Editiorial: Are skinners abandoning originality in exchange for popularity?

from WinCustomize Forums

I was doing an article today on the history of WindowBlinds skinning. And I firmly believe that the vocal "minimalistic skinsa re king" crowd have really done real harm to skinning. I say that because skin authors seem to have become so afraid of making anything that isn't "minimalistic" because not only will they not be appreciated for being creative and original, they're likely to get flamed by the "Minimastic" brigade.

Let me show you some skins from 1999 so you can see what I mean in terms of originality.

 

This is old but when was the last time you saw a skin that tried to look like something other than "Look, it's another generic GUI"? Or at least done reasonably well?

This is from 2000! Sure there's OS skins in here too but look at that Allend Bond skin. Or Dangeruss's skin.

This is from Shoggot. His title bar blade actually rotated (animated) when it was the active window and the blade stretched as you increased the size of the window. I can't even remember the last time someone made a good animated title bar. And it's so easy. It's just frames of animation. Some little glowing effect or SOMETHING other than the usual gradients that everyone seems fixated on.

I believe that the reason for the lack of creativity these days is because of the obsession with downloads combined with fatigue from being flamed by the critics who will look at a skin that took 2 weeks to make and shrug it off "I won't use that crap" simply because it's not Windows Luna (but red) or some skin that looks like a slightly more minimalistic version of Luna.

Here's one from DAK from Russia released FOUR years ago.

When was the last time you saw a skin that used animation this clever? This Matrix skin by Mercury was made 4 years ago.

 

These two skins from Dangeruss, which are going on 5 years in age, show what skinning is all about. Creative and yet outstanding quality. These are the kinds of skins WindowBlinds was made for artistic freedom to create cool and interesting looking things. Little touches like semi-transparent scrollbars (how often do you see that these days?) and captions on the title bar buttons.

Many skin authors seem to be skinning more for popularity rather than for themselves. Back before skinning was so popular, popularity wasn't an issue - there just weren't enough peopel using this stuff.  But now, skinning is not just popular, but with popularity comes..well criticism. The skins you see here took real work to make. But who wants to spend weeks on a skin only to have some anonymous user slam it because they think it's "gaudy".

I wish I had the talent to create good artwork like you see here because I would create "gaudy" skins (if these are "gaudy"). I would rather create a skin that is new and different than yet another "It's very much like Luna but the title bar is slightly smaller and it has a gradient..."  (not that I'm not guilty of that myself since those kinds of skins take less time and will get more downloads.

The skins you see here are available on WinCustomize.com in the WindowBlinds section. Just look at Dangeruss, Mercury, D.A.K. and Allen Bond if you, as a skin author, want to see how these skins were made or if you, as a skin user, want to try them out (of course, since they were made before XP, not all of xP will be skinned with them).

36,870 views 78 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I totally agree that overall designs have been rather bland. Not only that, often I have tried one I like and there are things that don't look right or aren't skinned properly. I don't know if people are rushing to finish the skins or just don't have experience.

I can remember several years ago being totally impressed with Aquarium by Alexandrie, one that still does get featured from time to time with the help of DesktopX. I was blown away by the animation in the title bars.
Not every skin needs animation, but there is little to separate one skin from another. Except for a couple exceptions, even the skins in the GUIO have very little that makes them stand out from others.
I lack the expertise to create a skin, however I do appreciate one that both looks good and is usable.

I'm glad Frogboy has brought up some of these great skins from the past, as we need more skins that jump out at you. Skins that challenge the limits of WB. Skins that doesn't look like every other skin.

Hopefully this article spurs on the imaginative skinners to show what they can really do.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Aahhh, memories...
Object Desktop - Get all of our enhancement utilities in one suite
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Many years ago, I was once a skinner, these are still great after all of these years. And to answer the question from the news post. Yes there is a lack of originality at the moment. But it's simply a question of time before the next Alexandrie, Dangeruss, Adni comes around the corner.

I think the skinning community is sick in general.

Glad you brought it up Brad and hope it's sparks imagination in the crowd.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sad, but true.You can go through the skin sections on any site these days and some more generic blah with no character, and the descriptive author comments generally follow the same type of patterns: "Made this with X colours bcoz 'so and so' asked for it, commentz plzzz!!" "Made this shiny becauze ppl like shiny skins" "This is a beta alpha delta pre RC1 2 unfinished release" The minimalist craze is something I've never understood either.If you want a non-bloated, minimal, bland skin, turn off Style or WB and use Windows classic. With the settings in display properties, you can have any colours you want, and it won't cost you a penny.The reason I use skinning software is that I DON'T want my OS to make me fall asleep at the monitor because it's so dull.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
How about when people took time to do just their previews? Look at how polished some of those previews are.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh man. I remember those times. How could I forget shoggot's green and pointy skins?

Heh I did make some of very unusual skins before. If someone looks around in here, you will find some of my very old skins. Those is pre-wincustomize, even! I submitted those to stardock site when they accepted skins then.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I understand the point, but why do you think the minimalist skins are so popular? I don't think minimalist skins aren't original or artistic. It's just a different kind of art. For me personally, I like the minimalist skins because they're not distracting. I usually run something by essorant his designs are nice, simple, and classy. But, I also wouldn't try to force my preference on someone else. The more variety there is, the more different preferences are addressed. I think this may kind of tie in with the things you've said about how the internet allows the imature and abusive a forum they've never had before. If it's true that people aren't making the "wild" skins anymore due to viewer reaction, that is a real pity. It's a shame the immature have the influence to discourage someone from expressing themselves artistically. I had just assumed it was the current trend.

Here's to more skins of EVERY kind.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I agree whole heartedly with what Frogboy wrote. There used to be such a unique variety of skins. But I also believe, that there are so many more people "skinning" that sometime someone will come up with a really original, knock your socks off, skin. This will open the door for all those others that have these unique ideas, but haven't implemented them, because of fear of not being accepted. All it will take is one!
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
agreed, totally.

One other thing that bugs me is a great skin, that doesn't take advantage of advance features, or has little alignment bugs abound, or strange decisions by the author that make things look like he tried to fit a sphere in a cube shaped hole.

Creativity is one thing, and then there's that extra bit of polish that makes you say "Ahhhh, this is where its at

(btw, i didn't know you could do transparent scrollbars!!! That's freakin ownage baby!)

One problem i keep seeing with current custom toolbar sets (latest version of WB), is that the author left some icons out. This looks terrible when all your toolbar icons are skinned except for instance, the "mail" icon.

but i digress.
Creativity/originality should be the driving factor behind the making of a skin.
I honestly don't see how anyone could be influenced by anything else...
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
StyleXP Kids would tar and feather someone for this nowadays :



Bigger Image : http://c242.neurobeat.net/DXonW2kDark.jpg
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hm, well...
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
oooh debate time

Back in the day I would uses skins like these, purely because they are fun and when other people see your screen the go
But now, I use my computer as a tool, at work for example I use a CAD program called CATIA, can't really see me getting any work done using a skin such as The Matrix skin
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I pesonally preffer more usable conservative skins IE pixos, corrona, veletwaves.
easier on the eyes for everyday use
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm a big fan of the minimalist skins, first of all at home my screen real-estate is 15"
when you use those older, more "creative" skins quite frankly it eats up an inch or so of
my screen real-estate. I also find thaty they use up a bit more memory for all those animations.
In addition, some of the programs that I run especially at work takes advantage of screen real-estate so the more I have the better. The minimalist skins are perfect for those. Once in a while I'll change just to have some fun to the more "creative" sorts (ToonXP, velvetwaves, and a few others preferred). Furthermore not all the "more creative" skins are all that great. I find some of them distracting, and others just plain weird. I do agree though that the minimalist skins could use some more creativity including color varieties, and colors that are easier on the eyes and more professional looking for those of us that use this stuff at work.
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
One of the first things that drew me to WindowBlinds were the skins with personality, ones that innovated, instead of emulated.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You are exactly right about a lack of creativity today. I don't think it is all about creative vs. minimalist. I have seem some very creative minimalistic skins. There's nothing that says a small daily use type skin couldn't have a throbber animation or fancy animated mouseover buttons or just a really creative look. I do think what we have seen is an evolution of skinning. At first, when skinning was new, authors really pushed what could be done with tools like WB. The results were brilliant, but were actually more of a novelty than something people found really practical. I tried a lot of these skins and couldn't stay with them.

What bores me to tears today is the fads that skins tend to go through. First we all wanted to copy the MAC (Go buy a MAC was my thought), then we got inklings of the new XP look and everyone had to go out and make their version of WindowsXP GUI. Now we are about to start the "Lets copy Longhorn" fad. There were a few actual skins that created such fads. Remember FausX in the Desktop X world. I appreciated the quality of the work done on FausX, but that was all I could find for a long time for DesktopX.

Of course, I am admittedly being hypocrital here - I haven't made a skin in a couple of years now, so who am I to complain about the ion of "free" stuff.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I don't fully agree with Frogboy. Sure, there are lots of minimalistic skins. I think thats mainly because people make the skins for others and not for themselves. I understand WinCustomize as a portal for offering skins and for sharing them, not for just _showing_ them to others. So the point is to make a skin which others like.

Minimalistic skins are not only easier to make, they give your desktop a more professional and high-quality appearance respectively. Being a bit too creative will very soon result in an unusable skin. This also includes some of Frogboy's above mentioned styles (eg. Matrix - too tiny title bar buttons, or Scathe 3 - hard to read window title and where are the buttons?). Most skins just hurt your eyes with their colors and/or color combinations. Including as many gimmicks as possible doesn't make a good skin - and a skin has to be good an usable if you want to share it.

I'm mostly here at WinCustomize several times a week to find a skin that _I_ want to use for a while. I, personally, want to be able to tell a titlebar text from it's background, I don't want to take out my magnifying glass to find the buttons, nor do I want to waste lots of space for window borders. What's more, too much transparency can make the whole thing unclear as well as too much animation can get on your nerves very easily.

What I absolutely agree with is the fact that too many skinners have uploaded slightly modified Luna styles. That's real crap, because it's far far away from any creativity. We'll wait and see what happens when Longhorn is out...

So don't misunderstand me, I would also like to see more creative but moderate submissions. I don't long for the old contrast- and gimmick-rich times.
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I guess there's still some time for somebody to go "back in the day" before the deadline for the GUIO is up. I, like Shakey, was drawn to windowblinds because of the originality. When I first purchased my OD subscription, people were always wanting to know how I got my screen looking like that (don't worry I was a major salesman for you guys at Stardock). I don't hear that nowadays so much unless I'm using Premium skins. I don't mind purchasing them but it's sort of a downer that you generally have to purchase the premiums to get the nods . . . and even a lot of the premiums are minimalistic. Hmmmmmm.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If you put anything online you should expect criticism, because after all you wouldn't be showing the world unless you wanted to know what they think.. right? My point is some things aren't meant for others to see.. or understand for that matter. Altho, I do love getting criticism I have to admit... it helps me grow. As for the 'original' skins... originality does take a bit of creativity, and not all things creative are in fact grand. The very thing they might try to embody may be their undoing. "All the bells & whistles" tend to destract people from what really matters, functionality. Simple designs with a little flair actually make working in a fun environment easier to deal with. I know that with some skins I have had problems finding what i want to push, because it was des(gui)sed as something my mind wouldn't normally associate with that button. On the other hand, I think some skins have just enough creative flair and are not too minimalisitic. There are good ideas, and ones that just weren't fully thought out. It seems to me most minimalistic ones are more functional. But please BE CREATIVE!!! I don't mind seeing crazy stuff It makes life fun
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Frogboy has expressed my feelings quite well. I love skins like he's featured in this report, there's just not enough of them now.
Oh well....that's life....loath it....ignore it....you just can't like it.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I use my PC 100% for business - got to pay the bills. A lot of designer skins are almost unusable in the basic MS Office applications - in particular word and excel. Dark backgrounds and over the top scripting - which look great as a screenshot - just don't work when you are trying to get through 8 hours a day.

The minimalist skins are user friendly and mean you are not stuck looking at the same frames / buttons / titlebars everyday, but at the same time you can get some work done.

A lot of work recently has been on shading and tones rather than wizzbang special effects. Could this be a maturity in the hobby?
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The reason why these over-the-top skins aren't created anymore is plain and simply because people do not like them. The most important thing in designing a GUI is usability. If it isn't usable, it doesn't really matter how good it looks. You can create a beautiful plane with nice sleek lines but if it can't fly, it's pointless. A lot of those skins above are nice well at least some of them are. But the reason why people don't like them is because they're not usable and they're not professional looking. I couldn't imagine staring at some of those for 8 hours everyday while working. I wouldn't mind animations in a skin, but it doesn't have to be over-the-top. For instance, having the start button glowing or something every once in a while isn't a bad idea, but having the titlebar spinning around or 10 pixel borders animating is just... well... annoying. Pixtudio seems to do a good job with finding a median. A lot of their stuff is really original and fun, however still maintaining usability. It's unfortunate that they're charging. I don't use a skin long enough to justify spending any money on it.
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Personally, I sort of resent the remarks about skinners not trying to be creative. I think a lot of the problem has to do with usability. When I design a skin, I want to be able to stand looking at it without going dizzy, or having my resources to zero. I actually spent five hours finishing an animated title bar then, I scrapped it. Then, one has to take into account that many skinners aren't doing this for commericial purposes.

There are many other varibles to designing skins and so much needs to be skinned. It takes a lot of time. Maybe if Stardock would pay skinners, they would get better skins. I've actually been spending two months on my GUI Olympics skin. I started it before I even heard of GUI Olympics. Then, it became an endeavor to make it as "creative" as possible without effecting usability. Adding all the plugins, takes more time because they also must be skinned. You add toolbar icons, animations, and everything else into the equation, and you are talking about a whole, whole lot of time. By the time I finish my GUI Olympics skin, it will be a four month project. I spend at least two to five hours a day on this skin. On my days off, it is like eight hours a day or more. My skin will take over 100 hours of work easily. I'd laugh at a job offering me $1.00 per hour, if I win first place. I'd be lucky to actually win a third or fourth prize, and what good is that? How about at least a Object Desktop subscription to those who spend all this time to win nothing?
Then you have to add the fact that image quality is hard to achieve with Bitmaps. Creativity in windowblinds means square or ugly pixelization. And a lot of the images require bitmaps. It takes a lot of time trying to design something within the constraints of the program, and more importantly within the constraints of the operating system.
So, I really resent the comments myself. Have a little compassion for the skinners who are doing this for free. No offense to you Frogboy, I know that you are trying to inspire us. The GUI Olympics was great inspiration. But, a skin won't pay the bills, regardless. So, please be gentle, we're trying.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There's a place for both styles. Minimalist tend to be better for everyday working skins, and the wizzbang are more for fun. Which isn't to say that that line can't be crossed. I think you'll see a return to more creativity in skins...styles come and styles go.