[Design-team] Proposal

[wonderer]

Hy,

here are my 2 Cents...

>  Launch a challenge in existing artist communities through a cooperation
> protocol between Fedora and those communities, for some quick examples:
>   
Sounds good. With the right words you can reach very much people.
>  * opendesktop.org (gnome-look.org, kde-look.org, etc);
>  * deviantart.com
>  * gnome.org and kde.org (?? this people are most likely buried with
> work already)
>  * suggestions from current artists
>
>  This challenge should be a "call to arms" oriented campaign in which
> artists are invited to produce artwork for Fedora Project. As things are
> not going to be much random, this is what I though that is going to be
> needed:
>
>  #1 - Fedora 14 Theme > this has to be decided prior.
>   
The "Theme" is a very wide area ...
>  #2 - A document that provides guidelines for participants to comply
> (this should be accomplished by the Fedora Design Team, as it's their
> field of action/expertise).
>   
See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Logo/UsageGuidelines2
Thats the first one I found. I think some Artworkers have some
pre-prepared Links to send them out ;-)

>  #3 - A place where artists can submit their work. (this shouldnt be too
> complicated and I would suggest to use a wiki page for this).
>   
See https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F13_Artwork (as soon as the Name and
Slogan is ready artists have enough input to go on). Then they should
(as always) send a Mail to the artwork mailing list for discussion.
If you want to work with them in a more collaborate way you can use
gobby and/or etherpad-clones like http://typewith.me/.
Then we also have fedoratalk with some conference rooms.
You see there are many ways of communicating together. You just have to
use it.
>  #4 - Licensing for submitted artwork (this is for sure something I have
> no knowledge, I believe that eventually there are people here who have
> done similiar things in the past, so selecting and highlighting such
> would be great).
>   
License (as you already know) will be cc-licenced.
>  #5 - A committee to analyze the submitted artwork. We can run this as
> Fedora or eventually also invite people from other communities, such as
> GNOME, KDE, etc. If this artwork is going to be enabled by Fedora and
> distributed for KDE/GNOME, makes sense to me to have someone from their
> project on this also. See such option as strengthening bonds between us
> and them.
>   
Hmm, my personal opinion would be that the Artwork-Team and the
Mailinglist and IRC around it should be sufficient and maybe there are
some of them who are happy to join your idea.
>  #6 - A proper Marketing/Communication campaign for this. We should be
> able to reach everyone.
>  #7 - Decide what kind of artwork we want (ex: GNOME Meta Themes, KDE
> themes, Icon Themes, wallpapers, videos ?).
>   
- Wallpapers (several ones around the Theming)
- Iconsets
- Countdown Graphic
- Banners (Alpha banner, Beta Banner, Release banner, Countdown Banner,
Download Banner, Website Banner, etc.)
- Splash-screen / Install screen
- DVD/CD sleeves
- Release Party Posters

For Spins and Window Managers (Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE...) I see some
timing / ressource / including / coordination problems.
Tip for the time-planing: do not forget Testing and QA work in the
timeline.

>  #8 - Some Ambassadorial support work. I would recon that _current_
> artists who are ambassadors should have a key role here. As artists they
> might be enrolled on other existing communities, they for sure talk the
> same language as other artists and know how to attract people in a more
> effective way than we can at Marketing. As for standard non-artist
> Ambassadors, I believe they can help a lot also, as running such project
> is mainly Public Relations work (something I suck at).
>   
I think thats less a Fedora Marketing (global) issue than more a PR
(localized) issue to reach them. Every artist lives in his or her small
world and you have to reach them more or less indididually. But you will
come very soon to that point ;-)
>  Some doubts:
>
>  - If we run such campaign, who decides if we can include or not
> community based artwork? Can we freely include on F14 some extra stuff
> that we get from such a campaign ?
>   
Shure. Why not?! Our artwork is fully Community based...
>  - The tools... we are promoting open source, but if we scroll through
> Deviant Art for instance, there is work which is distributed with a
> friendly license, but is generated in maybe non-friendly software, such
> as OS X platforms and eventually not GIMP/Inkscape stuff. Should we
> apply restrictions and check for headers and traces of non-oss in the
> submitted artwork? 
>   
There are no restrictions. There never was. You only have to provide
your work under cc-license and the sourcecode so that modifications can
be done from everyone.
>  - I would like submitters to place their artwork in place where FAS
> registration is demanded. In the rush of submitting their work, they
> will go through that step with some "pleasure". If such is done, with a
> single group apply (ex: design-team) and joining a mailling list, their
> approach as a potential Fedora contributor is basically done. This could
> be explored.
>   
This is how it works.
>  - Ice breaking... People who might want to submit artwork will be for
> sure in contact with some of our people. For example we can probably
> forward them for a "help list" for this event or existing list such as
> design-team to clear some doubts. Doing such will place them directly in
> contact with Fedora Teams and will work as a Ice Breaker. This should
> probably make their possible integration in the future much easier, as
> they will start having friendly voices around.
>   
The Mailinglist helped always new contributors. Mostly it goes the open
way like this:

$New_One: Hey, I'm new here. I have $cool_wallpaper and $cool_Iconset.
Do you like it?!
$Experienced_Fedora_Artworker: This looks pretty nice. Please take also
a look at $Fedora_Design_rules for proper dimensions/colors, etc. It
would be nice if you can put it into the $wiki or on to your
$fedora_people Account that we all can participate and improve it.
$New_One: Well, I'm not so experienced and I have done this with
$commercial_software. Is that ok?!
$Experienced_Fedora_Artworker: Not so much, because we do it the
OpenSource way (here: include $4-Foundations explanation, Opensource,
cc-licence, etc.) Please take a look at $Design_spin or
$Opensource_artwork_tools_links and try to adjust and edit your idea so
that it fits into that.
$New_One: Cool. I will do so. You guys and girls rock!
>  - Motivation - Fedora is supposed to be installed in 24 million
> computers worldwide (or so some say). This is a kick-ass distribution
> channel for artists. It should provide enough motivation for them to
> participate (if we are friendly with rules).
>   
Jep. Thats a good start for e.g. an article about Fedora Artwork or some
interview how it is made, etc.
>  - Marketing Involvement > I'm not sure how many people face this, but
> this is a typical marketing promotion campaign. It does require some
> work and free time. I'm making myself available for this and I can nag
> my employer to give me 5 hours weekly to work on this, plus my free
> time.
>   
Yeah, but I think 5-10h can be to a bit to little. In my experience if
such a campaign comes up its more like 3-4h a day / 7 days.
>  - Ambassadorial Work > I'm not sure on how this can be done, so some
> feedback from Ambassadors is welcome, and eventually we can see how we
> can help each other. Even between the involved departments/teams of
> Fedora in such, their work as moderators and promoters should be a must.
>   
I think we have proper channels for distribution there (FWN, planet,
Mailinglists, wiki).

As I said in my first sentence: you can reach very much people.

But you must IMHO also face the fact that it will be hard work and you
have to be very flexible all day and all night to communicate with
artists, the different Fedora Teams involved, organize Mailings on the
Mailinglist, meetings on IRC, structured timeplaning (I think here of
the good and nice Mails from John Poelestra which reminds us always on
the deadlines), be patient with soft souls and kick-ass to the lazy Ones
- Designers and artists are often (if they are not working in a
$design_agency VERY lazy :-) ), promote infos to all kind of people in
all kinds of shades, etc.
Because if you are not that way it can be bad not only for that small
project inside Fedora it could be very harmfull in the whole community!
If you are up to it I would say build a wikipage, make a timeplan (e.g.
beginning short before the Release Partys begin, because you can profit
from those events) and rock it...


mit freundlichen Grüßen / best regards
Henrik Heigl - wonderer at fedoraproject.org

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