From kde-artists  Tue Sep 07 22:34:54 1999
From: Rik Hemsley <rik () rikkus ! demon ! co ! uk>
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1999 22:34:54 +0000
To: kde-artists
Subject: Black shaft
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-artists&m=93674325928020

Hi folks.

Well, Torsten's gone away and passed me the big black shaft for the next
three months.

Could you all do me a favour and send me a brief mail summarising what work
you're currently doing (if any) or have on your todo list ? That would
help me out a lot as I'm not sure what everyone's up to. It will also help
me form a better plan of what should be done in the near future.

(If you're not doing anything but want to help out, please mail me anyway)

Here's a list of things which I think need doing before K2.

1) Icons.

  Everyone's probably pretty sick of drawing at 44x44, but we're
  going to have to get them into shape for K2. There's been plenty of
  discussion about lack of conformity to the 'style' - this is my main concern.
  We're going to have to be ruthless - kick out icons that don't fit the
  common style and redraw them. Ouch.

2) Backgrounds.

  There's been this lovely thread on kde-devel. If you missed
  it you've probably been in a nuclear bunker with ear defenders on. I'm not
  concerned with getting into that particular discussion. What I would like
  is some discussion, some suggestions and some examples of what should be
  in K2.

  IMO, the backgrounds currently shipping are foul. Sorry, that's just my
  opinion and you may disagree. Let's see what the consensus is.

  I think they're garish, loud, head-fscks - in general. Some, like that
  one I daren't mention, are actually pretty good in that they're kind on
  the eyes.

  I propose that for K2 we create an entirely new set of _original_
  backgrounds. No, I'm not suggesting we all go out with digital cameras
  and employ maths professors to work out how to tile our montage of
  the seven wonders of the world. Take a look at the background that's used
  in the (now black market) DrawingBoard theme if you want an idea of what
  I think would be suitable.

  I suggest the following:

  * Half a dozen 'corporate-friendly' backgrounds. This means clean, with
    low contrast, and practically monotone (that means pastel shades are
    ok, not that they should be grey). See the MacOS backgrounds that
    come with the E/KDE MacOS themes, plus DrawingBoard's stuff for what I
    think fits these criteria.

  * A couple of 'kiddie' backgrounds.
    Suggestions:
    - A (scaled to screen size) dolls' house. This would go down a storm
      with certain youngsters.
    - Some characters from a popular children's story/TV programme.
      Using teletubbies wouldn't be a good plan. I think their lawyers would
      be tearing at our throats within seconds. Something from a fairy tale
      would be great. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe ? (is that legal ?)

  * Half a dozen original, exciting backgrounds. As an example, the
    tile of vegetables that's currently in K1 is superb.

  * One or two 'kewl' backgrounds. The sort you get with E. This has to
    be done to please the kids in black t-shirts ;)
    Wheels, skulls, motorbike parts, explosions, whatever. You know the sort.

3) Themes.

  I think the same sort of allocation as with the backgrounds should apply.

  Corporate-friendly themes
  =========================

    * BeOS-ish
      - pale, curvy, extremely legible (no pixmaps)

    * MacOS-ish
      - curvy, using a font like chicago or virtue
 
    * KDE-original
      - Motif-like 

  Kiddie themes
  =============
  
    * Toytown
      - primary colours (ouch), curvy, large fonts

    * ???

  Fun themes
  ==========

    * Drawer-at-the-bottom-of-the-fridge-where-the-veg-goes-to-die
      - cabbage green, pixmap backgrounds with the texture of celery,
        something mad like that :)

    * Rainy-day (a la Hendrix)
      - blue-ish, straight edges, shading, raindrops, etc.

  'kewl' themes
  =============

    * Exploding-black-star-on-the-edge-of-doom

      - black holes and stuff ;) You know the sort.

4) Screensavers.

  KDE doesn't have any original screensavers (or does it ?)

  We need some ! Actually, I think we need only one - one that actually
  has something to do with KDE.

  If anyone has the technical skills to make a raytraced KDE cog bounce
  around the screen, please, do it !

  We need to install a screensaver as the default with KDE2 that shows that
  the user is running KDE. It needs to be subtle and cool enough that it
  gets left on their screen. Why ? When you see a computer on TV, what do you
  see ? The screensaver. Little fscking flying windows jerking across the
  screen, usually with an error dialog in front, or of course just a BSOD :)

  I want to watch the news in 2000 and see a KDE screensaver across the room
  on someone's machine. Anyone else agree ?

  Oh, no animations of Konqui the dragon flaming little terrified Gnomes please.

Well, that's enough. I've probably triggered a mass exodus from the team
because I've talked about work. S'pose I should go do some.

Cheers,
Rik