So what's the next new trend?
Luna > Aero > ?
Friday, September 28, 2007 by vStyler | Discussion: Skinning
OK.. so is it going to take Microsoft to lead us into the next big revolution in desktop design?
I hope not, I personally try to design along the lines of what is popular but with my own twist on it but I have to say, after 3 glassy Vista-ish skins in a row.. its getting old. Having said that, with transparency and blurring recently implemented into WB it's going to be hard to come up with skins that don't incorporate these features and still make an original and popular skin.
I know a lot of you don't skin but probably have some ideas of the definitive perfect skin rolling around in your head.
Let's hear some idea's of what you might think would be a good direction to go once the current trends get old. Lets keep commercially themed ideas out of the discussion. I'm more interested on a particular look\texture\shapes\materials.. etc.
I am currently working on a new skin but if something strikes a chord with me I myself may take on an interesting idea or perhaps someone can stir some interest from other skinners.
The ball is in your court.... 
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Philly0381
Reply #22 Friday, September 28, 2007 11:42 AM
Reply #22 Friday, September 28, 2007 11:42 AM
theAVMAN, now that link made me sit up and put my face closer to the screen! As is said many times around here, "I WANT IT". 
c242
Reply #23 Friday, September 28, 2007 11:48 AM
Reply #23 Friday, September 28, 2007 11:48 AM
Next new trend ? Wait until the 1st screenshots for the next Apple or MS OS. 
I rather would see great ancient and original skins like Pixtudio or Skinplant updated to a current level. Imagine what bluring/transparency could do to a skin like Sputnik, Copperdeck II or Thredz or some of the outdated Stardock packs like Carbonix or Mormegils skins. Heck I would even pay again for them. Nothing against newer ones of course I always find me to come back to Vienna since some time.
I rather would see great ancient and original skins like Pixtudio or Skinplant updated to a current level. Imagine what bluring/transparency could do to a skin like Sputnik, Copperdeck II or Thredz or some of the outdated Stardock packs like Carbonix or Mormegils skins. Heck I would even pay again for them. Nothing against newer ones of course I always find me to come back to Vienna since some time.
Wet Monkey
Reply #24 Friday, September 28, 2007 12:15 PM
Reply #24 Friday, September 28, 2007 12:15 PM
I pretty much stink at making WB skins, am hoping that the new Skin Studio will be a little more understandable, to me anyway. All that aside, what I think of what would be cool in a skin is if the skin author included a way for the download'ee to customize the user icon and offer multiple choices for that and I don't know if it's possible but also offer several choices, or variations of the start button. Other than that I lean towards functional and clean skins and shy away from what I consider to much eye candy or a skin that is distracting because of animation. Know it's not much in terms of suggestions but maybe it's something to think about in terms of offering more choices for any given skin.
Wet Monkey
Reply #25 Friday, September 28, 2007 12:18 PM
Reply #25 Friday, September 28, 2007 12:18 PM
As a qualifier, I know how to change the user icon, but that's not what I am referring to in my post above. What I am referring to is the skin author creating and including several user icon choices that go with the skin. Just didn't want anyone to think they needed to tell me how to change the user icon
SirSmiley
Reply #26 Friday, September 28, 2007 12:21 PM
Reply #26 Friday, September 28, 2007 12:21 PM
Wow, you really have some thought provoking posts.
I don't think you could go wrong with doing decent Pet Related Themes. Maybe Alpo or Purina would buy some?
I don't think you could go wrong with doing decent Pet Related Themes. Maybe Alpo or Purina would buy some?
thomassen
Reply #27 Friday, September 28, 2007 12:25 PM
Reply #27 Friday, September 28, 2007 12:25 PM
I got planned to do a Cow skin with various variation to use for a home built renderfarm I want to set up. Problem is getting spottet cow pattern to tile/stretch/repeat itself well...
And of course a cow soundpackage to go with it.
And of course a cow soundpackage to go with it.
cplair
Reply #28 Friday, September 28, 2007 1:22 PM
I dunno JG you tell us since you're the one who starts all the trends!
Cp
Reply #28 Friday, September 28, 2007 1:22 PM
So what's the next new trend?
I dunno JG you tell us since you're the one who starts all the trends!
Cp
tigerlady
Reply #29 Friday, September 28, 2007 2:39 PM
Reply #29 Friday, September 28, 2007 2:39 PM
I hope the new trend will include more colorful blinds. I'm tired of black, gray and blue. Boxxi, you're excluded from this complaint.
ZubaZ
Reply #30 Friday, September 28, 2007 2:43 PM
Reply #30 Friday, September 28, 2007 2:43 PM
I'm tired of black, gray and blue
Recoloring black and gray is hard but you can do a lot with blue and WBs recoloring options. 
starkers
Reply #31 Friday, September 28, 2007 5:14 PM
And when you're done with that, how about a sheep skin....complete with BAAAA'S and a few bleats? It'd go down well over in NZ.
Actually, how about industrial type themes? Engine Room by BoXXi and Industrial Ectasy by Drill n' Boss are two that immediately come to mind, but there must be thousands of variations that could be applied....
Buttons that glow to indicate/highlight hazardous materials/items.
Animations to represent various actions or moving machinery, etc.
Occasional rising steam (if possible) to indicate industrial heat
An animated Dreamscene background depicting factory type settings.
Coordinated Soundpackage appropriate to each theme setting.
****and how about a secretary with a sexy voice who says: "Good morning Mr starkers, and what can I do for you today?"
*****
Yeah, there's a multitude of industries to choose from: automotive; construction; computer; electrical; textile, and so on...and then there's a myriad of sub-branches within those....there's gotta be a million and one ideas for themes and textures among that lot. Now git ta work.
Reply #31 Friday, September 28, 2007 5:14 PM
I got planned to do a Cow skin
And when you're done with that, how about a sheep skin....complete with BAAAA'S and a few bleats? It'd go down well over in NZ.
Actually, how about industrial type themes? Engine Room by BoXXi and Industrial Ectasy by Drill n' Boss are two that immediately come to mind, but there must be thousands of variations that could be applied....
Buttons that glow to indicate/highlight hazardous materials/items.
Animations to represent various actions or moving machinery, etc.
Occasional rising steam (if possible) to indicate industrial heat
An animated Dreamscene background depicting factory type settings.
Coordinated Soundpackage appropriate to each theme setting.
****and how about a secretary with a sexy voice who says: "Good morning Mr starkers, and what can I do for you today?"
*****Yeah, there's a multitude of industries to choose from: automotive; construction; computer; electrical; textile, and so on...and then there's a myriad of sub-branches within those....there's gotta be a million and one ideas for themes and textures among that lot. Now git ta work.
neophil78
Reply #32 Friday, September 28, 2007 5:28 PM
Reply #32 Friday, September 28, 2007 5:28 PM
I thought someone had to redraw an Heavy Equipment WB6 skin ? 
unclerob
Reply #33 Friday, September 28, 2007 5:47 PM
That's one opinion
There are still lots of xp users out there that actually enjoy the "vista look".
More of the bloated vista sales figures are primarily from new pc sales that is machines that come with vista pre-installed, I would argue that only a small fraction of vista sales figures that are reported are from people upgrading their xp machines to vista - reason being alot of existing machines that run xp capably will have problems running vista and alot of people don't feel the need to toss their current machine for a new one when it does everything they need it to do. Plus, XP is actually an excellent operating system (aside from all of the security issues that it's plagued by) and alot of people will be running xp on their machines for quite some time - however alot of people (like myself) enjoy the vista themes - it's a superior gui to winxp and windowblinds facilitates transforming your desktop into many different looks and one of those looks happens to be the popular vista theme - that's why it's so popular with alot of users.
Boxxi you mention that people just create the vista themes for the downloads, I definitely don't create my themes just for the downloads - there is no monetary gain from high download#'s, the only gain to be had is a personal one which is the satisfaction derived from other people downloading & using your work and you get that from whatever theme you've worked on & uploaded to the site, regardless if it's vista or not.
I'm a fan of the clean, usable & comtemporary themes. Clean lines, updated, modern looks is what drives me when I'm looking for wb's to download & use. That is the current trend and it will continue to be so in the future, people want something that they can use everyday, that's easy on the eyes, modern and stylish.
I would say if you're looking for design ideas for new skin themes, I would look to the world of everyday fashion. Check out running shoes for example, puma & nike pump out wicked looking, well designed athletic footwear that people purchase for the look, not for any type of athletic enhancement they may receive from using that product. The other day I saw a incredible pair of puma runners, they were black & white with a grey curved section on the side and I had never seen footwear that looked so cool and I said to myself, that design would make an awesome looking wb skin!
I'm not necessarily looking for the next trend but when it appears and if I like it, I'm sure I'll try to emulate it in a skin for use on my pc and if I can't do it myself I'll wait for somebody else to create the skin so that I can use it on my pc. Not everyone can be an innovator and not everyone will have the skillset to create innovative designs either - that's why I come to this site, that way I can enjoy the innovation that alot of the resident pro's at this site are capable of. Most of the users that frequent this site are like that too.
My primary interest currently would be in improving the amount of time it takes to create a good looking wb skin. I don't always want to change the windowframes & buttons & startpanel, just tweak the colors and special images to make the skin something new, kind of like customizing the same model car into several different model variations. Currently it takes weeks to create something half-decent, I can't even imagine how much time it would take to create a master set of skins like the Vienna series.
just my 0.02 cents cdn
Reply #33 Friday, September 28, 2007 5:47 PM
Anything but the Vista look.......
That look is starting to make me wanna puke my guts out.
*Innovate - dont' imitate.*
That look is starting to make me wanna puke my guts out.
*Innovate - dont' imitate.*
That's one opinion
There are still lots of xp users out there that actually enjoy the "vista look".
More of the bloated vista sales figures are primarily from new pc sales that is machines that come with vista pre-installed, I would argue that only a small fraction of vista sales figures that are reported are from people upgrading their xp machines to vista - reason being alot of existing machines that run xp capably will have problems running vista and alot of people don't feel the need to toss their current machine for a new one when it does everything they need it to do. Plus, XP is actually an excellent operating system (aside from all of the security issues that it's plagued by) and alot of people will be running xp on their machines for quite some time - however alot of people (like myself) enjoy the vista themes - it's a superior gui to winxp and windowblinds facilitates transforming your desktop into many different looks and one of those looks happens to be the popular vista theme - that's why it's so popular with alot of users.
Boxxi you mention that people just create the vista themes for the downloads, I definitely don't create my themes just for the downloads - there is no monetary gain from high download#'s, the only gain to be had is a personal one which is the satisfaction derived from other people downloading & using your work and you get that from whatever theme you've worked on & uploaded to the site, regardless if it's vista or not.
I'm a fan of the clean, usable & comtemporary themes. Clean lines, updated, modern looks is what drives me when I'm looking for wb's to download & use. That is the current trend and it will continue to be so in the future, people want something that they can use everyday, that's easy on the eyes, modern and stylish.
I would say if you're looking for design ideas for new skin themes, I would look to the world of everyday fashion. Check out running shoes for example, puma & nike pump out wicked looking, well designed athletic footwear that people purchase for the look, not for any type of athletic enhancement they may receive from using that product. The other day I saw a incredible pair of puma runners, they were black & white with a grey curved section on the side and I had never seen footwear that looked so cool and I said to myself, that design would make an awesome looking wb skin!
I'm not necessarily looking for the next trend but when it appears and if I like it, I'm sure I'll try to emulate it in a skin for use on my pc and if I can't do it myself I'll wait for somebody else to create the skin so that I can use it on my pc. Not everyone can be an innovator and not everyone will have the skillset to create innovative designs either - that's why I come to this site, that way I can enjoy the innovation that alot of the resident pro's at this site are capable of. Most of the users that frequent this site are like that too.
My primary interest currently would be in improving the amount of time it takes to create a good looking wb skin. I don't always want to change the windowframes & buttons & startpanel, just tweak the colors and special images to make the skin something new, kind of like customizing the same model car into several different model variations. Currently it takes weeks to create something half-decent, I can't even imagine how much time it would take to create a master set of skins like the Vienna series.
just my 0.02 cents cdn
NightTrainthedark
Reply #34 Friday, September 28, 2007 6:50 PM
Reply #34 Friday, September 28, 2007 6:50 PM
There are some insanely cool technologies just waiting to take over how we interact with our computers. I am thinking we will be seeing Vista wanna be skins until then.
Of course with every new version of Windowblinds it seems like we lose more control of the customizing. Menu bars, IE7 tabs (XP), Ability to add extra buttons, start panel text mouseovers, and more. By the time we get to WB 7 we will probably be back to oldtime windows 98 themes. Thats not a knock at Stardock. I know these things are conflicts with Windows but Stardock has always found a way to make it happen in the past. Too bad for the XP users that Vista had to take priority over everything.
Of course with every new version of Windowblinds it seems like we lose more control of the customizing. Menu bars, IE7 tabs (XP), Ability to add extra buttons, start panel text mouseovers, and more. By the time we get to WB 7 we will probably be back to oldtime windows 98 themes. Thats not a knock at Stardock. I know these things are conflicts with Windows but Stardock has always found a way to make it happen in the past. Too bad for the XP users that Vista had to take priority over everything.
NightTrainthedark
Reply #35 Friday, September 28, 2007 6:55 PM
oops
Reply #35 Friday, September 28, 2007 6:55 PM
I'm tired of black, gray and blue.
oops
vStyler
Reply #36 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:04 PM
Really pickles my sausage 
Reply #36 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:04 PM
Too bad for the XP users that Vista had to take priority over everything.
Really pickles my sausage 
sleepydawg
Reply #37 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:28 PM
SOUNDS cool but....How many sounds can a cow make? And from which end of the cow are we talking about.
Transparency is the big thing now. I would like to see an invisible skin.
Reply #37 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:28 PM
And of course a cow soundpackage to go with it.
SOUNDS cool but....How many sounds can a cow make? And from which end of the cow are we talking about.
Transparency is the big thing now. I would like to see an invisible skin.
starkers
Reply #38 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:54 PM
I'll start on that right away....just don't hold your breath on seeing it anytime, soon or otherwise.
Reply #38 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:54 PM
I would like to see an invisible skin.
I'll start on that right away....just don't hold your breath on seeing it anytime, soon or otherwise.
vStyler
Reply #39 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:58 PM
Reply #39 Friday, September 28, 2007 7:58 PM
Invisible WB mockup... make sure to click it twice, ( Imageshack jaggies ) Comments welcome.
More color perhaps?
More color perhaps?
starkers
Reply #40 Friday, September 28, 2007 8:10 PM
You stole my idea
...I was gonna do exactly that, just with a thinner taskbar and bigger startpanel icons. SEE!!
Notice the clean lines and absence of shadow to give it a crisper look....yours is hardly any different to mine, if at all.
Reply #40 Friday, September 28, 2007 8:10 PM
More color perhaps?
You stole my idea
...I was gonna do exactly that, just with a thinner taskbar and bigger startpanel icons. SEE!!Notice the clean lines and absence of shadow to give it a crisper look....yours is hardly any different to mine, if at all.
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Reply #21 Friday, September 28, 2007 11:36 AM