more natural colors

[Mike Chalmers]

On 12/14/06, Mike Chalmers <mikechalmers70 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/12/06, Máirín Duffy <duffy at redhat.com> wrote:
> > Hi Mike,
> >
> > > On 12/12/06, Máirín Duffy <duffy at redhat.com> wrote:
> > >> I think a lot of the themes we've got proposed have natural-looking
> > >> palettes - a lot are focused on the night sky, with various shades of
> > >> light and deep blue.
> >
> > Mike Chalmers wrote:
> > > The colors I speak of, are natural colors of pure life, trees and
> > > grass and earth. Not fire, metallic water, futuristic technological
> > > designs, lustful colors, metallic trees, stuff like that. Red Hat is
> > > definitely unnatural colors as is Fedora. I think if we think about it
> > > we can realize that, especially as artist.
> > >
> > > Things like blue metallic water, for example, compared to regular blue
> > > water is incomparable. Or metallic silver trees compared to green leaf
> > > trees or leaves in the fall.
> >
> > How about the blue night skies in some of our FC7 mockups?
> >
> > > There is no way you can say the Red Hat's colors are natural if you
> > > think about it. You can't just name any color and say it is natural
> > > because it looks like red on trees. There is a big difference.
> >
> > I'm not really following. I don't think it's fair to say the color red
> > is unnatural in all cases so hopefully I am misunderstanding you there?
> >
> > Certainly you can talk about a color's treatment in the context of a
> > color palette or its usage in a piece of artwork as being unnatural or
> > not. Even if you restate it in that way, however, I would still argue
> > Red Hat's treatment of the color red is certainly not predominantly
> > 'unnatural'. Other words come to mind ('bold' since it's bright and
> > attention-grabbing, 'different' as most tech companies go silver or
> > blue) but I really can't say 'unnatural' comes to mind. Not that RH's
> > graphic design is something we really have any say over in the Fedora
> > art team :)
> >
> > I think you may be on to some helpful critique here that we could apply
> > to our FC7 artwork. To make an effective case here, however, and provide
> > us with more useful feedback you really need to cite specific examples
> > and qualify some of the statements you are making as they come across as
> > somewhat vague to me. E.g., *which* Fedora artwork looks 'unnatural' to
> > you? (provide links to screenshots or mockups) Why exactly? What parts
> > of each piece communicate 'unnatural' to you?
> >
> > > Fedora's colors remind me of the movies The Matrix.
> > >
> > > I am not knocking Fedora, I love it. It just hurts me that the colors
> > > aren't used to a more natural earthy approach.
> >
> > Mike, I think I'm understanding you a bit more but I wish you could
> > provide more specific feedback. :)
> >
> > What about the theme mockups I cited doesn't come across as natural to
> > you? I'm really confused:
> >
> > [1]
> > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fc7ThemeProposalFlyingHighPOC?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=wallpaper-moonlight2.png
> >
> > [2]
> > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fc7ThemeProposalFlyingHighPOC?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=flyinghigh-moonlight.png
> >
> > [3]
> > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fc7ThemeProposalFedoraBorealis?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=fc7themeproposal-fedoraborealis-night2.png
> >
> > Do you think any of these appears unnatural? Why, specifically? It can't
> > just be the colors - there's a lot more that gives a piece of artwork
> > its feel than the specific colors in it, you know? What does each one
> > remind you of that isn't unnatural? Why?
> >
> > Blue is a color that appears quite often in nature. If you would like to
> > see themes that use a particular palette you like (you mention grass and
> > earth a lot - green and brown - rather than the sky which is in fact
> > blue when we are lucky :) ) then there's certainly nothing stopping you
> > from taking some of the proposals we have on the table right now and
> > experimenting with different color palettes in them. But I don't really
> > think it's quite accurate to sweepingly judge all Fedora (and Red Hat
> > for that matter) artwork as 'unnatural' based on the names of the colors
> > involved rather than the treatment of the colors in them. Like I said
> > above, it would be more fair to cite specific examples.
> >
> > While the Fedora logo's colors won't be changing anytime soon, we can
> > most certainly investigate non-blue options as far as the color palette
> > for the theme artwork goes.
> >
> > ~m
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Fedora-art-list mailing list
> > Fedora-art-list at redhat.com
> > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-art-list
> >
>
> I wrote down a list of some things to say but decided since I am not
> an artist I will not say them. I am just going to ramble a little
> bit.:-)
>
> I think that things like this are a start,
> http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=31128 . I am not an
> artist so I will have to leave the colors and stuff to y'all. Yes
> Máirín, that mockup does come across natural to me. I think that a lot
> can be done with natural visual effects, too. Now that is something to
> look into.
>
> Things that remind you of nature which is life, which must be taken
> with great care and love. The glass icon theme has some kind of visual
> effect with the grass behind some of the icons. That is a somewhat
> natural effect. It kind of reminds me of mist, which is in nature.
>
> I just like things that are real, and not synthetic, as David said. In
> my opinion nature has a very calming sense to it, which Beethoven
> said. Beethoven wrote an entire symphony based on nature!
>
> Wood is an amazing thing, in my opinion. The colors that you can get
> from it are simply put  miraculous. Colors of grass, trees, tree
> leaves, fall, earth, dirt, blue water, clear water, green water,
> lakes, oceans, things on other planets, are all miraculous, peaceful,
> and real.
>
> The problem with technology is some people associate as being
> unnatural, which it doesn't have to be looked at that way. Sure the
> components are not like nature but that doesn't mean that the things
> on the display don't have to be. Technology is an amazing thing. They
> make a lot of games and movies unnatural. Which is not good for
> people's minds. Although there are a lot of games that are natural,
> don't get me wrong. Here is what I consider a natural game,
> http://www.paradise-game-us.com/ .
>
> There are just a lot of natural and unhealthy things out there.
>
> +1 for natural
>
> Kind Regards,
> Preston
>

I should also say that good nature can be a very clean thing.