Good discussion on Neowin

http://www.neowin.net/bboard/showthread.php?s=&postid=212050&t=779#post212050

Most people seem to really like minimalistic themes. I think this is one reason why Adni's skins are so popular. They're fairly basic, no super fancy.
4,749 views 18 replies
Reply #1 Top
Shucks...mine are basic too....[sniff, sniff]...

Of course, 'MINE' are 'exclusive'....not for riff-raff...
Reply #4 Top
Simplicity is the golden rule, not only for the skins, but for our everyday life. Simplicity demands clear thoughts, which are coming after the complex ones. The guide for simplicity is love. Loving what you are doing, loving the others and loving your self, makes things very simple and always successful. The other parameters are less important and are getting better with the time.

Thank you Brad
Reply #5 Top
Simple and efficient skins are always a good thing, but the one thing that irritates me, is the overwhelming amount of them available.
It's seems very original and creative skins are being released these days. I'm not knocking the simple skins, most of them are technically perfect in their creation, but they all share a similar blandness, that dulls down the desktop sometimes.
I know there's no written rules about skinning, but it would be nice if every now and then, someone came along with a highly original and creative skin. An example is the whole Kaleidoscope themeing scene. Almost 95% of those themes are completely square, yet the authors manage to make them looks 200% original/creative/imaginative etc etc.
I miss the days when folk like Allen Bond, Mercury and all, where around.

In short, all I basically see these days, is clone after clone of a similar style. And truthfully, I find it rather tedious and boring.

None of these comments are meant to insult or be directed at anyone who does produce these type of simple skins. I'm merely expressing what I see in the skinning scene these days.
Reply #6 Top
That 2nd paragraph should have started off:
"It's seems very few original and creative skins are being released these days"

I typed that 5 mins after getting out of bed.....
Reply #8 Top
I've stopped paying mush attention to new WB skins, for much the same reasons that Hippy states. It's been my observation, that popularity has very little to do with originality.
If this insults anyone, well..........it's just my opinion.
Reply #9 Top
I might add, that there is nothing wrong with simple skins, as long as they have some class, and aren't just clones.......
Reply #10 Top
yeah you better say that and cover your butt over here bro! hehe

I hardly missed viewing the newly uploaded wb skins when they went up on the old skinz.org but actually since then, I don't think I've viewed more then a handful I lost interest after that and don't know what it is actually, there was something about that old main page when you logged into skinz.org that felt unique. or maybe just too many sites to visit and not enough time? or could be like hippy said, no more Morphh and Bond around? I dunno what exactly it is...
Reply #11 Top
Oh, come on, girl.....you're having pangs for the old Skinz again, aren't you?....
Reply #12 Top
doreen i think you miss the newness of things. so do i. now theres so many skins to choose from. i sometimes run with simple skins but often my skins are loud and crazy. like me!
Reply #13 Top
I agree that recently there has been a drought of creativity in WB skins. I'm not sure it it's that there are just so many skins, that leave little yet to be done, or just fewer true artists left making WB skins. However, there are still several skinners (trretog, alexandrie, hippy, essorant, and others) that you can always count on to at least bring a fresh take on an old idea, or make something truly original. Another factor involved is that there are several skinners (myself included) that make skins because we can, because we enjoy making them. I'm by no means an artist, and don't think I've made a truly original skin yet, but that's not going to prevent me from making skins, because I love it. Another factor involved is that the majority of skin "downloaders" still prefer gray/blue, vanilla skins. For example....treetogs's galciv skins is IMO one of the greatest skins recently made, but it's popularity will never rival some of his more "vanilla" skins (noOS, olympics OS, etc). The same could be said of alexandrie's LOS skin versus Z, XP Jeans, etc.
Reply #14 Top
hehe JayG
and yeah I still kinda miss skinz.org (guess I always will)
hmmm even though I still think brown was a wierd color for a site...
Reply #15 Top
skinz.org is up isn't it?
Reply #16 Top
JayG....sort of...but a shadow of its former self...
Reply #17 Top
yeah it is but it feels more like it's other Domain name now Desktoys.org
It just feels different now cuz it's too lit up needs to be darker hehe
/me likes the dark betterrrrr