By the amount of new members that have come on board lately......I would say customization is very popular

Be Different

Hmm, sounds mac-ish.

I totally agree with Paxx. There has to be variation as much as originality, and as Jafo said, good boring skins will remain boring.
I guess the fact that many people are getting into skinning and are experimenting for the first time inspired by the style of other artist is the reason why we see so many 'repeats' of designs. Hopefully as they learn to skin they'll developed their own unique style
...(hopefully)

I agree with what has been said above, for the most part. And I think A67 made a good point when he talked about new skinners. I know I myself have been working for months to develop something I felt would be good enough for my first submission. I definitely want to do some new and different things. The suite I'm working on now will definitely qualify in that regard... whether it will be accepted remains to be seen.

But before I could get to the point where I felt I could really try new things, I had to learn the basics. And the way I've had to learn is by trial and error, tearing apart the work of others and seeing if I could build it again. Consequently, a lot of my 'practice' skins look a great deal like someone else's. Between my regular work, and family, that has taken a while.

So it's only now, after several months, that I'm beginning to feel really confident enough with the mechanics of Skin Studio, Icon Developer, and the various apps to be skinned that I'm finally producing some things I feel are close to being worthy of submission. It isn't that my 'practice runs' aren't of decent quality, in my opinion, I just don't want to submit something that people look at and think... "Hmmm... looks a lot like So-and-so's work."

I've seen several new skinners take a different path than I have chosen, and as A67 mentioned, their first submissions seem inspired by one artist or another. There is nothing wrong with that approach... I just want my submissions to be my style from the beginning.

Shameless Designs - I'm with you there, though what I keep finding is that I'll try something and think it looks cool, and then realise I have seen something similar before but I'd forgotten it....I think my "furry skin" I asked for comments on in the Skinning board (that I've put on hold for now while I get better technically) is the nearest to being "original" that I've come, even though others have done furry before...

Just remember, that whatever you make, you are unique - just like everyone else (quote source not known)...

Be Different

Coincedentally, thats the motto for my new minimalistic skinsuite...'Mime'

Although, perhaps not quite the same meaning...

EventHorizon winks at cerebro and IPlural...

...Beauty (or 'different-ness') is in the eye of the beholder...
[Message Edited]

...made a new one...Much better than the old, but it has yet to be 'approved' for 'mass viewing'....

Don't forget that most computer users don't even know how to change their friggen resolution

And what resolution should the friggen be set to??

agreeing with ghos to an extent. younger users who just play games seem to have the crowded, flashy desktops.. the developers need streamlined desktops with quick access to commands and navigation. but even by catching admin comments on 'what the community wants' (wink, karmagirl ), artwork has been created that isn't anything really different then what has already been done. there is still a need for the variety and some skinners are realizing this. for that i say customization is still on its way up. a lot more can yet be done. when everyone can log in and find exactly what the want, it will flatten out.

It 'shouldn't' be about supply and demand.....not unless your motivation is to simply be listed in a 'top skinners' table.

The parameters of the design 'brief' should NOT be 'lowest common denominator to give largest possible DL count', but 'I'll make it like this because I want one like it and there aren't any already that suit'.

Being an Architect for 30 years means I understand the difference between 'off the shelf' and 'tailor-made'.

The former is for lemmings...the latter is for actual individuals with the power of personal taste.

Skinners need to get off the freeways and into the backroads of creative thinking.

It is not impossible to still be ground-breaking with originality just because there are already a lot of skins out there....not for anyone with a brain and creativity.

Particularly with Windowblinds....stop rehashing the predictable Luna interface....leave that for the sad sacks who think StyleXP is actually any good....THEY don't have much option.....but YOU....you CAN think outside the square.

AR.....no...I think it's more about the true innovation and whacky diversity of the early skins....by early I mean pre-XP.

We have XP to thank for for skin popularity...but also to rue for mediocrity as everyone recolours the same old crap...

Phil....same issue applies with LS....perhaps more accessibility via OTS leads to more 'ho-hum' mediocrity.

While things were truly 'geek-run' and people were ALL new to the concept...the boundaries were still yet to be tested.

An example would be an early theme of mine....5 or 6 years old....had 2 wharfs.....back before it was supported.  I simply ran two instances of the shell....a primary and a second to load wharf 2.

These days people just want LS with icons on the desktop....they may as well be running Exploder.....why bother?...

An example would be an early theme of mine....5 or 6 years old....had 2 wharfs.....back before it was supported. I simply ran two instances of the shell....a primary and a second to load wharf 2.

you should have edited wharf.dll with a hex editor and replace every "wharf" with "vharf". then you would have had a second, independent module. of course all the settings in modules.ini and step.rc also should have used "vharf" for the second module.
i did that with chronos.dll a while ago, before label.dll supported timezones. done with three clicks and pretty comfortable when one is not familiar with compiling from the source (as i was at that time).