Hi all, Does sabdfl still read this list? Some of these questions here may only be able to be answered by him (or kwwii - are you employed to work on this at the moment?). After some deliberation I've copied him in. Sorry Mark if you don't think you needed to be!
It's really cool to see this list alive again with so many ideas and discussions - some of the stuff looks really sweet, I wish I had more time to contribute (though I think the standard's getting well beyond me!). While there's still so much energy around I think we need to get some more definition of what the goals of the artwork team are here so we can channel it in the right direction. I hope I haven't missed anything about what exactly is being worked towards...I haven't been keeping up with ALL the list mail recently and couldn't make the meetings, but I couldn't see a clear description of goals or process (emails like 'how far for Hardy' have gone unanswered... and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArtTeam which supposedly contains UDS conclusions is not very detailed) The minutes of the latest meeting say in response to a question about what we will be changing: "Nov 01 18:47:53 <kwwii> install screen, usplash, gdm/face broswer, Desktop Wallpaper, GTK theme, colors, metacity/emerald theme, icons, splash screens" That sounds mighty exciting, and a lot of what I am asking below has clearly been discussed (from the minutes again) "Nov 01 18:03:47 <kwwii> we had a meeting at UDS today Nov 01 18:04:07 <kwwii> and talked about the form of the art team and how we lead the process" But I'm not sure enough info has made its way here yet. Maybe it has, sorry if I've missed it. In years gone by, I feel artwork effort has been misdirected due to us (as a team) not really knowing what our aims were, not meeting deadlines in the release process and not knowing who we were designing the work to please and producing the style of work that was wanted. It would be sad to see this flurry of enthusiasm ending in some of the same mistakes being made again and people being upset about the process. I am NOT trying provide bunch of 'stop energy', but I am trying to find out what the structure we need to work under (/around/over/through...whatever), for the best things to happen is! So, if we are going to start brainstorming and investing time once more I would really like to clarify for all contributors. 1. Are WE (the artwork team) designing a DEFAULT theme or some 'community themes' to be shipped separately in another package? This is important because it affects the kind of design we do, and I would expect for some people, how much time they have to offer. Obviously, there have to be caveats with respect to the quality of the work - if for some reason (and the stuff so far suggests it will not happen) the team produced something horrific it would not make sense to included it. This brings me on to Q2 2. Who will decide what work will make the cut and what will not. If we ARE designing for the default theme then how will we decide when to stop brainstorming and settling on ONE of the ideas to hone (see 2.2). How can we ensure we are producing work that IS going to be accepted? There are a few important aspects to this --2.1 How will we get the people who will be making FINAL decisions about the work involved _at crucial points in the process_ well before the end . If sabdfl is going to be choosing work then how can we get his opinions before we reach crucial junctions at which we might turn away from what is desired. There is certainly enough talent in the team to work towards and produce what is desired, but communication of that might need to be better than it has been in previous releases. --2.2 What is the time-scale for our development? We need this to be clearly defined _whether or not_ we are designing for the default theme or for a bunch of community themes. If we are going for default work then we need to be sure to make and meet deadlines for review and feedback. The same is true even if we're just doing 'extra' themes, except the community is more able to define what will and won't be included. In the past with community themes lots of work has been dumped on a few members of the team and Daniel Holbach when he was already incredibly busy - I wasn't involved in the last few releases so this issue might be fixed now....See 3 for more on this. Another reason the deadlines are important is so we give the documentation team and the web team time to update to reflect the new art. --2.3 I am not at all sure what other stuff relies on the art (docs and web aside) - which other parts of the Ubuntu Jigsaw do we interlock with? --2.4 Who is in charge of what in the team/calling which shots? kwwii, I guess is the head here? Is there going to be a hierarchy? 3. How are we distributing and packaging the work? We should be doing this throughout the process so we can see how it is working - to avoid last minute rushes on packaging. My understanding is that Launchpad has very good facilities for making this 'JustWork' - are enough people familiar with them now? I am sad that I do not have much time to add at the moment - so I guess I am asking these questions less for myself and more for the people who will be spending a lot of time on design for the next realease. By answering them I hope we will have a better understanding of how to use people's time effectively. I do not presume I have asked all the important questions, so please jump in if you think there are other things to clarify. I hope this whole email doesn't come across as pompous or presumptuous, I know this was discussed at UDS, I'm sad I could not be there (but I would be sure I'm not the only one!) - I only want to be sure that the effort people invest is well directed and that the art we make rocks as much as possible! Happy Designing, Who -- ubuntu-art mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art
