[ubuntu-art] Extending the art direction on a per-program basis

[JL]

> Hey everyone;
>
> This post easily would not be in regards to intrepid, possibly it's
> successor. It's in relation to extending the art-teams direction beyond
> theme creation, into program layouts and per-program optimization.
>
> One of the main things I'm noticing with Ubuntu is that we have a lot of
> -really- nice themes ready and poised. Dust is simply astounding, for
> example (please post the Dust theme files, I love them). However, if we ever
> plan to take on interface masters such as the designers over at Apple and
> Microsoft, we need to polish individual programs once we have established
> themes.
>
> A good example of an unpolished looking program is Asilerot Solitare. The
> game looks horrible, and is in no way related to any Ubuntu theme. To make
> asilerot solitare look good, all we need are some cards and a new
> background. Firefox is a good example of when a per-program theme is made.
> The Dust firefox theme adds amazing polish, and solidifies the theme.
>
> Other programs just have inconsistant layouts, if we managed to steal away
> some programmers they could just make sure programs have a more standardized
> layout.
>
> Overall, this would include a slow per-program layout update, and involve
> maintaining program changes post-update (or getting the devs to add it to
> the changes to their main builds). Programs that support themes (like
> firefox or Solitare) and programs frequently used (such as Nautilus or
> Evolution) would be the best to focus on.
>
> This post is mostly observational, but I personally beleive that it should
> be a priority - once we have a polished, updatable theme (such as OSX is
> doing with Aqua).
>
> -Ken Vermette


Program Layout. Good point. So we need something more than a theme, we need
to make a theme for each program shipped with ubuntu... and maybe code a theme
manager for those programs that don't support theme. We need programmers and a good artist.
UI isn't just a .gtkrc and some images
Canonical should seriously put some money on this.