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Re: what ugly mascots
by Danny Allen on Saturday 19/Jan/2008, @18:55
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Obviously a comment from someone not actually at the event: these guys were great, and one of the (many) highlights of the event. And the costumes are technically excellent, and very true to the mascot design.
A mascot is not a logo, and in KDE 4.0 the use of the Konqi mascot throughout the KDE interface has been scaled back for reasons of "professionalism". So what is the issue with keeping a fun and long-serving part of our project alive at events like this?
Danny
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Re: what ugly mascots
by T. J. Brumfield on Saturday 19/Jan/2008, @19:33
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The costumes don't look extremely professional, but the mascot artwork is pretty nice.
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Troy Unrau on Monday 21/Jan/2008, @15:00
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The costumes were actually professionally designed based only upon konqi/katie artwork that was available on the internet. I had seen photos of their design sessions with the costume designer they used, and they are quite good up close too!
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Re: what ugly mascots
by kwilliam on Saturday 19/Jan/2008, @21:22
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(This has nothing to do with the costumes or event, I think that people dressed up as Konqi is an awesome idea!)
I agree with the grandparent about the current Konqi imagery. I think in the same way that the K-gear was improved for KDE 4.0, someone should improve the Konqi mascot for 4.1. The current Konqi looks sadly dated and out of place, and a little cheesy. I'd like to see an SVG remake. Something professional, but fun. I mean, he's a dragon right? Dragons are COOL! Or at least they can be. Konqi could be a big draw for users; I mean, who could resist a desktop environment with a sweet dragon as it's mascot? (Especially when the competing mascots are a window, a foot, and an apple. ;-)
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Danny Allen on Saturday 19/Jan/2008, @21:45
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The "window, a foot, and an apple" are logos, not mascots!
The KDE logo is the K surrounded by a gear that is seen in the bottom left of a KDE desktop and elsewhere.
Danny
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Re: what ugly mascots
by kwilliam on Sunday 20/Jan/2008, @13:37
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Ok, there's a point. Windows and OSX do not have mascots technically, I guess. Would a penguin be Linux's mascot and the little devil (daemon?) be BSD's mascot? Or is the penguin a logo, because there is really only one popular image of him? I apologize for not knowing exactly the difference.
Anyway my point is similar to Richard's point (as expressed in his second post, http://dot.kde.org/1200788475/1200797159/1200799340/1200821861/). However, I'm thinking just about the artwork in the "About KDE" and "Log Out" dialogs. I noticed the Log Out dialog switched from showing Konqi to showing the moon, presumably because the old Konqi "photo" wasn't cool or professional enough. That made me sad, because Konqi is part of KDE's heritage, and dragons are cool. If we can't display him proudly in our artwork, we should update his photograph so he fits in with the Oxygen/Plasma "aura". If Konqi and Katie are 3D models on somebody's computer (the images I've seen of him look like CG) then some inspired people should have a contest to recreate the models in Blender or something similar. Add more detail, such as scales and sub-surface scattering (or whatever 3D artists do these days) to make some sweet, realistic renderings. Just like how Peter Jackson improved King Kong while keeping true to the original's spirit, we could have a more detailed model of Konqi.
I noticed that this 2007 video (http://www.kulma.org/linux/kde/kone.php?categ=anims) portrays Konqi is a sea serpent, which is a nice twist (I think sea dragons are cooler, more like traditional Chinese dragons - and it makes Konqi seem more international). There's no reason Konqi couldn't be a sea serpent, or have bigger wings, etc., as long has he keeps the "green, friendly dragon" concept.
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Yuriy Kozlov on Tuesday 22/Jan/2008, @13:21
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Konqi is a blender model: http://www.kulma.org/linux/kde/kone.php?categ=model
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Evan "JabberWokky" E. on Thursday 24/Jan/2008, @05:04
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Apple's unofficial mascot is Clarus the Dogcow. Tux the Penguin is both Linux's logo and mascot. Windows doesn't have a mascot (unless you count Clippy). On the other hand, most colleges and universities have both mascots and logos, as do sports teams. I'd say KDE's use lines up pretty much with the university use... for promotional events and things like clothing and toys, the mascot is used. For identification (for instance, login and logout screens), the logo is used.
By the way, I saw Kandalf recently off to the side of the road with a handlettered sign "Will mascot for bandwidth". Very sad.
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Re: what ugly mascots
by elsewhere on Saturday 19/Jan/2008, @19:22
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If that's the best complaint you can come up with, then I think it's clear the KDE team has done a fantastic job.
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Richard on Sunday 20/Jan/2008, @01:37
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wrong a mascot can, if done right pull in clients, get people switching to it. KDE needs a new mascot for 4 (Not logo, I didn't say logo, and I know the difference, but you obviously can't read, and decided to put that in there) There should be a comp to design a new mascot, one that looks better than those ugly things. You want to inspire people to come to it, having those two ugly mascots aren't going to do it. They may bring in the nerds at google, but you want to bring in the regular folk that aint inspiring, actually they are very ugly.
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Nonymous on Sunday 20/Jan/2008, @04:09
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What kind of reasoning is that? KDE isn't a junk food restaurant or a theme park! It's a desktop environment and the best one at that. Konqui and Kate are there because we love 'em, not because they are necessary.
Are you from 500 years in the future?*
*) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Nonymous on Sunday 20/Jan/2008, @03:59
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BEST REPLY OF THE YEAR!!!
<sorry for the caps>
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Re: what ugly mascots
by reldruh on Sunday 20/Jan/2008, @11:03
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Those costumes actually took months to put together; I know because I'm wearing one of them in that picture. Just a funny (strange) observation: I didn't really feel like part of the community until I walked in wearing that costume and now I understand at least some of what it must have been like for the developers when people who hadn't used KDE4.0 for very long, if at all were constantly saying really negative things. You are, of course, entitled to your opinions and I'm actually not upset (anymore) that you have such a low one. The only thing I want to ask is that before you start trashing somebody elses work (mine, the KDE developers, anybodys), especially when all you've seen is a single picture (I'm assuming you weren't at the release event, correct me if I'm wrong), try to remember that these things that look simple often aren't (I'm almost positive you've never made anything like them yourselves; if you had, you would know just how much work goes into them) and be a little bit more polite. "Rather ugly" and "look like some child put them together" isn't the best way to start a productive conversation.
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Beat Wolf on Sunday 20/Jan/2008, @14:08
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hey, i found the costumes cool. sure, on the first look i was, uh.. ok. but then i saw all the detailed work that had to be done for this costumes, and i was remembering myself that the person who did it, probably did it we nearly no budget, and thats why i think your costume is great, it's realy authentic.
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Aaron J. Seigo on Sunday 20/Jan/2008, @20:29
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dude, those costume rocked my world. seriously. the fact that you actually *made* them yourselves blew me away; i mean, katie even had the right necklace! they were awesome, they made the event feel even more KDE than it already did and i don't think there was a single person who wasn't smiling ear-to-ear when we saw you guys in costume. heck, that's why we stood outside for 20 minutes taking pictures of konqi and katie in various poses with various people there =)
rock on!
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Max on Monday 21/Jan/2008, @11:39
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I think your costumes were really cute. I don't know why people are so hard on you.
If you'd want to, I'd like to invite you to Baycon '08 to come with that costume and show it off at the costume contest. I think people there would really like it/appreciate it.
Also a great promo opportunity for KDE fans.. :)
Who knows, maybe one of the writers there will take a liking to the image and start a KDE themed Scifi/Fantasy book series?
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Re: what ugly mascots
by bersl2 on Tuesday 22/Jan/2008, @13:53
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I for one think they look awesome. While I don't have first-hand experience, I know how much time, effort, and money such costumes can require.
Of course, there are things that could have made it even better: it would have been more "true" to have padded out the arms and body more. However, this is not at all trivial to do, so I can't exactly blame you. I also think the head looks like it has sharp edges (at least with Konqi, though not so much Katie).
Still, they are very nice.
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Re: what ugly mascots
by Max on Monday 21/Jan/2008, @11:19
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I happen to like Konqi (sp?)
He's cute, mascots are supposed to be cute!!
I think he might benefit from a redesign, that's for sure, but other than that he's fine.
I'd also like to see more videos featuring Konqi. There is only one video on the KDE homepaage. Also fanvids would be nice. <-- With a KDE 4.0 theme they would be great promo material.
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