This is the work blog for the KDE Visual Design Group a group of dedicated designers striving to improve community participation in design for KDE as well as design work in general for KDE applications and Plasma.

tisdag 25 februari 2014

The VDG new additions and a complete roster

In which we talk about the new members, the layout of the group and the community as well as plug the forums a tad more :)

"Growth" Creative Commons CC-SA
So a few weeks ago we had the pleasure of growing with one member and yesterday we grew even more. With yesterdays addition I though a new complete roster of members would be in place and just a quick walkthrough of what everyone does starting with the two new members.



Andrew Lake is a designer and engineer from Seattle who previously worked on the media player Bangarang. He has an insane energy and is a machine gun for new ideas and concepts. He is currently focusing all his attention on the coming Plasma Theme but in the coming months this will most probably spill out into desktop layout ideas, window decorations and the coming widget theme.


Uri Herrera is a designer from Mexico who's icon themes (Nitrux, Compass and Flattr) are already well know. He currently works on the coming Nitrux hardware and software sollution (coming this spring) as well as collaborating on the new Numix desktop. So wherever you are in Linux you will run into him. For us his main work will be to collaborate tightly with Acidrum on the coming Plasma Icon Theme making awesome even awesomemner (it's a word now).


Elena Ramirez is a talented and insanely driven designer and illustrator in Seville, Spain who works mostly on the web team. She is also an apt logo designer with a clear eye for layouts and forms.


David Brandl is our web-teammanager and a webdesigner from Austria who is quietly and solidly working away on the technical and design issues for the future of KDE and Plasma's internet presence.


Luisa Pires is a designer and branding specialist from Brazil - currently she is on the webteam but she will soon start working on logo's and press kit layout as new projects and technical ideas need good graphical representation and introductions.


Fabian Bornschein is the talented designer behind the Tilain Plasma Theme and an active participant in the Kubuntu G+ pages from Germany. He is currently working on the system tray icons (in tandem with Uri and Acidrum's icon work) and the future Plasma Theme.


Acidrum is the icon designer who's sketches we recently posted about. His work is the new icon theme - a work that is moving forward constantly with icons being added daily.


Cuan Knaggs is a South African designer and Branding specialist who is currently on the (perhaps misnamed) Webteam.


Mohammed Nafees is our tech guy. A student with a solid past in the KDE community who will in the future work on the technical sollutions and issues that will crop up during the design work. For now he is doing his finals (Go Mohammed! Ace those tests!) but when he comes back this is where his focus will be.


Nuno Pinheiro is the designer of the Oxygen theme and KDE's grand old man in design. He is our go-to-guy with strange questions concerning design and Qt and a solid shoulder to cry on when things get too hectic.


Me (Jens Reuterberg), I am an illustrator and graphics designer from Sweden who work as project lead for the VDG trying to make certain that all this talent above is used properly, seen properly and that the VDG and the design community in KDE will be a lasting thing.

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Aside from us there are members who for various reasons get advisory roles more than active roles. Some balance between active and advisory some lay back for now giving technical and design suggestions and back-up later.

Marco Martin is a Plasma Developer from Italy who's work with the coming system tray has already been posted - he is wildly trying to get us all up to snuff on technical issues (good luck Marco ;) ) as well as being a design contributor in the group.

Ivan Čukić is a Plasma Developer from Belgrade who created the popular Lancelot launcher and is right now up to his neck in work on Plasma Next who is combining this with his work on a Activities Switcher and design contributions.

Malcer Quaid is the designer of the Caledonia theme who had to take a step back to advisor to put all his focus on the coming Chakra theme. 


Further advisers are present in the shape of the "Eye of Sauron" aka Sebastian Kügler from the Plasma Devs and Hans Chen a community admin.  



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But Wait, There's More! There is the community to talk about! The idea behind the VDG community forums on the KDE-forums is to allow the community to take an active role in the design work with Plasma and other KDE projects. 

Here developers will ask for help, or you can post mockups and sketches and suggestions for new ideas on design in KDE.

I've said this before but it deserves repeating. We read every... single... post. Even if you think "maybe this idea isn't that great" post it! Sketch it up (and you don't have to be DaVinci just draw a few boxes on a piece of paper and take a photo of it to better show of your idea). If you see a project that needs help - help them.


There are rules though: contributions always trump criticism. A contribution doesn't have to be perfect - criticism does. I want to have that said so no one thinks that it's a free for all - we follow art school /design school guidelines here and you will do well reading up them. Lets make it a positive space where everyone feel welcome to post contributions and idea and where we can foster a good sense of criticism where it assists instead of tears down!


The more people we are helping out the better the end result will be!

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