[Mageia-artwork] MCC icon (again)

[Rémi Verschelde]

2012/4/16 Max Quarterpleen <bogusman222 at gmail.com>:
>
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Rémi Verschelde <remi at verschelde.fr> wrote:
>> Here are my contribution to the brainstorming effort:
>>  - one version with the top of the Mageia logo and a gear (the one
>> that Max posted earlier) with a few modifications (color, border).
>
>
> The border gets very distorted with the smaller icons, looks like broken
> lines or something.
> The gold is nice and stands out, but it also looks like a sun :\
>

I agree that it looks like a sun. My first attempts were with brighter
colors, so I chose a goldish grey; the main thing which would make it
look like a gear instead of a sun would be to add depth or shadows.
But the 20x20 is very limitating in this regard.

About the border, I don't really understand what you mean. I find it
clearly visible on 48x48, still visible enough on 32x32, and invisible
in 20x20 (there a sort of greyish shadow around the gear, but
definitely not a border). When I look at the icons on the original
sizes, I don't find the border frustrating.

>>
>>  - one version with most of the Mageia logo and a wrench as if it was
>> used to "repair" or "customize" Mageia.
>
>
> This runs into the original problem we had, not very visible at the smaller
> icons. It's better than what we had, but the wrench also gets a little lost
> in a gray background.

Indeed, the 20x20 is a bit hard to read. The colors could be adjusted
according to the palette, to have a wrench which stands out on the
grey KDE theme. The first that comes to mind would be to colorize the
wrench in blue, but there already so much blue in Mageia! :) Maybe
purple, or something like that? But I fear that a purple wrench would
look a bit strange, and maybe would stand out too much.


To design an icon which would be good in 20x20, we should ask
ourselves: how complex can be an image made of 400 dots? Is it really
possible to have both a part of the Mageia logo AND an element which
suggests the idea of "tools", "configuration" on the same 20x20 icon?
The icon for systemsettings has no reference to KDE...
Hum, just looking at the icons on my K Menu, I saw that Network Center
(in Tools > System tools here) has a pretty clear icon with a hammer
and a globe. The hammer's handle is orange and is clearly visible.
Maybe we could use a hammer or a screwdriver, or any tool that can
have a colored handle, along the Mageia logo? On the Network Center
icon, the hammer is titled by 30° with regards to the vertical; it
does break the verticality but permits to have a big enough hammer
(the more we tilt it, the more we have to reduce its size to fit in
the icon).

Just random ideas from my cup of coffee :)
Rémi