I haven't made enough of them yet to say what I start with, but it has always been between the taskbar, the start button and the start menu.  I don't agree that the start menu is where the inspiration comes from though -- sometimes it's a texture I become fascinated with and sometimes its a colors of an upcoming holiday. 

The one I'm currently consumed with (seriously consumed...I haven't slept more than 4 hours at a time for the past 2 weeks), it was the taskbar that ignited the fire, and that led to the color selection and after that, I couldn't stop.  From the beginning I knew I wanted to do something that would go with the beach wallpapers that I have, so some of the inspiration came from the textures one finds at the beach.  I'm currently creating the Explorer Icons, which I normally dislike doing but my skills have improved a little bit and I'm enjoying this part, too.

Whatever I take the notion to... keep one out of a rut. Sometimes I go the easy route.. Start menu first.. sometimes I get the difficult and laborious stuff done first.

Try starting with animations and toolbar icons !

Sorry i ment for the rest of the skin....

and i ment my inspiration....

That's why i asked this question.

to see how we all do thing our own way.

See i have inspiration for one more in the works..

Keep them coming guy's..

But is that when you designing it or building it....

Cos i allways design it first then build it in skinstudio...

That's a sweet start menu, Robbie-Boy.

When you design it first, do you design everything?  Because I'm still a noob, I have to start building it after I have a frame or I won't know approximate sizes for things and I can't keep the cohesion of the thing together in my mind--I have to see it constructed.  Also, I'll go back and change some of the little things over and over again, as I get better ideas, or if I think the way I had planned it first just isn't working.  I think if I designed it all out first, it would take considerably longer for me to complete, and I wouldn't have the flashes of better inspiration that leads to me changing things. 

Yes i try to get as much down on paper (so to speak) b4 i start putting it all in skinstudio so i don't lose my idears.....

it dose take a lot longer this way but it works great for me....

and i get to see the skin as a whole so it's easyer to match up all the main parts of the skin...

and that is a realy nice skin you have there too....

So far, I've just jumped right in on both of my skins. But then, I've never been much of a "rough draft" kind of a guy.

However, when I'm jumping in, I usually begin with the start menu, then taskbar. Then I'll completely finish all elements of the start menu & taskbar b4 moving on. Then I'll do windows, then all the other nitty gritty stuff.

Some skins seem to skin themself. I call it pure inspiration when it happens

I don't have a set rule for how I build a skin. I must admitt that I jump around a lot in the beginning doing the fun stuff. After a while, there comes that time when you have to apply yourself to the "boring" bits.

I second that.

window first:)

I always start with a lot of booze.... tis prolly why ive never finished a WB yet...

Coffee, Caramel Macchiato, or Pepsi; depending on the mood.

So far, I start with the Taskbar first.  That's the part I see the most...

Hmmm... could this mean that Black Ops is on its way...?

I always start with the start menu first....I consider it the cornerstone of the blind.

Then the taskbar, taskbar and start menu buttons....

Then on to the menus and their buttons....

Then the window frames and buttons.....

The rest I just do how the mood affects me, except I always to the toolbar icons and animations last....hate doing those!

Nope.

Usually start with the taskbar and startbutton, then startpanel then redo taskbar and startbutton to match startpanel.... my usual workflow

Robbie_Boy that is a great looking startmenu, you appear to be very talented.

I start with big stuff first, startmenu, frames, logoff, please wait, etc. and usually do them more that a few times until I'm happy. The more pixels the better.