[Clipart] Fw: suggestion of cliparts: ecology

[Raphaël]

On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 01:57:12PM -0700, Maren Hachmann wrote:
> could you be more concrete in what you're searching for? 
> You should post the list of things on your mind :-)

Great ! (I also got another helpful email privately in the same time).
I'll try to elaborate a bit, on the list (until I'm called to order).

> Although we know that many other people may profit from what you wish,
> is your organisation a non-profit one?
affirmative, and most of the issues below can be found by there:
http://osm.org/go/0DEwJS--


On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 08:23:48AM -0700, charles thomas wrote:
> Can you send an email with bitmap images and/or URL's indicating the URL's.
> Also, is there a need for a standard set of very simple icons that would cover the subject matter?

A set is graphically always the best solution but the useful thing for
most people in the long run is to have rather simple elements that can
be combined and customized together in order to serve the many uses of
associations.
IMHO its more important to have reusable individual elements than a
beautiful and consistent (but limited) set. See below about gas, coal
plants / industry for example. I personally see sets has a kind of
luxury (as of today).


On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 01:57:12PM -0700, Maren Hachmann wrote:
> And with icons - do you mean things to click on? Or only small pics with little detail?

I've two (common) use-cases: 1) illustration of keywords/category terms
and 2) icons (like OSM symbols at zoom level >15) for features used in a
geo/mashup software (Chimère). so using the images barely over 75px.
Even if theoretically use-case n°2) would ask for more simplistic icons
(pictograms, often not more than 25px), I don't feel there are currently
enough available vectors to be so strict.


== About the terms themselves ==

Like in many other places, there are first several issues related to fossil fuels:
* existing (AFAIK hopefully no new in a near future) coal plants:
  * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mine_de_charbon.svg
    no more mines here, but still plants.
    I wasn't able to find either coal plants either coal as SVG.
    Existing material on the web may already be somehow sufficient for a
    good artist to get done as I found generic plants as SVG, but for
    inkscape newbies it's hard.

* construction of new gas plants / incineration:
  * as above, it's hard to make it self-explicit without using an
  additional symbol (like pipeline). Otherwise and more generally,
  smoking factories are a valid substitute (see "GHG" below).
  
* shale gas, which is visually more about drilling/derrick than oil:
  * http://www.clker.com/cliparts/a/1/d/7/1220226400918821922oil%20drill.svg
    hopefully I found this one, in the public domain and http://openclipart.org/detail/13061
  * http://www.france.attac.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/couverturelivres/images/untitled-2.jpg
    (I'm currently asking for licencing)
  * https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Oil_Barrel_graphic.png and http://openclipart.org/detail/18090
    are simple but barrels but not the most representative shape at small sizes


About greenhouse gas (GHG) / industry / factories,
http://openclipart.org/search/?query=factory provides the essential.
After changing the color, I'll probably use http://openclipart.org/detail/21820
I also found the following interesting in a use as pictogram:
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Factory.svg (public domain, simple shapes)
 http://thenounproject.com/noun/factory/#icon-No819 (CC-BY)

About water/chemical pollution there's lower need because common
danger pictograms are often an adequate fallback:
(http://openiconlibrary.sourceforge.net/gallery2/?./Symbols/din-4844-2-safety_signs)
But I didn't find free alternative to these:
 * http://www.paryavaranmitra.com/images/template/nowater.gif
 (a lot of concerns about this subject: waste effluents)
 * http://www.chrismadden.co.uk/cartoons/environment-cartoons/pollution-cartoons/html/land-fill-cartoon.html
 truck and landfills, yet too complex (not to talk about IRL landfill
 projects a couple of meters only over water table...).
 Illustration I can find are either dustbins, trucks, or the
 truck with a stack of "stuff", but no vector of trucks and landfill so far.
 * dead fish icons are not hard to find [ there's one here:
 http://openclipart.org/detail/137437 ... but seems smiling ]


About deforestation (in the case of my region: multiple dumb projects
related to (green) wood combined to waste, for electricity). I found chainsaws:
 * https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chainsaw_symbol_2010-02-16.svg
 * http://openclipart.org/search/?query=Chainsaw
 I may be able to combine one of them with tree trunks (not found on OCAL)
 to have a clear symbol but still risk to end up with an "happy
 illustration of deforestation for children" like this one
 http://www.kidsgen.com/school_projects/images/axe.gif
 * alternative representations based on several trees instead of one with
 the chainsaw are more difficult to use at small sizes (the ones below
 are not free):
   http://www.edupics.com/coloring-page-deforestation-s14411.jpg
   http://cdn5.fotosearch.com/bthumb/CSP/CSP727/k7272991.jpg

About urbanization, there are several subjects (like industrial/commercial
areas, highways, airports, buildings) for which icons are quite easy to
find (related to transportation or daily consuming life), but a more
general icon about soil artificialisation may looks like a concrete
masonry unit (or something else, I'm unsure about the right ways to
illustrate this other than using icons according to specific cases):
 * http://sxpider.dyndns.org/rt2000_img3_1.jpg
 * http://www.hellopro.fr/images/produit-3/5/7/1/blocs-en-beton-angles-135-121175.gif
[ alternatively there is of course the classic "under construction" ]

About the noise I found some imaginative ones on OCAL.
About biodiversity/fauna/flora we can easily find flowers, frogs and
butterflies for which there are very nice ones on OCAL.
About nuclear there already tons of symbols out there.

About agriculture, it's a harder to find representations of organic
agriculture, industrial agriculture and/or pesticides.
About GMO its harder to represent and almost no vector is available;
 * found this image http://www.sdreng.it/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/monsanto-150x150.jpg 
 to be quite expressive though.

Finally about animal welfare, eight main concerns are illustrated here
http://www.politique-animaux.fr/themes-animaux . The pictures used are
a bit too elaborated to be reused somewhere else (and I don't know about
licencing). But "pictogram" alternatives may makes sense in many similar
use-cases of other websites.

== Conclusion ==
I hope to not been too boring ? I tried to point where I feel a real lack of
useful vectors. Personal synthesis:
gaz/coal plants, landfills, waste effluents, deforestation/incineration,
industrial agriculture/GMO, urbanization.

I think that the vast majority of the above concerns are known,
let's hope we can have some more illustrations of them in the
future... and less IRL.



best regards