[kde-artists] default artwork for 3.5

[Kenneth Wimer]

Hi,

I think I should explain what I meant.

* Janet Theobroma <theobroma at revelinux.com> [Aug 31. 2005 08:25]:
> Hello all, 
> We would like the core-developers insight on a situation we are having in the 
> KDE-artists community. It started with a request on the KDE-Artists mailing 
> list for the default wallpaper for 3.5. I went the the #kde-artists IRC 
> channel and asked if there was time to make new artwork for 3.5. I was told 
> "absolutely".  So we started a Kollaboration on the artists site. The first 
> thing we did was to plan an IRC meeting at #kde-artists to decide what 
> direction we wanted to go. We announced this meeting on the website, blogged 
> about it and sent an email to all the members of KDE-artists.org. At the 
> meeting we decided to change the colors a bit on the Start pages and use a 
> stylized version of the wave graphic that is on the current Konqi start pages 
> as a unifying element for all the new artwork. We decided to start with the 
> new wallpaper then move onto the splash screen and Start pages. I posted the 
> decisions the group made on the artist site and we got a huge response...we 
> narrowed it down and then had a vote. 

No. This is not exactly true.

I was at this meeting too remember? We expressly said that we will
*not* change anything drastically for 3.5 but rather to collect the new
ideas and work on this for KDE4. Several others who were in the channel
can testify to this.


> I submitted the top two from the polls to the kde-artists mailing list to get 
> their comments and approval . To which Ken replied: 
> "What in the hell is going on? We discussed this stuff- the wave should not 
> change for 3.5 IT IS USED IN OTHER PLACES AS WELL; SO WE CANNOT CHANGE IT IN 
> ONE PLACE WITHOUT CHANGING IT EVERYWHERE!!!!!" 
>  
> Then today Ken set the channel topic on the #kde-artists' public IRC channel 
> to: "who in the hell said to change the wave for 3.5!!!!!" and he went on to 
> say... 
>      "[03:36] * kwwii is extremely upset about this crap 
>       [03:36] <kwwii> there is no point in having the kde-artists website if 
> all it does is make things worse!!!!!" 
>  

Which is pretty accurate if you consider that the decision made at
meetings is reversed without communicating these changes first.

> The new KDE-Artists.org website has provided artists in the KDE community with 
> a place to contribute their artwork to the applications that they love. Not 
> to mention that the developers now have a means to connect with a much larger 
> group of artists to get the artwork they need.  Despite any disparaging 
> remarks we have followed through on what we proposed and provided exactly 
> what was promised. 
>  

Yes, the artist site has been a lot of help. I was not trying to say
that we should remove it but if things keep going like this I assume
that I would eventually suggest it.


> See http://kde-artists.org/files/wave/ to view examples of the graphics that 
> we will be referring to below. 
>  
> The weird thing is that the wave is the same shape...it is just stylized. 
> Another weird thing is that Ken was the one who requested completely new 
> Start pages on the artists site. I think we went about this the right 
> way...we announced a meeting, had a vote etc etc. At one point Ken said that 
> he agreed with what we were doing (excepts from the IRC meetings: 
> http://kde-artists.org/files/wave/excerpt.txt.tar.gz). 

What I posted on the artist site was misunderstood (poorly written by
me) but during the meeting concerning the splash screens and that
cconcerning the wallpaper I clearly restated what I meant and I think
that everyone else understood it.

> We believe that there is no reason left why one of these cannot be the default 
> wallpaper in KDE 3.5 unless it is an issue of individual control. If we were 
> trying to be renegades we would have just committed the wallpapers but we 
> didn't. We submitted them to the mailing list where we could discuss them but 
> instead we were attacked. 
>  
> To summarize: The wave used in the creation of the proposed default wallpaper 
> is the same shape as the wave in the Konqi start page. We have adjusted and 
> then readjusted the approach to the artwork to meet the timeline for the 
> features list as requested by physos. We have submitted the artwork to the 
> kde-artists mailing list before submitting the final wallpaper to svn. We are 
> not taking the lone cowboy approach and forcing unwanted changes on anyone 
> nor has this been developed in secret. 
>  

The point is this: we included the wave for the first time in 3.4 

Why should we change things for the sake of change, so late in the game?
This is the exact reason that KDE keeps looking worse and worse. 

Again, during the wallpaper meeting we agreed *not* to change anything
for 3.5. We also agreed to work on making good graphics for KDE4
starting now, so that they are really done and really good by the 4.0
release.


> These are the logs from two public IRC meetings. One that was scheduled to 
> address what we were looking for in the default artwork for KDE 3.5. Another 
> to discuss a new timeline and then redefine the elements for the default 
> artwork so that screenshots could be included in the feature guide.  
> http://kde-artists.org/files/wave/full_logs.tar.gz 
>  
> Click here to read the threads about the default artwork on KDE-Artists.org: 
> http://kde-artists.org/main/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,48/expv,0/board,43.0 
>  
> So we have two questions:  
> What should we do about the new artwork for 3.5 but more importantly how 
> should decisions be made about the default artwork for KDE in the future? We 
> have an ever growing resource of artists in our community but we need clear 
> guidelines if we are going to more forward in a positive direction. 

Art by commitee rarely works. Allowing the people at the artist site to
control the entire artwork is in my opinion a very bad idea. Anyone can
make an account there whether they know what they are talking about or
not. It is a great source of information, and a great place to share
ideas but let us not go to far with this.

We are in the process of making a multimedia featuer guide for 3.5 so
any changes in the artwork now ruins any work that has been done on
this, and I think that this is something that KDE drastically needs as a
marketing tool.

-- 
Kenneth Wimer
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