5.x Design Guidelines

[Zendrael]

Welcome @sethend and @byteshaman!
All ideas and any help are appreciated! Please give your thoughts about the itens mentioned in the first post of this thread too if you like.

@Misalf, I will download and try both, the theme and the icons... Don't know about the size yet. If the combination is good, we can use them then change what we think that will fit better to Core. Following what you said, what about a blue line unde the caption for active windows and just another gray for non-active ones?

[Misalf]

blue and gray - good.

[Zendrael]

Any other themes or icons to suggest?

[Misalf]

I don't know about good gui or icon themes - I only now that I want those.

One criteria for me, to call a theme good, could be that the window bar is about 18 pixels in height so a 16x16 icon fits in there while no space is wasted.

Also I like the close button to be clickable if the window is maximised and the mouse is moved to the very upper right corner (depends on window manager but some themes disable that feature).

A red close button is also good if it suits the theme.

I do not understand why so many themes make the window title text centered on the window bar.
I find it much more suitable if the text is displayed next to the window icon so my eyes can alwas start reading from a fixed point.

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I like your attempt to create flat styled icons.
Apart from the fact that your exit icon for example looks actually like an exit icon (while the default TC exit icon looks like.. hmm.. maybe a car door key hole) have you thought about making them resemble the default TinyCore icons a little bit more?

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By the way, why does the main TinyCore icon look like a screw head?

[gerald_clark]

Because it is a screw head.
Core is a tool kit.

[Zendrael]

Hi Mr. Gerald_Clark!

What do you think about our ideas here until now?

[coreplayer2]

I do not understand why so many themes make the window title text centered on the window bar.
I find it much more suitable if the text is displayed next to the window icon so my eyes can always start reading from a fixed point.

My eyes use the center as a fixed point and automatically finds title or other information from that point    ..it's simply what we are used to.    I believe Fluxbox has the option to change the window titlebar text location (but can't say for sure)

[Misalf]

You're right about Fluxbox. It's controlled by the theme.cfg ('window.justify: left'  in my case).
Might really just be a matter of usualness..
--
So, Core is a tool kit. Thus the screw head (I actually only noticed that because I have downloaded an image which had 'screw' in its file name).
For icon themes which replace TinyCore icons, it might be nice if those would be representing that.
F.e. the editor icon - I don't have a cartridge pen in my tool box but a pencil.
Hmm.. my imagination isn't going as far as I would like right now concerning the other icons but I hope you get the idea.

[byteshaman]

there are several possibilities and several ideas, but not sure exactly what would work.

as far as color schemes, one idea that might work (if anyone agrees) is : black, white, grey - with color only serving focal points.

if anyone is familiar with the movie, or comic book "Sin City" - thats kinda what i mean. the majority of everything was in black and white, until there was a focal point, a rose, an eye, the yellow bastard, then only THAT item would have color.

as far as icons, how does this work? does the tiny core team make each icon for each tcz or do those come automatically with applications from all distros? i'm still learning to understand how linux works. i am still under the impression that some of the apps i am using for tinycore are apps from other distros, while some apps are propietary to tiny core.

personally i would suggest something similar to the style of font-awesome icons :  http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/icons/

or something of the pixel art genre : http://8bitdecals.com/8-bit-image-gallery/

i got alot of help on the forum to get my efforts started in the right direction. the best i can currently do is try to return one good effort with another good effort. so here's me messing around in photoshop with tiny core logos. keep in mind that i do have all the fancy schmancy filters, layer styles, and plugins, but i am not applying them to this set. i can try that route if nobody likes any of these i submit today.

as for artwork i pretty much just use fractals these days. although a zipatone or dotted line grid may fit the brand a bit better.
i dont know. here's my toolbox of background textures : http://byteshaman.us/textures/
ok, well, here's one image of the words tiny core all fixed up :


and here's some with just simple fonts from my collection. its possible to fix up the fonts into something fancy, but im not sure what style we are looking to agree with, so i'm only providing fonts as a base.











again, this is not a graphic presentation. if we are looking for a graphic representation, then i can try something in that direction instead.

[byteshaman]

just adding to the brainstorm. feedback is welcome.

[Lee]

Hmmm... I'm no artist but I'm imagining something more "tool" themed.  Imagine this (then draw it): start with the current "Core" logo but make the 'C' bigger and turn it into a caliper that's measuring the 'o'.  Then turn the 'r' into a crane that's lowering the 'e' into place.  Maybe throw in some (very) subtle "steampunk".  If executed well, this could be very neat.  If executed poorly, it could be hideous.  That's why I haven't attached any images beyond the mental one. 

A little color is great, but whatever the logo is, it should render well in black and white or gray-scale too.

[Misalf]

I like the TC logo as it is basically because I recognize it within a blink of an eye but thats a very neat idea indeed.

I'm as well not an artist but I was trying to find some pictures / blue brints of screws used in PCs to have a base for making a Core icon which I associate with 'tooling' around with computers. Couln't find an exact match so I'll probably try to combine some findings.

If I'm correct, it's an flanged hexagonal headed screw with a Philips drive type.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw

[Zendrael]

Ok, let's define something about Core here:

• It is a toolkit to build your own environment
• It is Simple and Lightweight
• It is fast and extendable

I think the design of the artwork must follow what Core is and let what we do (people do) of it to our (their) own. 

[byteshaman]

i use the dojotoolkit. i have no idea what they thought, or if they put much thought into the branding much at all. dojo pretty much uses a very basic form of logo. i suppose its the product that counts the most. the rest is a bunch of ornament and decoration. we dont want too much distraction. in fact we want minimal distraction from the actual interface elements. hence, the minimal letters and font type. when i pick up a hammer, a screwdriver, or look at a stick of RAM, or a car's ignition control module - rarely do i say to myself : thats an awesome logo they put on that baby! i just grab it and use it. utilitarian isnt usually very decorative.

the mental picture is good. the concept is very good.
its always very difficult to pin down the actual execution of an illustrative logo as far as what it would/will look like in actuality.
do we agree we are looking for a illustrative graphic type of logo? a graphic has illustrative objects in contrast to...well, a non-graphic - which is just a series of lines and solids...words made of letters)
http://byteshaman.us/textures/ : there is a background called escheresque.png that might work for a background?

when making a logo, it is necessary that it scale up and down easily. it is also necessary that it be turned into low resolution low color (or black and white) and still be legible and recognizable as the logo it is. we must keep that in mind when deciding to use a graphic illustrative logo.

[Zendrael]

@byteshaman,
the eschereesque.png is good, I liked the denim.png too (if the logo whas white or some other grey color).

I want to throw another idea: how about to start from the actual logo and then try to modify it a little, then more and more...?