[Design-team] F15 wallpaper 0-day update

[Martin Sourada]

On Wed, 18 May 2011 11:24:30 -0400 
Máirín Duffy wrote:

> On Wed, 2011-05-18 at 15:58 +0200, Martin Sourada wrote:
> 
> > Still there's absolutely no need to go out of your way and design
> > something completely different.
> 
> Actually there was, let me explain. I started working with Tatica's
> latest file around 5 PM last night. I exported all the individual
> elements she and I had created (we had worked together on the
> wallpaper before I left for SXSW + Wedding + Honeymoon + Red Hat
> Summit) to fit a 1920x1200 wallpaper size, then I pulled them in as
> individual layers in the Gimp and started styling them.
> 
> The problem is it is a very challenging composition. It got to be 1:00
> AM, I was not making much progress. I was trying to fix the aurora
> graphics that I'd done in the original SVG. I ended up taking some
> stock smoke photographs, colorizing them, and trying to make them
> into a nice-looking aurora. Since it was getting late and abstract
> compositions are a lot easier and less-challenging, and since if we
> were going to do a 0-zero day it really had to be done today
> (Wednesday), I stayed up until 3 AM to style the auroras into an
> abstract wallpaper that could be used.
> 
> If I had maybe 96 hours to work on it, absolutely I wouldn't have had
> to 'go out of my way' (except I really just worked with aurora
> designs, which was actually on the way) to do something 'completely
> different' (again, working with the original aurora layer from the
> current wallpaper.)
> 
I understand that, still I think it is not wise to change the design
post-GA. In my humble opinion it would be better to just take your
time, if that's what you need, and target not 0-day but
maybe the first week and polish what's there instead of throwing most
of it off. I believe anything other than that would create lots
of negative feelings and/or negative feedback.

> You can see the evolution in the XCFs and other files here (currently
> uploading):
> 
> http://duffy.fedorapeople.org/art/f15/2/
> 
Thanks for that :-)

> Our last team meeting was March 1. After that I had to take care of
> SXSW, prepare for my wedding, get married, take a honeymoon, and then
> work day & night in prep for the Red Hat Summit, then go to the
> Summit. Understand this timeline first.
> 
> Now I want you to look at the log from that meeting:
> http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-design/2011-03-01/fedora-design.2011-03-01-20.00.html
> 
> Tatica worked her butt off. You can see from the log (and the ones
> before it I am sure) that I helped her while I was here. Who helped
> her while I was gone?
> 
Answer to that question is, sadly, no-one. The most I produced was
feedback and packaging. I tried fixing some glitches, but gave up after
seeing that every action, even as simple as selecting an object, takes
a lot of time (on the order of few minutes) on my ancient hardware :-(

Come to think of it, I'm not sure how many people knew you were simply
away and not MIA, but I recall at least blog post about your wedding
and Tatica mentioning your honeymoon. Seeing back on what was (not)
being done during that time, it would be perhaps a good idea to have a
vice-leader (or backup-leader ;-)) who could help managing things (like
IRC meetings, "bugging" people about deadlines, ...) in your absence.

> This is from March 3:
> http://tatica.fedorapeople.org/Themes/F15/sky-background3.png
> 
> At this point I remember distinctly Tatica saying, again before I
> left, that it wasn't finished and needed more polish, and I remember
> her mentioning polish ideas that don't look like they were applied in
> the final product. I didn't think then that she would disagree with a
> last-ditch effort to apply polish for F15.
> 
> The goal here is to collaborate and work together using free software
> tools to make Fedora look great. The goal is not to enact a
> conspiracy, hurt anyone's feelings, or disrespect anyone's work. I
> would have thought coming from me, this would have gone without
> saying, and I'm hurt and confused as to why so many have interpreted
> this effort so very differently.
> 
People who know you well enough probably wouldn't interpret it the "bad
way", but from an outsider point of view it certainly looks different
than intended.

> > Please don't take it offensively, I just don't feel that throwing >
> something - that was already done and that will be present on every >
> Fedora 15 Review that does feature other than gnome desktops - out is
> > the way to go, irrespective of what change in quality it delivers. 
> 
> I feel as if there's a lot more respect here for process than the
> outcome of the process.
Well, I'd say, for me they're both equally important. We are promoting
doing design the opensource way, so the process should be very
important to us.

> In the end how much does it matter that
> reviews show a different wallpaper? Are reviewers more important than
> Fedora users?
> 
Erm, I don't want to start the branding flame again... So I try to be
quick: the users look at the reviews, see the wallpaper, then install,
update and see something *completely* different. Would they feel happy?
Or sad? Or confused? Or deceived? I don't know, but one should always
have in mind the worst case scenario before making big decisions.

Martin
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