Wallpaper contest for Mint 9

[clem]

A wallpaper contest was started here:

http://99designs.com/other-design-tasks ... mint-42399

It's in direct competition with the artwork submitted on this forum and on the Linux Mint artwork site. Whether it's here, on 99designs or on the artwork site, the artist whose artwork will be chosen for the default background will receive $100.

There are 3 great wallpapers in the forums at the moment that I am considering for LM9. With the contest we're getting an extra hand from artists outside of our community, to ensure we have even more artwork to choose from and to guarantee we'll end up with a great selection for our next release.

Please don't hesitate to post feedback about the contest, its submissions, and also your impressions on whether involving money is a good or a bad thing and the relationship between the community and outsourcing strategies.

Clem.
PS: Remember that all artwork produced in the 99designs contest is copyrighted and that you cannot use or reproduce it until we actually buy it. It'll be freed once it becomes ours, not before.

[Jay514]

I will PM & or E-Mail you, Thanks

[clem]

Hi Jay,

I'll answer you here, I prefer for this debate to be public.

I did underline the fact that I wanted all backgrounds to be open source, and I still do. Money has nothing to do with it. If we actually pay money to an artist we will actually DEMAND that his/her creation comes with all layers and components, so that we can modify it ourselves, free its content to the community and let everyone build upon it. So, whether it's done for free or whether it's ordered with money, we want Open Source artwork.

Now, when it comes to community involvement, fun and free participation, this is something beautiful and I hope I don't undermine this with this contest. I described how the CEs work in Linux Mint and how the only difference between a CE and an official edition isn't to do with quality, but with delays, availability and deadlines.

If you look at the contest right now, there are two wallpapers and their quality isn't nearly as good as any of the three backgrounds coming from the community. What's the different though is that the pace at which we're getting wallpapers is proportional to the amount of money we're ready to pay. And when it comes to meeting deadlines and ensuring we get what we want before a particular date, it's comfortable to think that we can do it.

I'm hoping the community will produce more artwork before LM9, I'm still not sure we've got what we want for the default background and there certainly isn't much in regards to alternative backgrounds. If we need more resources for something to be done in a timely manner and we can afford to pay for it, why wouldn't we? If it comes from the community then even better, and whether we have to pay an outsourced artist or thank a volunteer from the community, we'll be happy to do so as it's yet another step to ensure we come with a great release.

Clem.

[exploder]

A contest with a $100.00 prize seems like a very good idea! I looked at the artwork in the MintCast contest and the better part of it was very nice. I think a great deal of fine artwork will be created in the contest and people will enjoy themselves at the same time. Nice idea and good luck to all of the artists that participate!

[tower]

A good idea but short notice, what size of screen are you aiming for 2560 x 1600 like mint cast?

[clem]

Yes.

[ivaylo]

My great wish is the desktop picture to be taken directly from Nature. At this time of the year there is plenty of wonderful mint-green landmarks. Think about that. I prefer something real compared to artworks.

[Rovanion]

I personally think that to date, the best mint background is the default in Linux Mint 7.
I had to look a lot at it before I could decide upon that it is a photo of a hood of a car. Whether or not that is actually the case I am unsure. But you always end up looking a lot at the background, and it should be as a good painting, something that you cannot see the whole image of the first time you look upon it. Something that you can look upon many many times and still find something new.

[rekik]

I personally think that to date, the best mint background is the default in Linux Mint 7.

Same opinion. "Dew" has not been surpassed yet

[Unhyper]

I'm still new to Mint, and Linux in general, so I'm not sure how much my opinion weighs, if at all. Furthermore, while I like to dabble in graphics, I'm not qualified to post entries for this contest.

I did want to say though, I don't think this contest being on two sites, or having a monetary reward, in any way undermines the community spirit, or the Open Source spirit. It could have been problematic if it weren't executed in such an open, honest, and fair fashion.

[Bit Mad]

I like the Black Leather one mentioned on the blog - but the diagonal stripes remind me of a downwards trend graph - if it was flipped so that the stripes went the other way - upwards - that would be even better

[Carl]

My absolute favorite on the 99designs site so far has to be #48 by 00ap00 closely followed by 96works selection of wallpapers

[Oscar799]

My "in-house" favourites are by Zwopper and dlkreations.
The competition has attracted some excellent entries.
I was particularly impressed by the submissions from Talento Design and 96works

[midas]

OK, let's include the best 6 or 7 wallpapers from the 99 designs contest and let one be the winner. And please don't forget all time favourites like 'Dew' and 'Metal-mint' for instance. For me the wallpaper is just a tiny part of the whole artwork of a distribution. What has happened with the 'Elegance' LinuxMint is so famous for? And the GDM-theme for instance - LM7 had the most beautifull GDM-theme I have ever seen. Most important is a consistent and elegant artwork from booting...logging in...to desktop and wallpaper. I hope we can make that work for LM9!!

Greetz, midas

[Philip-III]

I don't mean to sound mean or not appreciative (I sure do realize the amount of effort involved in creating art), but most of the entries, including the "winner" appear pretty average (not to say mediocre, no offense). I've recently stumbled upon the pr09studio page (even the name suggests "Mint 9, look over here!" ), which has many pretty decent designs, some of them also targeted towards specific distributions (Ubuntu mostly from what I gather), but mostly unbranded or. Many of them also have various color versions. Either way, my point is that perhaps giving the lot over at pro09studio a shout could have been a good idea (realizing that part of this message should have been directed to that very same lot ). The "lot" appears to be a person called Leo L. (note: I am in no way associated with the site or the persons involved with it, I have just come to appreciate the art presented on it).

In this line of thought, I am kinda missing the earlier creativity and inspiration of the MintArt team. There have been pieces certainly worth eternal appreciation, but the number of such pieces has been dwindling in recent times. Again no disrespect or offense to any of the in-house artists in any way, just a (subjective) observation on my part.

[midas]

Great tip Philip III ....I see a lot of elegance going together wth simplicity!!

[Philip-III]

...well it occurred to me that perhaps some of those designs may kick in some inspiration in the MintArt community as well..

[tower]

Well the designs deemed very derivative, like they looked at what had been used before and sought to create something similar.

The mintCast contest produced a far better selection of original wallpaper!

I must admit I liked the black leather one that had been seen on the forums, the texture and detail were superb!

[Zwopper]

I hope it's OK to just keep posting wallpapers in the forum as usual,
or must all new submissions go through the contest page to be considered for Isadora?
*A curious GIMP-o-holic*

[tower]

Zwopper, I think the contest is now closed, Clem seemed to say above that those wallpapers posted on this site or on http://linuxmint-art.org/ will be considered.