There was some good feedback this morning. Here are my responses to the majority of the issues you guys/gals brought up. 1. Too much "wasted space" at the top. Name a single high-profile website: slashdot.org, digg.com, newsvine.com, others any of these that doesn't waste the top 300px+ of their site with ads or other stuff. You simply won't find it. Also, look at the Kubrick, it too pushes content down. It is a high resolution world. If you aren't at 1024 (Full screen browser) then you are going to get left behind. Me, I keep my browser window at 1024x700 (and have Web Developer toolbar resolution to easily switch to 800x600) -- no matter what desktop resolution I happen to be using. I can probably play with the top bar and shave off 10px here or there, but you do NOT want to cramp and close in your Search form element. It has to have room to breathe. It won't seem like such a huge void if we get secondary links in, or if I do some visual goodness in that area. 2. Rounded corners I would be open to discussing this by committee, as I know I'm not the expert on mark-up. http://occy.net/tmp/rounded_corners.html [UGLY COLORS] The above uses no images, only mark-up and css. But isn't anti-aliased. {view src on it} 3.Color Scheme. The reason I stayed with the same colors, is that is what Dries wanted. I personally don't dislike them, but feel the palette would be better served having one or two more colors tossed in (But used sparingly) to the mix. 4. Technical issues. If there are any other details that need to be handled besides "making the vision come alive", then I'll have to defer to others. I'm great at white space and Design, and I know a LOT of css, but aside from that... I'll happily defer to others on technical issues. Keep checking the site today, I've got some nifty ideas I'm working on. I'll check back in after lunch. Peace Love and Bananas, Trae On 9/27/06, Trae McCombs <traemccombs@gmail.com> wrote:
First things first, Farsheed has done OUTSTANDING work on trying to incorporate a whole bunch of peoples ideas of what should or shouldn't be in the theme. Below isn't meant to be "open for discussion" per se. It is My Take[tm] on the direction I think the theme should go. If Dries likes it, cool, I hope everyone does too, but I know there will be those who absolutely hate my proposal.
My "code" is based off of the 14.zip version that Farsheed put up. I still feel he's the best person to pull these changes together once everything is all settled, I hope I've not made too much of a mess for him. ;) I don't know how to use diff and all that stuff as he does. I just make things pretty[tm].
"My" Theme: http://themes.net/
WHILE you look at the theme above, keep in mind I've only worked on the Fixed version. That isn't to say that I won't work on the fluid version too. Also note that It is NOT a finished version. Below are the tweaks I want to implement of which I feel will push this theme over the edge and make it worth of Drupal 5.0 default theme:
* Rounded Corners Yes, we love them don't we? I would like to have rounded corners on the following areas [current colors kept in tact]. 1. Search area 2. Mission 3. Footer
If you have Inkscape [ http://inkscape.org ] create a rectangle and click the rectangle select and set Rx and Ry to either 8 or 13. Those are the corner radii I'm thinking of using.
I know how to implement a "pure html" way to do rounded corners with no images { as can be seen on my bands site -- yes, it's crappy looking -- http://theinterference.com/ } But wanted to discuss this implementation with maybe Ted, Farsheed, others as to what would be the best way technically to implement the rounded corners. My way I think is smooth and clean, and works on all browsers, but does put a lot of extra mark-up. Do we want that much extra mark-up going into a core theme?
* Search bar and Footer bar Texture... these areas will have a nice clean texture in the background (of course, depending on the method we use for rounded corners) But the texture will really make those areas pop. I'll work on this tomorrow. I might simply repeat the "Glassy" feel from the Primary links to those areas.
* Secondary Links I'd say we should have a place for Secondary links built into the top search bar, much like the Primary links. These are probably just small font links left aligned.
* Logo on Right Not sure which logo to use... There are several Drupal Icon's laying around and wanted to know which is the "official one". This could tie into the "change the logo" discussion we had earlier. Would be nice to at least get the ability to change the logo easily with AJAX goodness into Drupal 5.0
That's about it...
If everyone hates this and loves Farsheeds better, my feelings won't be hurt. I figured I'd spend some time, and put up instead of shutting up. :)
The way that Farsheeds theme worked, still works, 2col(l/r) and 3col as is displayed. Again, I haven't touched fluid, so I'd have to go back in and fix those things.
I can dedicate the rest of this week to this project should everyone (read: Dries) approve of my work thus far, and possibly a wee bit more time after that.
Peace love and Bananas, Trae "The Artist Formerly Known as Occy"
PS. I hope I didn't forget anything that should have gone in this PS area. :)
-- Trae McCombs || http://occy.net/ Founder - Themes.org // Linux.com
-- Trae McCombs || http://occy.net/ Founder - Themes.org // Linux.com