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Posts in art
As you know, I am not very happy with the state of artwork in Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex. It seems to me that Ubuntu has taken a small step back, while many of the other distributions continue to head in the right direction. Today I would like to propose a solution to two problems created by this state of artwork:
- Ubuntu users should not have to deal with the new theme if they, like me, feel that the old theme was better.
- It would be good to pressure the Ubuntu team to improve the artwork in future releases.
The solution to these problems, or at least the one I see, is to create a remix of Ubuntu with some of the great art that was proposed but not used.
For anyone that has been following the art process, you will know that some great themes and backgrounds have been created, but were not selected for the final release. If you already have the art, tools exist to make a simple remix with custom art, so assembling the .iso should not be an issue.
Below is a screenshot of a possible theme for this remaster/remix:
For now, I would like to know what you think of this idea. Is creating a custom version of Ubuntu with better artwork a good idea or a waste of time? Depending on the feedback, I may have a follow up post to discuss the details later.
Sometimes Things Just Don't Work: Announcing Ubuntu's New Theme: "Pile of Crap"
First, a little history: Ubuntu 8.04 (the current release) was supposed to have an all new theme, since it is an LTS release. Unfortunately, that got delayed until 8.10, due out in October. Now, in the month of October and past the artwork deadline, what we have is definitely not an all new theme.
Phoronix has recently posted some screenshots from the daily live cd. Here is a comparison of what the next version of Ubuntu looks like next to the desktop background for Fedora 10, the upcoming version of Fedora.
The comparison is almost laugh-out-loud funny.
It is extremely hard to judge artwork, since one man’s pile of crap may be another man’s masterpiece. The problem is that, when everyone already says your orange theme looks like a pile of crap, don’t actually use a pile of crap as your next background!
I think that the lesson here may be in how each distribution handled their art process. Ubuntu never really had any organization, as far as I can tell. Fedora, on the other hand, had a very structured process with deadlines and a vote at the end. I don’t really care what you think of those methods in theory, just look at the results.
Now I understand that Ubuntu could suddenly come out with something better out of thin air and that Fedora might decide to color the Solar theme brown and replace the sun with a pile of dog crap, but I think there is a clear winner and loser here, at least as far as art goes. Hopefully the next release of Ubuntu will go better and/or something will happen between now and Ubuntu 8.10’s release.
Comedy: On Art and, Specifically, Fedora Art Concepts
Warning: The following post contains comedy. Some people are allergic to it. Symptoms include posting angry comments.
It is interesting to look at the differences in the styles of different distributions. This is often best represented in looking at the art proposals for upcoming versions of various distributions. For example, a typical theme proposal for Fedora looks something like this:
“I was laying in my hammock one night gazing up at the infinite stars when suddenly an idea occurred to me. Gazing out at the vastness of the stars, it seemed to be that those stars perfectly represented Fedora, since Fedora 9 was called “Sulfur” and there has got to be some sulfur out there somewhere.”
A typical Ubuntu art submission, on the other hand, looks more like this:
“ubuntu rulz!!! see my awesum desktop: ubuntu should totally look like dis”
In contrast to both of these styles, OpenSuSe selects its artwork based an automatic algorithm that picks the wallpaper with the most green in it. Given a tie, which happens quite a lot, another script kicks in and posts the hex codes for the most used shade of green in each wallpaper. OpenSuSe contributors then vote on their favorite color (of green.)
I don’t even want to know what Gentoo’s process looks like.
Anyway, today I want to discuss some of the best Fedora art submissions judged, appropriately enough, not by the art but by the concept. I will even go so far as to rank them. First place goes to…
- Dice – To quote directly from the excellent concept description, “dice like a symbol of the variability.” I could not possibly agree more. In fact, I believe that Fedora should change its slogan to “Fedora. It’s just a crap shoot.”
- Eden – The Eden theme goes back to the fundamental parts of a flowering tree, each representing a part of Fedora. I believe that placing a big tree on the desktop of many young and incompetent Fedora users would help remind them that they must remember to water their keyboards at least once a week. Every time I see another Fedora user complain about system problems on some forum, I sigh and prepare to repost my standard response – “Dear Generic Fedora User. You forgot to water your keyboard, you idiot. Have a nice day.”
- Solar – The author of this theme recognizes the simple truth that many miss: the only truly prefect system in the whole universe is the solar system. Based on this knowledge, it is easy to see how Fedora should strive to be as perfect as the solar system its self. The analogy fits perfectly! My only question is: if the sun is the kernel, what is space junk?
Since I did a look at Ubuntu’s early concept art and since I am usually very impressed by Fedora’s final art, I decided that it would make sense to take a look at what has appeared on the Fedora Art Team wiki. I have actually been waiting a few days to do this, since, as of just a few days ago, there were not enough submissions that I liked to talk about. My point is that there has been a new theme submission every one to two days, which is really impressive. Now on to the art:
“Solar”
The concept behind this theme is that the solar system is “the perfect system,” just like Fedora should be the perfect (operating) system.
The art has a cool explosive effect, making it feel active and lively. Also, at least in this piece of art, there is fairly clean space at the left, which is where icons usually go.
“Simetrical Freedom” (Spelled as it is spelled on the Wiki page)
This time, the concept is that “the perfection that simmetry can offer with the freedom power of the possibilities of forms and states that it can take and reborn inside the same thing.” Yeah, umm… Let’s just look at the art, which happens to be quite cool.
“Blue Fire”
While the art so far is not the most impressive, I can really see this concept turning into an amazing theme with some work. There is not much in the way of explanation for why blue fire symbolizes Fedora’s goals, but is that really that important?
“Wing Anatomy”
Like “Blue Fire,” I can definitely see wings or feathers playing a role in the final theme for Fedora 10. The idea behind wings is that they represent “stability, balance and freedom,” which are, obviously, also goals for Fedora, and many Linux distros.
“Neon”
While this idea comes in many variations, the idea of some sort of city scene particularly appeals to me. It would be very different from the past Fedora themes, but that is not necessarily a problem – it might even be a good thing. Perhaps something could be done with a city scene and the look of a long exposure picture of a highway at night, like this one.
“Dice”
Though the current art is very simple, it shows the promise of becoming something more complex or, perhaps, staying nice and simple. I am not sure, however, if “dice like a symbol of the variability” is a very good message for an operating system. 
Overall, I cannot wait to see what Fedora 10’s final theme looks like. If the concepts look this good already, I bet they will look simply incredible when they are finalized. I guess we will have to wait for that, though.
Interesting Early Artwork for Intrepid Ibex
With Intrepid Ibex Alpha 1 out the door, I decided to take an early look at some of the cool new proposed artwork for Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. Obviously, the artwork out now is likely to change a lot, but it is still interesting.
“Clear”
This theme very much maintains the current brown-orange theme, even making it a little darker, but manages to make it look really smooth with the gradients. Paired with a new background, this could be a real candidate for a final theme. My only concern is that it could be too dark and, therefore, unappealing to some people.
“Sunny Ibex”
Going for a much lighter feel and nicely incorporating the Ibex, this background could appeal to those who dislike brown. In fact, this might be a great choice as a color base, because of its lighter feel.
Wiki Page (scroll down some)
“Kith Intrepid”
Another theme that looks like a potential candidate for the final release, although this theme goes for a lighter, more orange look, which could be a plus or a minus, depending on your tastes.
“MadsRH”
This is certainly an interesting and new idea for the boot up process. I do not know how difficult this would be to implement, but it would be cool.
Wiki Page (scroll down some)
“Everything Moves”
This last idea has no images to show off, but it still attracted my attention. To quote from the description:
“the ultimate aim being that whenever a user passes a mouse over any icon or a window bar or clicks or minimizes or maximizes a window or opens a menu there is a number of different rapid responses, colorful little glows everywhere whenever something is done, nice little sparkles or ripples when an icon is added to a desktop”
This sort of eyecandy would not be too intrusive or annoying, but would be incredibly cool.
I hope this quick preview of some of the possible artwork for Intrepid Ibex has been interesting. Hopefully the final artwork will be even cooler!
Brilliant Brainstorms (#12) – Installstorm
Brilliant Brainstorms is a weekly-ish summary of some of the best brainstorms from the Ubuntu Brainstorm site. In the beginning it may not always come exactly once a week or on the same day, but, if it becomes popular, it should become more regular.
happy, different colors of the human theme could be offered as options for a quick color change.
You may have noticed that this week’s Brilliant Brainstorms is shorter than previous weeks. Just FYI, I don’t try to reach any particular length, I just gather up all the brainstorms that I think are good and if I have way too many I remove a few.
One of the most common complaints about Ubuntu is that there is just too much orange/brown in the default theme. Although this might seem like a simple matter of changing the theme, it is not.
For one thing, there are also plenty of people who like the default Ubuntu themes (myself included.) More importantly, though, Ubuntu has developed very good branding and marketing and the orange/brown is part of that. Dropping the orange/brown color scheme could even confuse people who associate Ubuntu with orange/brown.
So what can be done about this problem if changing the theme is not an option? A lot. Luckily, some of it has already been done.
I propose leaving the Human theme as the default but including or providing easy access to a small number, no more than 4 or 5, of other themes.
This capability to do this is really already around. Just launch synaptic package manager and install blubuntu-look. Then go to the Appearance windows and switch to Blubuntu. Unfortunately, Blubuntu is not well promoted and should be simpler to install.
This is why I propose creating a place in the Appearance window where one of a few themes can be selected to be installed and used. Of course, third party themes can still be installed, but, hopefully, fewer people will find the need to use a different theme.
So where are these themes going to come from? Well the normal thing to do would be to assign it all the Art Team, but instead I think the Art Team should focus on just the default theme and leave the alternate themes to a competition, as some people have suggested should be done with the default theme.
In order to make the competition more structured, I also think that there should be categories and one theme from each category (the one with the most votes) should be included. The categories don’t have to be specific. For example, there might be a green category, a blue category, a dark category, a plain category, and an other category.
Finally, to make it easier to submit entries, a new function could be added to Ubuntu so that once you had come up with a theme you liked you could easily submit it with the press of a button.
Through this idea, I believe Ubuntu can overcome the color concerns of some people, appeal to more users, and not lose branding and marketing work, all at the same time.