The New and Improved Art Team

Mike Chalmers mikechalmers70 at gmail.com
Sat Feb 24 18:50:48 UTC 2007


On 2/24/07, John Baer <baerjj at gmail.com> wrote:
> All,
>
> On February 13th the Fedora Art Team hit the wall. I realize now it was
> inevitable and no one was at fault.
>
> Since that day many team members searched for answers to the questions
> "what went wrong" and "why". Dialogs were exchanged in heated and direct
> conversations. The smoke from the event must have been black as it
> attracted new members who offered their thoughts and comments.
>
> The problem with art is it all about personal taste and perception. I
> believe we can all agree the human eye may view something one way and
> then see it completely different at another time. I laughed at myself as
> I reviewed the images created on the road to February 13th. I stated I
> was satisfied with my rc1 only to create something completely different
> a few days later.
>
> A short time ago I presented Fedora to a group of IT professionals
> steeped in years of effort in the Windows environment. I needed a good
> introduction and I wanted to deliver the message Fedora was more than
> Linux. To achieve this result I modified the RHGB artwork to boldly
> display the word "fedora" and added a subtitle stating "An Open Source
> Computing Solution sponsored by Red Hat, Inc". The audience received the
> message.
>
> In the final analysis the Art Team wasn't ready to do business. By that
> I mean we did not have well crafted goals and objectives; effective and
> efficient outcomes. For the "New and Improved Art Team" I have a few in
> mind.
>
> Goal 1
>
> The art team will enable the users of Fedora to enhance its visual
> appearance to meet their need or desire.
>
> Objective 1.1
>
> The art team will craft wiki pages describing how to customized the
> appearance of Fedora.
>
> Objective 1.2
>
> The art team will evaluate and recommend suitable upstream artwork
> packages to be included in the release.
>
> Objective 1.3
>
> The art team will facilitate the exchange of computer art to promote
> Fedora to a wider audience.
>
> Objective 1.4
>
> The art team will investigate creating and maintaining a Fedora
> sub-forum targeted to the needs of artist. Sticky posts could point back
> to the wiki pages created by "objective 1.1".
>
> Goal 2
>
> Encourage the use of open source products in the creation of art.
>
> Objective 2.1
>
> The art team will investigate the re-design of the Fedora forum gallery
> to include a method of image branding such as "made with inkscape",
> "crafted with gimp". The effort could also consider targeted subsections
> for alternative artwork for icons, RHGB, GDM, KDE, and splash screens.
>
> As I look toward the talented artists who submit images to the Fedora
> gallery I considered why they were not a part of the mix.  IMO the team
> failed to deliver on the open source value of "inclusion – all are
> welcomed, encourage others to join".
>
> To quote myself, "If we are going to be open source then we need to do
> open source". :)
>
> The words from David and Paul were right on and although I requested an
> apology from the Red Hat desktop team the only apology required is my
> own. The answers were all around us, all I had to do is see them.
> "Promote Fedora to a wider audience" and use "open source values" when
> doing open source business.
>
> I apologize folks for not seeing the obvious.
>
> To wrap up nothing I've stated in this email is cast in stone. Perhaps
> they are only starting points; but if team agrees, we have work to do.
>
> I am interested in hearing your thoughts.
>
> John
>
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>


Focus on nature and using more natural colors as themes, logos,
desktops, desktop backgrounds, etc.




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