Sharing a brand.
After reading many of the comments, on Aseigo blog I reached to the conclusion that most people did not get the idea.
We don't want to kill each of the distributions own branding, we want to share, I would not slap a KDE logo on top of your distribution logo, nothing like that.
What we are after is creating something that is recognizable across the room something people can see as recognizable, a "hey that is pretty and I have seen it some ware else". I would do my best to keep a strong visual connection to the specific distro brand but in a way that one brand doesn't kill the other.
I see distros having no problem on using the icon theme, that is a huge part of the branding part, distros do in that remark little to no modifications to it, same goes to oxygen widget theme, usually the major modifications are done on the "easy part" the wallpaper, splashscren and kdm.
So if a distro can share a huge portion of the branding value with KDE, how come we can't do the same for the easy stuff as well???
Don't think this is a totally innocent move from us, more than the making the co-branding of distros I am interested I'm making bridges between the downstream artists and us, so in the future we will be all working together improving and creating a myriad of desktops and brands that people can perceive as one and many, as unique but also versatile, as one experience that comes in many flavors.
This can only be achieve if we all talk and have methods of sharing problems, and propose solutions. There is allot to gain and nothing to lose out of this experiment.
We don't want to kill each of the distributions own branding, we want to share, I would not slap a KDE logo on top of your distribution logo, nothing like that.
What we are after is creating something that is recognizable across the room something people can see as recognizable, a "hey that is pretty and I have seen it some ware else". I would do my best to keep a strong visual connection to the specific distro brand but in a way that one brand doesn't kill the other.
I see distros having no problem on using the icon theme, that is a huge part of the branding part, distros do in that remark little to no modifications to it, same goes to oxygen widget theme, usually the major modifications are done on the "easy part" the wallpaper, splashscren and kdm.
So if a distro can share a huge portion of the branding value with KDE, how come we can't do the same for the easy stuff as well???
Don't think this is a totally innocent move from us, more than the making the co-branding of distros I am interested I'm making bridges between the downstream artists and us, so in the future we will be all working together improving and creating a myriad of desktops and brands that people can perceive as one and many, as unique but also versatile, as one experience that comes in many flavors.
This can only be achieve if we all talk and have methods of sharing problems, and propose solutions. There is allot to gain and nothing to lose out of this experiment.
Comments
Greetings from Spain
To understand my point of view - I'm not against cooperation! I hope in more coop between you and us (and I think there's no you and us, but we! ;-)
I'm glad when I can see some desktop (screenshot, LCD etc.) and even from quick overview I can say - great - it's Fedora running KDE! I'm really proud then! And now - the question is - where is the line between it's Fedora (or other distribution)! It's KDE! Or it's Fedora running KDE? Or KDE running on Fedora? I think for now it's our first task to define this.
Couldn't we set-up some IRC meeting or I have to look for KDE design team mailing list. Thanks for this blog post, it was my plan for today to contact you!
PS: Yes, we're using Oxygen icon theme for now, as Echo theme is not yet production ready ;-)
You want to offer distros to work together on branding the KDE versions of their distros.
In that cooperative design there are elements to recognize the distro and common KDE elements to recognize KDE.
Parts of the design are wallpaper, themes (plasma, kdm, ksplash, ...), icons, cursor, color-schemes, ...
The advantage for us: Increase the visibility of KDE (the brand) on standard desktops.
The advantage for distros: Less work (and perhaps a better design).
Risks for us: More work.
Risks for distros: Loos a little bit of there desktop branding. (Even if a blinding green wallpaper is not beautiful and will not last many minutes on the desktop, it is remarkable.)
Did I get the idea right?
@solard3ity: You are right. Design is not the strength of every distro. I love OpenSUSE but the design (esp. the wallpapers) definitely does not suit my taste.
Just a suggestion, though.
R.P.S. oxygen icon theme toke 5 years to get to its current state, and we are only 50% done.
@Thomas Thym something like that + build bridges between distros artwork people and us. Get them and us to "sing the same song".
Today we might be able to work on their wallpaper tomorrow the Open Office.org oxygen icon theme.
"It Takes A Village To Raise A Child"
And believe-me that artwork for the OSS desktop is one hungry child.
@Florian the idea is not us doing their branding out of the idea we might have about what a particular distro marketing values are, but rather work together with them so the package makes sense and that the experiences in it are coherent. It's not a one men job.
Thanks
You should try to make it more photo-realistic, see these images for nicer lamps (specially the color).
http://media.techeblog.com/images/robotarts_1.jpg
http://www.cadimage.net/postimages/fahim108_bulb.jpg
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2564073/2/istockphoto_2564073-3d-bulb.jpg
Please don't take this in a bad way, you are a great designer, I just don't think the orange color suits well for lamps.
Regards.
Transparent stuff has all sorts of issues...