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Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests?

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cds60601
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#16 Post by cds60601 »

kcin wrote:@Wheelerof4te interesting idea, thank you.

@cds60601 I like that looks corporate, reminds me of a thinkpad. But I kind of want to make something original versus using someone else's work.
Roger that, kcin. I admire folks (such as yourself) that actually have a talent with imagery. Me, I got nadda, lol.
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#17 Post by kcin »

I had another idea thanks to all the suggestions. Going for a dark theme and forgoing gradients and landscapes this time, might just make a different theme submission altogether.

Thoughts on this? I feel much stronger about this concept.

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@cds60601 thank you for the kind words, the dark theme did inspire me in fact.

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I'm going to try to outline how I formulated my idea about this one, as it's fresh in my mind. So after some of the suggestions about the theme reflecting on dachshunds (Andy's dog buster from toy story), I started thinking how I could implement the idea without redrawing buster completely. At first I thought of doing a detailed vector dog, but then I felt it was too literal. I then stumbled upon picaso's hand drawing of his dachshunds, and while the drawing is just a squiggle, I really liked the concept of a single line.

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I did a quick mouse sketch, but standing didn't feel right, so some modifcations and the semi sitting pose felt more right, I also removed the eye because I felt it wasn't needed to convey the concept and would be odd to have the dog looking at you.
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I made a line vector in Inksape using a single line.
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Afterwards I spent ages trying to figure out colors, brown looked bad on the dog, and then it struck me my drawing looked like a bird! So I had to modify it until it felt right.
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Afterwards I was struggling with the color scheme, no amount of fills and gradients or colors seemed to be working for the background or line drawing. I re-read the thread and the wallpaper cds60601 posted gave me an idea to use darker colors for once and try a solid fill. For the line colors, i also noticed the background wallpaper in andy's room has a nice blue to green combination, I played around with it until I felt it looked nice, not identical but I feel it works.
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I also felt that cramming the debian logo or debian text would not be necessary as just a hint of it works well as a background pattern in my opinion, was a little inspired by Ubuntu's wallpapers as they don't include ubuntu's logo either. (However the eye of the beaver kind of freaks me out and the colors are a little too much).
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#18 Post by cds60601 »

I personally like your idea here! For your consideration, have a look at this link:
http://cdn-www.dailypuppy.com/dog-image ... 1_w450.jpg

What might also work is a head shot, head tilted to either the left or right as though Buster would be trying to understand your words.
As to the Debian logo, perhaps an enlarged dog tag with the logo on it. The face would be done in the same fashion as in the movie or perhaps (and even better) in an outline as you have done and not an actual dog picture.

Just a thought ;)

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#19 Post by kcin »

Thanks for the suggestion chris, some good ideas. I've had a similar idea about the dog tag concept, might give it a try. I'm going to try a few different things in the coming weeks to further develop the proposal theme, so there is some variation perhaps for the different components like login screen, boot screen, etc.

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#20 Post by golinux »

Please don't let history repeat itself. The last attempt at 'cutsy' - Space Fun - failed miserably. Sure, Buster is a dog but have you ever considered that cat-lovers might not appreciate having a dog on their desktop? (Disclaimer: I have no affection for either.) Really, Debian is more sophisticated than that. Neutral abstract usually wins the day and kiss is always the best principle. Over at Devuan, there was even an objection to gradients!
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#21 Post by golinux »

kcin wrote:I've had a similar idea about the dog tag concept . . .
Dog tags? I would prefer not to see Debian militarized (or turned into a cartoon). But knowing the history of Debian decisions, bizarro world wouldn't surprise me.
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#22 Post by Wheelerof4te »

^It's a cute-looking dog on a dark background. Nothing militarized here. And why should cat lovers be offended in any way if the theme is meaningful? I'm a cat lover myself. Is the OP supposed to be catering to every minor trivial group on the planet, since Debian is a international distro?

Personally, I like the idea. Maybe add ten paws around the dog, purely symbolic.

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#23 Post by kcin »

@golinux Thanks for your input. I do understand what you mean and have read about space fun, this is why my initial concept was moving away from literal interpretations of buster. But I do agree with some people that the name fitting the concept (if you can make it work) is good as well. Not sure I agree about dog tags being only for military, as you know they are used on dogs for owner information, but for now I decided it's not really needed in this concept.

@Wheelerof4te I like the concept of adding ten some how, but after trying it for a while I just couldn't make it work for the main wallpaper earlier. But I'll see if I can incorporate some how into other designs like the shirt or the box, but if not I will just use text. But thank you very much for the suggestions.

I've always indented to provide variations and I know not everyone wants to see dogs everywhere, so I will be conveying the concept via shared colors and such. I made a few simple wallpapers that I feel fit the theme and I will be probably using them across the proposal in different parts and also offer them as a separate wallpaper choice. I've tested them and I think they look simple but sharp. Thinking the theme will be called bestFriend, because you know the whole a dog being a man's best friend thing. For simpleOutlook proposal, I will probably just toss all the other wallpapers in the proposal and then maybe it will be made into a debian wallpaper pack or perhaps someone will use it in the future. So for now that's my plan, but always open to further suggestions or ideas.

Various wallpaper variations on buster design.
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#24 Post by Pick2 »

kcin wrote: ... I know everyone wants to see dogs everywhere
There ... Fixed that for you :) :lol:

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#25 Post by kcin »

Pick2 wrote:
kcin wrote: ... I know everyone wants to see dogs everywhere
There ... Fixed that for you :) :lol:
Thanks. :D

On a related note I've updated simpleOutlook with source files and also created bestFriend theme proposal.

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#26 Post by bedtime »

I like the Dachshund idea, but I can't seem to shake it from my mind that the dog looks to be emptying its colon. The reason seems to be that its behind is a little off the ground. I'm thinking if the dog's derriere was to be on the ground—properly sitting—it would look much better. Also, it might better bring to mind the quality of stability, as the dog is more grounded—literally and figuratively; the dog is there and refuses to move but is guarding its territory. Debian is like that: stable, loyal, patient...

A wonderful concept, and with the appropriate changes, you would have my vote. I think it would be nice to give a little character to Debain and make it fun. People would then take off with designing things that the dog would do.

Could be interesting. :)

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#27 Post by kcin »

As a dog owner myself, the pose that dogs make is a bit different, so I personally don't see it myself. If you want to see, you can google image search, you'll notice how their back is arched a certain way and both legs are much closer together. The pose I have is more like the dog is excited to see someone and is waiting to raise up to greet, the back legs are in a comfortable position and the dog feels stable to me, wagging it's tale perhaps. If I was to drop the dog too low, it looks a bit odd to me, dachshund don't seem to normally sit with 1 leg on each side, they appear to prefer both legs to one side, which makes it a bit complex for this design. Sitting down fully also makes it look a bit lazy, the legs becomes much shorter, also starts to look a bit bird like in my opinion. A fully standing pose might work better on a bigger dog, but because of the way this breed is long it looks unstable to me as well. But thank you for the input.

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#28 Post by golinux »

You could always animate it jumping and wagging. Moving thingies seem to be all the rage these days. :roll:

An enclosed static object in the middle of a canvas is about the worst design choice possible. The swirl works because it it more dynamic. Maybe Buster playing with the swirl would work better. Or even just a head and paw peeking out from the side reaching for the swirl or a thought bubble if you want to be corny.
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#29 Post by kcin »

golinux wrote:An enclosed static object in the middle of a canvas is about the worst design choice possible.
I would disagree, I prefer to center objects for wallpapers for a few reasons. Number one is that wallpapers aren't dynamically scalable for each resolution, if you place something to the left or right, once cut down the distance between top and bottom will not be equal and it will look off. Number two is that the center is typically not used for desktop icons so that the design is not covered up.
golinux wrote:Buster playing with the swirl
That's not a bad idea, I can see like a swirl ball and the dog playing with it. Perhaps for someone else to try, in a different design.

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#30 Post by golinux »

kcin wrote:Number one is that wallpapers aren't dynamically scalable for each resolution, if you place something to the left or right, once cut down the distance between top and bottom will not be equal and it will look off. Number two is that the center is typically not used for desktop icons so that the design is not covered up.
We got around this in Devuan with narrow-small, wide-small, narrow-large and wide-large options that work reasonably on all resolutions. Here it is with custom theme and icons. If you're interested we did grub and login too. (Don't want to hijack your thread.)
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#31 Post by kcin »

golinux wrote:
kcin wrote:Number one is that wallpapers aren't dynamically scalable for each resolution, if you place something to the left or right, once cut down the distance between top and bottom will not be equal and it will look off. Number two is that the center is typically not used for desktop icons so that the design is not covered up.
We got around this in Devuan with narrow-small, wide-small, narrow-large and wide-large options that work reasonably on all resolutions. Here it is with custom theme and icons. If you're interested we did grub and login too. (Don't want to hijack your thread.)
I like the muted and basic design, very corporate. I think that wallpaper demonstrates in some ways what I mean, because the logo is not centered or at least adjusted properly it feels very off balance to me. The consistency between up down relation should be 1 part top and 2 parts bottom, but it doesn't line up properly depending on the resolution.

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#32 Post by golinux »

kcin wrote:
golinux wrote:
kcin wrote:Number one is that wallpapers aren't dynamically scalable for each resolution, if you place something to the left or right, once cut down the distance between top and bottom will not be equal and it will look off. Number two is that the center is typically not used for desktop icons so that the design is not covered up.
We got around this in Devuan with narrow-small, wide-small, narrow-large and wide-large options that work reasonably on all resolutions. Here it is with custom theme and icons. If you're interested we did grub and login too. (Don't want to hijack your thread.)
I like the muted and basic design, very corporate.
Muhahahaha. You are a real comedian!
I think that wallpaper demonstrates in some ways what I mean, because the logo is not centered or at least adjusted properly it feels very off balance to me.
Did you actually look at the wallpaper without the windows and icons? It is very well balanced IMO. In any case, what happens here makes no diff to me since I've moved on from the train-wreck that Debian has become . . .
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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#33 Post by cds60601 »

"In any case, what happens here makes no diff to me since I've moved on from the train-wreck that Debian has become . . "

If you don't care, why participate in this thread or the forum for that matter?
I think it may be a valid question since it just seems a tab contradictory to me (Well, that's the way I'm reading. Others may not see it that way).

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#34 Post by kcin »

golinux wrote:Muhahahaha. You are a real comedian!
I'm being serious, corporate design tends to be very clean and well developed. Search for corporate design and you'll see what I mean. Large corporations spend millions to create a consistent design to convey their branding, it's often not even noticeable it's so good.
golinux wrote:Did you actually look at the wallpaper without the windows and icons?.
Yeah, I looked at the wallpapers, just used the screenshot as an example. In my opinion there is a slight discrepancy in balance which varies based on the resolution. It's not a big deal, but I tried to illustrate what I meant. You see how the teal bar and the yellow bar have identical height, as they cut half way through the middle positioning of the logo? However the pink bar does not correspond to the same position, it should either be 1 full bar or exactly 1/2 half bar to bring balance, this varies based on resolution and creates imbalance in my opinion. The logo is also far too close to the left and on a smaller resolution would be covered up by desktop icons. This is why I prefer to use centered designs for desktops, irrelevant to the size of the desktop the design is always symetrically balanced when recut or centered. Otherwise you'll need to create a separate design for each resolution, moving each element each time.

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Re: Making a Debian Buster theme proposal, thoughts/suggests

#35 Post by golinux »

@kcin . . . it's a good thing then that we have many choices and are not forced to use anything we don't want (though that is starting to change with creeping lock-in) . . .
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