The October Free For All

[gare]

This month's challenge is a makeover.

Photoshop's splash screen, to be exact. It's pathetic and probably designed by a committee. What's this blue feather stuff, anyways? I understand the "signature" is supposed to co-ordinate with sister products in a nature theme--Illustrator has a flower, InDesign uses a butterfly, and GoLive is a cow pattie. And Photoshop's feather not only color-clashes with their corporate color scheme of red, black, and white, but it looks like it was done in Illustrator and not Photoshop.

The scrolling patents are superfluous, and probably cause PS to load slower, the drop-shadow is overused, and the rounded corners are a design clich?.

Here's my idea of a splash screen; I'm sure you folks can top it. A black background is stately and classic, the framed painting of John Knoll pays respect to Photoshop's creator, and as you can see, I've included the Clone Stamp tool, highlighting one of PS's powerful tools. It's simple, elegant, and to the point, me thinks. And I'd add an option in General Preferences to play Karioke music during startup, to do something while you wait.

Join in and let's create a PS splash screen we'd all enjoy (please don't use photos of Brad Pitt or Jenifer Lopez),

My Best,

Gare

[nitrobutler]

I'm still working on an idea for mine, but while researching I came apon this...
http://photoshopnews.com/feature-sto...splash-screens

[gare]

Hey, Nitro!

I was about to post an alternate competition due to lack of enthusiasm here!

Yeah, cool link--I don't know who instituted the infamous software splash screen (I think it was Aldus); I like PS 3's splash the best--the beta splash screens are fun, no? Adobe activates the splash, or at least they used to, on Oct. 31, Halloween.

I'm still going to post an alternative project or two, folks. Stay tuned.

My Best,

Gary

[gare]

Corel took a wrong turn somewhere in 1995, when they became King Midas in Reverse: everything they touched turned to dreck. Case in point--WordPerfect had a whopping 95% of the word processing market in their heyday. But they got stupid, Corel picked them up at a fire sale for pennies on the dollar, and today WordPerfect is used by legal firms because legal firms never want to change their standards, but percentage-wise, I think there are more Notepad.exe users than WordPerfect.

So MetaCreations blew themselves up, too, and Corel gobbled up some terrific technology: Painter, Bryce, and KPT. True to form, Corel sold off Bryce to DAZ, and has yet to develop either KPT or Painter, merrily repackaging them and dissecting them to create "new" products.

I've used Painter since version 1; I downloaded the demo of Painter IX (what's this crap with Roman numerals anyhow??? Does Corel think they're the Super Bowl or something?) and I've since removed it from my machine, because Painter 6 IMO was the last Mark Zimmer & company's decent version. Corel has removed the beautiful, inspriring, and functional interface to present us with a Windows-standard one...a minor misjudgement...but also rearranged menus and palettes, a consistent UI feature until version 6, to baffle experienced users and steepen the learning curve for beginners.

Corel's crowning triumph is the new splash screen, though, and this month, I'd like you all to rethink it. A hand with IX (9 ) fingers is grotesque, right out of Monster Chiller Theater on Saturday afternoons. The pink skin is ghastly, and the art looks like it was done in Coreldraw by a 5-year old ("my five year old can do better than that", right?). Below is the former splash screen, and the present one for refernce while you improve upon it.

Here's my own contribution: at left, I'm sticking with the hand theme because your client sometimes demands certain things, but I did a better rendering, reflecting more of the corporate attitude (for artists, by artists. Yeah-dream on). Below is a non-intentionally-humorous treatment, again with a hand.

I'd like to see your contributions! Go for it!

My Best,

Gare

[Nikkie]

Gare i didn't know that Corel actually used my daughters design... ;)

See what i can do with it 8}

but first my humble attempt on the Adobe splash screen..

Nikkie

[gare]

Nikkie--

Very nice splash screen, sort of windswept Adobe feathers meets their formidable logo, eh?



-g-

[nitrobutler]

I'm still struggling to get an idea, so I came up with this quick and dirty ;\

[mflintjer]

Just got to see this one -- gimme a day or 2 to come up with something ;)

[gare]

Nitrobutler,

your splash screen looks good!?

One thing: splash screens use pixel fonts for data fields; you can download many free pixel fonts by dooing a google search on "pixel fonts+free" or "screen fonts+free", or follow this link: http://www.theboutons.com/type03.html

I built MS-Sham Serif for just such occassions...

My Best,

Gare

[nitrobutler]

Thanks for the tip Gare, by the way I got a weird warning dialog box when I cicked on the link you provided.