[scribus] Scribus Icons Contest 2011

[Mike Sleger]

On Oct 7, 2011, at 7:40 PM, Gregory Pittman wrote:

> On 10/07/2011 07:11 PM, ale rimoldi wrote:
>> Dear Scribus community,
>> 
>> Many of you have probably noticed that the Scribus' icons set could
>> need some care!
>> 
>> If you are skilled in icons design and want to do a substantial
>> contribution to the Scribus project, you're kindly invited to get your
>> hands dirty and create a new icon theme.
>> 
>> We ask you to submit a proposal with 10 to 30 icons in one single PNG
>> file in the "Development>  UI" board in the Scribus forums
>> (http://forums.scribus.net/index.php/board,22.0.html).
>> You will probably want to add a description of your work.
>> 
>> The deadline for submitting your proposal is October 31 2011.
>> 
>> 
>> For questions and general comments, please reply to this email in the
>> Scribus mailing list or to this post in the Scribus forums.
>> 
> 
> If I have any concerns about this, it's that there is at most a vague sense of what is expected out of better icons or what failings the icons have now that might be satisfied by something new.
> 
> In addition, this is a rather tight deadline (now 24 days) for this, and it also seems quite different than open source development in general. It's as if we might expect one person or a small group to propose the direction that Scribus version 1.7 might go, given a few weeks, and they would be "awarded" the job of making that version.
> 
> Why does icon development need to be so different than software development? Can it be more interactive, more collaborative? Can we potentially say, "well, this icon works for me but this other one I just don't get..."?
> 
> I speak as someone who is not a graphic designer and will not be submitting to this, but as someone who might have some opinions about what looks good, suggests its meaning, and fits some sense of advancement in the icon set. And I'm certainly willing to listen to anyone else who has an opinion that they might be able to explain to help me understand one kind of appearance versus another.
> 
> Greg

One advantage to having one person or team design all the icons is continuity and consistency with the style, colors, design, etc.  If various icons are chosen across multiple submissions, the application could lose its sense of uniformity in the user-interface.  I would choose the best design for each icon, regardless of who submitted it, and then have one designer adapt the selections into their final images.

Mike