Ubuntu Wiki

Create new Edubuntu Wallpaper for Natty

• Sponsor: Edubuntu / Jonathan Carter

• Posted: 17 Nov 2010

• Due: 17 Mar 2011

• Assigned: Artwork Team

• Packages affected: edubuntu-artwork

Introduction

Edubuntu desires to enhance Ubuntu with the best open source educational software available and to provide a solution which is easy to install and maintain.

The current wallpaper is two (2) releases old and is in need of something fresh and new. The successful candidate may be used to inspire the remaining Edubuntu branding.

Roles

• Students
• Teachers

Desired message to Students

• Edubuntu is:
  • Fun
  • Empowering
  • Satisfying
  • Easily available
  • A valuable experience
  Metaphors and associations:
  • Games
  • Exploration
  • Pencil
  • Water colors
  • Science Experiment
  • Spelling Bee
  • Vehicle to reach new ground
  • Path through chaos
  • Connecting the dots
  • Building blocks

Desired message to Teachers

• Edubuntu is:
  • Stable
  • Reliable
  • Secure
  • Free of charge
  • New ideas
  • Inspire and motivate
  • Improve academic performance
  • Improve personal growth
  • Sophisticated and rewarding learning experience
  Metaphors and associations:
  • Science
  • Poem
  • Music
  • Math
  • Teaching
  • Learning
  • Community
  • Centers of knownledge
  • Beacon of light

Note: Avoid the most common education clichés, including books and chalkboards. The Edubuntu team can't stand them and making the desktop look like a classroom is not inspiring and motivating at all.

Palette

The Edubuntu palette is rooted in beige and red and the community wishes to continue this tradition by using colors which are vibrant yet pleasing to the eye.

The wallpaper must blend with and support desktop panels, windows and icons (as far as they appear on the desktop). The selection of colors must support the impression of confidence, lightness, and performance, without becoming a distraction in day-to-day use. Aside of this, there is no predefined, required palette for the wallpaper.

Constraints

• The desired dimensions of the successful candidate should be 2560 x 1600 pixels. See Background Guidelines for additional information.

  • Flickr restricts the image format for free accounts to 1024 x 640 For the purposes of submissions this is acceptable.

• The successful design will be accepted in the Portable Network Graphics ( "png" ) and/or Scalable Vector Graphics ( "svg" ) format.
• The desired design must go well with the colors used in the interface.

• Submissions must adhere to the Creative Commons ShareAlike 3.0 license.

• Attribution must be declared if the submission is based on another design.
• No logo and no text. Such elements attract too much attention. Constantly reminding the user of the name of the distribution does not communicate confidence.

Workflow

• Post submissions to the Edubuntu Natty Wallpaper Flickr group.

• The successful candidate will be chosen by members of the Edubuntu community.

• Comments and suggestions for improvements may be posted to the Artwork Team list ( ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com ) for discussion and/or posted to the submission on Flickr. All comments should be constructive and adhere to the Ubuntu Code Of Conduct.

• The successful design will either be selected by polling the Artwork Team membership or by an impartial judge.

ToDo

• Define colors used in the panel, windows. Evaluate them in light of the intended message (lightness, performance). Suggest changes accordingly.
• Identify icons likely to appear on the desktop
• Create templates that allow to see proposals in context
• Select associations and metaphors and work on literal or abstract takes on them.

Notes

Ideally, we'd like to use it for LDM (LTSP Login Manager) as well. LDM doesn't have the ability to have different font colours in different areas of the display. All text can be black or white or any other colour. This means that the wallpaper should ideally not vary in colour too much from place to place, at least not where text is present. This is non-critical, since we can have another wallpaper for LDM, perhaps even based on the main wallpaper.