriously. That is not the way I think, but there are a lot of people who care more about appearance than function.

Tim

timc

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #8 on: 2014/04/12, 16:37:25 »
Idea - maybe we could ask for a skilled graphic designer who would donate to the project on some of the social sites, such as Google Plus.

Tim

Offline devil

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #9 on: 2014/04/12, 20:04:12 »
Timc,


good idea to brush up our overall appearance when it comes to looks. That is besides the point that we need an art team that takes care of the release art. Any idea where to scrounge best for such a donation?


greetz
devil

Offline spacepenguin

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #10 on: 2014/04/13, 10:19:01 »
Devil, I strongly agree that the artwork is the business card of the distribution! But I stronly disagree about the dots! The dots are great and should stay! And a photo as wallpaper - why not? Together with a decent siduction logo (dots!) on it I'd prefer that over any svg creation. And round is the new square ;)!

By now I'm putting some efforts and work in contributing to a round flat icon theme, Flamini (http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=163906) and also the new modern splash screens on kde-look.org have round icons, and that looks very neat and decent IMHO: http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Modern+KDE+4+Splash+Screen?content=163449

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Offline bluelupo

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #11 on: 2014/04/13, 14:26:32 »
Is it really that important ? I don't think I have used the distro artwork for years. Artwork is a personal thing and as shown in previous threads on the subject consensus is not easy.
Hi titan,
The artwork is very important for a distribution, it is unfortunately very often underestimated what impression that leaves for the users. I think that the recognition our distribution currently not very high. Since there is definitely room for improvement.

Offline bluelupo

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #12 on: 2014/04/13, 14:31:22 »
Idea - maybe we could ask for a skilled graphic designer who would donate to the project on some of the social sites, such as Google Plus.

Tim

Tim, your idea is good. Why not take up your idea for such a project to advance.

timc

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #13 on: 2014/04/13, 20:22:24 »

Tim, your idea is good. Why not take up your idea for such a project to advance.

Well, I did approach a young man in Serbia who I know has good talent and aptitude for graphics. He read this thread and said he doesn't really think it's for him. I guess I could make a similar, public post.

Tim

Offline der_bud

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Re: Our artwork is fugly. Do something about it!
« Reply #14 on: 2014/04/14, 18:10:14 »
Agaida asked in the german version of this thread if anybody could translates one of his posts because his lack  of time, so I'll try my best:

After I enterd some thoughts about this in IRC already, I like to throw them in here, too. As Bluelupo already mentioned, there is not only one background but several ones for different purposes: the ISO (syslinux), grub, login, wallpaper - and they all have different requirements. These should be well balanced in our concepts:

* syslinux: static design in 1024x768, menu free to position
* grub: variable resolution, menu appears in a box - it is to clarify if one changes the position and leaves the box, because that overlays every centerd design.
* login: variable resolution, mostly 1024x768, centered login dialog = same problem as grub. The dialog position could be changed, but should imho stay a key element in the login manager design
* wallpaper: several resolutions, should imho be kept deliberately simple. I like in that context somethinh like the KDE Ariya theme or the plain debian background (without debian, of course). I would appreciate if we could keep that factual and clear, mentioning release and siduction in its current form left and right of the orange line should be enough for my taste. Normally a user knows what he has installed, and eye-catching with overdimensioned logos is more or less irritating. But that's just my personal opinion.

Now to the bigger problem: I personally like the orange line with releasename left and logo right, and I would like to keep that for syslinux menu, grub menu, login-manager, But I don't know how much sense it makes on the desktop. There is a reason for that: if I change the resolution or have a user with an unusual resolution, the resulting wallpaper will look strange when no corresponding artwork is available or automatically chosen. And the number of cases in which that looks botched up is not to be underestimated. If anybody has a satisfactory solution for this, either technical or creative - give it to me!
Du lachst? Wieso lachst du? Das ist doch oft so, Leute lachen erst und dann sind sie tot.