Re: Icon-project

[Uli Kusterer]

In article <mailman.98.1107158449.2841.discuss-gnustep@gnu.org>,
 "ETCS (SW) Jordan, J.D." <jordanjd@bonhomme-richard.navy.mil> wrote:

> The person who designed the NeXT got it right!  I 'm sorry, I
> don't remember the guys name, I have it in a book at home (I'm currently in
> Bahrain).  But in essence, Steve Jobs got it right by hireing a professional
> designer to build the interface.  There has never been a graphical
> environment before or after that lived up to that standard.

 Just out of curiosity: Do you say the same about MacOS X? Because it 
was definitely a professional designer (or several) who did the Aqua 
design.

> Now twenty
> years later, there have been improvements in usabiility and there are some
> aspects of other environments that could be incorporated into GNUstep
> thereby improving on the original NeXT environment.  I like most of the
> icons produced by Andrew Lindesay, I believe they have the right look and
> feel for the environment.

You mean like the ones at 
<http://www.gnustep.org/UserSuite/UserSuite_Apps.html> ?

While I agree that they are beautifully drawn, and mostly have a similar 
style (the exception being Terminal, PPPControl and BuildKernel, which 
have a more Luna/Aqua look to them), I do not consider them very 
symbolic for the things they are supposed to represent. A good part of 
this may be because some of them don't work internationally.

 For example, the typical mailbox here in Germany is a square box and 
yellow. As such, it took me quite a while to figure out what the GNUmail 
icon was supposed to be (AFAIK that's a British Mailbox, right?). 
Similarly, PrintSpool doesn't look anything like printing, only like a 
spool (and since a print spool is actually a list or a queue, a 
yarn-spool like on the icon doesn't conjure the same image for me).

> I fully support expanding that selection and
> modifying the basic icons to meet the criteria enumerated in the Icons
> Guideline Document.

 Ah. So I guess you agree with me that we'd need to update e.g. 
PrintSpool so it conforms to Chapter 5 of the icon design guidelines. 
Good. But looking over the icons on that page, most of them have this 
problem, so I'm not sure there'd be much left of Andrew's icons.

> But, if the plan is to move off in a radically
> different direction then I have to disagree.  Gnome and KDE have absolutely
> horrid icons and basically horrid interfaces, they have no style, no grace
> and were pretty obviously engendered by young adults who's only artistic
> sense is derived from way too much time wasted staring at Saturday morning
> cartoons on television.

 Well, actually I wouldn't put it that way. I even kind of like many of 
GNOME's and KDE's icon sets. The set I've seen most often in KDE kind of 
reminds me of the BeOS icons, which I always liked due to their 
distinctive style and, in most cases, their well-working symbolism.

 I do agree, however, that GNUstep should try to have its own distinct 
visual style, or we'll just end up being confused with the other big 
environments. And since today's computers pack a lot more power, I think 
we should also strive for a style that wasn't easily achieved in the age 
of 8-bit displays. A modern, yet understated look should help people 
recognize GNUstep while setting it apart from KDE (or the slightly 
overloaded flashy styles of MorphOS and other OSs that had really good 
graphics hardware to run on in the eighties).

> I really hope we do not end up with a bunch of
> cartoonish icons.  All of that said, I will not complain as long as the
> capability to use whatever icons I choose is maintained.

 Well, there's Cartoonish and Cartoonish, I guess. I personally consider 
Andrew's icons to have a cartoonish look, actually. More like the Monkey 
Island games, and some more like watercolors (like the He-Pao graphic 
novels or the Batman cartoon from a few years ago), but still cartoonish.

 OTOH, Jesse's icons <http://www.jesseross.com/clients/icons/> are 
reminiscent of drawings as well. Would you like something with a 
cel-shading-inspired look like that? Or do you consider that cartoonish 
as well?

 That said, have you looked at Jasper Hauser's web page at all? 
<http://www.jasperhauser.nl/icon/> I don't think he has a single icon 
that I would consider cartoonish, so I guess you're safe.

Cheers,
-- Uli Kusterer
http://www.zathras.de