GNUstep Icons Effort : you can help !

[Nicolas Roard]

Hi,

As explained in our previous post about this subject  
(http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/discuss-gnustep/2004-08/ 
msg00215.html), we want to improve the current state of gnustep icons  
-- as we believe icons play an important role in the perception of an  
environment by users.

Basically, this effort goes in two way: first, we want new, more  
modern-looking icons, and second we want a better system to deal with  
theses icons. The later will be done via the IconKit  
(http://cvs.gna.org/viewcvs/etoile/Etoile/Frameworks/IconKit/), which  
provides much refined possibilites than the actual icon "system". The  
former is in progress, and needed the redaction of an Icon Guideline to  
keep consistency (you can consult it here:  
http://www.quentinmathe.com/gnustep/documentation/UI/icons/ -- improved  
with your feedback since our first mail, but we're still looking for  
new or better ideas if you have them !). Of course, we then needed to  
find a graphist who could design icons following the guidelines.

As explained in our original post, we contacted some professionnal  
artists, and Jasper Hauser (http://www.jasperhauser.nl/icon/) agreed to  
work with us on that project (additionally to beeing a very good icon  
designer, he's also very interested by the project and even lowered his  
prices). The plan from now is to ask Jasper to create a first batch of  
icons:
        - not defined application icon
        - not defined file icon
        - not defined plugin icon
        - video file icon
        - image file icon
        - sound file icon
        - text file icon
        - home folder icon
        - folder icon
        - basic hard disk icon
        - cd/dvd icon
        
We think it's a good start and will provides us with the most easily  
recognisable icons by an user to characterise an environment.  
Basically, mostly Workspace icons ;-)

Then, if the cooperation goes well, we can continue on others icons --  
GNUstep applications icons like Gorm or ProjectCenter, and all the  
"standard" icons we list on  
http://www.quentinmathe.com/gnustep/documentation/UI/icons/c213.html .

As it's for a professionnal work, there's a price. Jasper told us he  
will ask about $400 for this first batch of icons, which should be  
completed by january/february (he already started to work, and the  
first results are quite nice). His estimation for the whole set of  
icons is around $1500. Note that the icons will be released under the  
Free Art licence (http://artlibre.org/licence.php/lalgb.html).

The reason we asked for a limited "first batch" of icons is because it  
can be seen as a "test", and also because we knew that in the worst  
case, we could pay him even if nobody else contributed. But of course,  
we will immensely appreciate if people contribute rather than pay  
everything, and we're really hoping for it :-)
(sadly we are not rich people :-)

The idea is now to create a page on gnustep.org, displaying the icons  
(and the names of every persons who made a donation), so you can track  
the progress. For sending money, we agreed with Adam Fedor to use his  
paypal account -- at least until other possibilites for raising money  
are available (using SPI, a foundation, whatever..).

So if you want to help GNUstep, I think it's a good thing to contribute  
to that effort :-) -- even a small participation would be nice (the  
more we are, the less it will cost us individually, and the more we can  
have wonderful icons). The paypal (http://www.paypal.com) account of  
Adam where you can send money is fedor@doc.com

A final note: our goal is the completion of the whole icon's list, and  
we will stop asking for donations when this goal is reached (we think  
it's a better idea to have a specific goal to complete in mind when  
asking people for money) but you are free to send more money, of course  
;-)

--
Quentin Mathé
Nicolas Roard