Stephan "stippi" Assmus posted the following to the mailing list:
These last three items are actually what I wanted to stear up with my original email. Now, I'm voting for a contest that anybody interested in contributing artistically can participate in: Create one or more "sets" of icons that demonstrate the "style". The set should iclude these icons (picking something at "random"):must have:
- hard disk
- folder
- cd
- text document
- image document
- generic executable
- media player
- styled edit
- screen prefs
- background prefs
optional:
- bookmark
- query
- archive
- person
(If you can think of other icons that really should be included with the set
to make it possible to judge it, please speak up!)IMHO, it is perfectly fine to point out already existing icon sets, either
for BeOS/Haiku or for other open source projects (also for inspiration). Once
we see some designs posted to the list, we can decide about the next steps.Contest deadline: September 1st 2006.
(Of course, it is never too late until we have already worked on implementing
many icons.)If we get a lot of submissions and this list is not sufficient, either I or
someone else will try to put up a webpage on which we can compare these icons
and vote for them. (At least I am not willing to invest work into doing a
webside for this until I know if sets are contributed at all. Maybe it makes
sense to announce to this list if you pick up work on a set, so that we know
it makes sense to prepare a website.)The format of the icons will PNG at 64x64, 32x32 and 16x16 pixel resolution
for each icon of the set. The PNGs should contain only the icon with
transparency, not any background. Since no one uses Internet Explorer for
Windows, this should not be a problem.
I will put up an Icon-O-Matic version with PNG export feature within the next
week. You’re free to use any tool you like of course. Already providing
native icons gets you bonus points.There are no guidelines for creating a set! It’s totally up to your
creativity. After the contest, when we have decided/voted which set we like
best, then we will write up specific guidelines for how to create the rest of
all the icons to fit with the chosen design.Note/IMHO: Whoever is going to actually work on creating the rest of the
icons (doesn’t have to be a single person of course) gets more voting weight!
No one can be expected to create icons without being paid which he/she
doesn’t like.
Basically the deal seems to be this: Haiku’s current icon set is a goner, for legal reasons. Some people might find that disappointing, but it appears to be a fixed reality, and perhaps should be viewed as a wonderful opportunity to give Haiku a fresh, modern look. Stephan has written an application, “Icon-O-Matic” to design the new icon set with, downloadable from here: http://www.yellowbites.com/stuff/icons.zip
Tango was suggested on the mailing list, but some objections were raised over the fact isn’t very “Be-like”. Personally, I this in yellow would be pretty spiffy, but each to his own I guess. I also really like the work ar1000 did in one of his mockups, a nice melding of the BeOS colour palette with the realistic style of OS X. To see an entry from him would be nice.
Final thought: perhaps a wiki page on which to host the entries could be created?