Open Source Design

So we start working…
I think this is going to be a very interesting process (though a fairly short one, as the deadlines are tight).

Here are a couple of recommendations:

• Post your sketches on the blog, we can refer to them and provide some feedback.
• If you want, upload PSD files too, so we might take a pass at each others work and collaboratively design this.
• We’re supposed to start from 2 icons: ‘posts’ & ‘links’, both grayscale, 16×16 pixels.
• What I usually do when I want to get some inspiration for icon design, is search the web to learn how people usually represent the concept through an icon. My trick is, using Google search on small images search with the function+’icon’ as the quary, which in our case would look something like this: posts icon & links icon.
• I have just signed up for vis.ualize.us and started tagging some reference images with ‘osd2′ & ‘wp-icon-ref’. For those of you who use it, it can be a great way to share our references.
• I will add a vis.ualize.us image feed from the tag ‘osd2′ to our sidebar, later this week.
• also, check out this article.

I will paste Jane’s email here just for our reference:

Okay, so about half of the original volunteers dropped out based on the contest aspect. On one hand, bummer, because making it a true community thing was kind of cool, I thought. On the other hand, cool, because there will be fewer competitors, so your odds of being chosen just went up!

If you are not using the 2.7 nightly build, the new design style with the menus can be seen in a comp here: http://iammattthomas.com/27/

If you feel like you need to see it live but don’t want to switch to 2.7 yet, let me know and i can give you a contributor login to my test site (most of menu will be missing b/c of permissions, but you would be able to see the menus in situ and see how they expand and collapse).

I think the two icons to start with so we can make sure we’re on the same page should be the Posts icon and the Links icon. There are so many established icon metaphors for web links it seems like that one will be easy to start with, and Posts is probably the most important one.

Posts will need to be clearly different from page. Something like a paper tacked on a bulletin board would be better than something that looks like the Microsoft Word document icon, for example. Which is not to say that you should use that metaphor… go ahead and think about it and do whatever seems right to you. Feel free to submit more than one direction if you want to. Only one style is necessary from each person, but I know some people like to do multiple options to explore different styles, so just wanted to let you know you’re not limited here.

The judging, as with any design judging, will be somewhat subjective. We’ll be looking for the styles that fit best with the 2.7 design. As I mentioned in the original post, we’re thinking thin lines, flat styling, and if possible some hint of old-fashioned style, such as displayed by the Georgia font, old typewriter keys, Hatch Show Print, fleur-de-lis iron scrollwork, etc. But don’t let that constrain you. Since there are half a dozen of you proposing styles, we’re looking forward to the variety that will hopefully come in.

If you have any questions, whether it’s about a concept you’re considering for the icon object, or a technical question about hex values and font sizes, please feel free to contact me. You can use this email, or if you’re on Skype I am janeforshort. The first two can be done in small size only, 16×16, and in grayscale. If you do a color version too, that’s fine, but for the first round I thought it would be nice to keep it simple. If you do a color version too, we’ll definitely check it out.

I’m thinking if people can send their post/link icons by the end of November 1st, that’s two days. If that’s not enough time, let me know, but I wanted to give the bulk of the time for working on the full set. If everyone sends their icons in early, then we”l review them early. Also, as soon as you send in your icons, I’ll have the lead developers/designers review them, and will let you know as soon as possible, and no later than by the following day if there’s any reason for you not to move on to the full set, so if you tend to work  fast, you won’t be held back waiting for the whole group.

The full icon set needs to be implemented by launch (which is the 10th), so ideally we should try to have the icons done and delivered at the latest by the 8th. So the sooner the better, but again,  if anything comes up just let me know. And if I’ve forgotten to provide any necessary information, please let me know that as well.

We’re really looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
Thanks again for your enthusiasm and willingness to contribute.
Jane

Let’s do it!