Highlights of Summer 2007: Favorite Skins, Icons, and Wallpapers

A sampling of some of the cool stuff that's come out lately

Wednesday, August 8, 2007 by Frogboy | Discussion: OS Customization

Summer tends to be a slower time for skinning since people are, well, you know, outside.  Personally, the sun causes me to catch on fire. Or at least smolder and no one wants to deal with that.

This Summer, there's been some real gems. Which is pretty amazing since those bastards at Stardock have co-opted most of the skinning community this year to work on MyColors projects.  So without further delay, here are some of the cooler looking things I've seen this summer:



VStyler has really taken off this summer and became a Master skinner.  His Viena for WindowBlinds works on both Windows XP and Windows Vista and is one of our favorites this Summer.

[Vienna]

Skinners from China dominated this year's GUI Championships. So it's not surprising that one of the coolest and most popular skins of the Summer came from China.

[Metal Vista 3]

Onix from SKoriginals was one of the most original skins we've seen this Summer and it's also very usable as well.

[Onix]

Fresh Attitude comes all the way from Russia via othersnow.  It makes great use of the glass features in WindowBlinds 5.  In WindowBlinds 6, users will be able to apply blur options to such skins which will make them even cooler!

[Fresh Attitude]

Plasmatron AI isn't a new skin but the Summer update takes I.R. Braniac's highly original skin and makes it incredibly usable as well. It's a true work of art.

[Plasmatron A.I.]

It has not been a very good summer for icons.  Making icons these days is a lot more work than it used to be. Now, icons are expected to be at least 128x128 (Vista expects 256x256 icons! That's about the full screen resolution of a decent LCD cell phone! For one icon!).

But mkorashy's Edifice helped brighten up an otherwise slow summer in this area. A great icon package brought to you all the way from Egypt!

[Edifice]

Webby's Over the Hills and Far Away comes to us all the way from Italy.  This incredibly cool wallpaper makes working inside almost bearable.

[Over the hills and far away]

Boss's Pacifico can make one imagine that they're in a tropical paradise.  It's just a stunning wallpaper.

[Pacifico]

Ixium Minor comes to us from AngelicJean in Australia. This is one of the most hauntingly beautiful wallpapers I've seen in years. 

[Ixium Minor]

 

Summer is only half-way over and we've only covered skins, icons, and wallpapers. Stay tuned, more to come!

Hankers
Reply #1 Wednesday, August 8, 2007 3:59 PM
Very nice work by all the authors.     
messiah1
Reply #2 Wednesday, August 8, 2007 7:04 PM
Yeah, some great stuff here, really cool wallpaper that Ixuim Minor.
KinniStyle
Reply #3 Wednesday, August 8, 2007 7:54 PM
Wow! I thought that Albert Einstein had the most talent in the World, of course untill I saw this. GREAT JOB!
Vampothika
Reply #4 Wednesday, August 8, 2007 8:46 PM
all i can say is that frog boy has some wicked taste...all these works of art are beautiful....
elvee
Reply #5 Wednesday, August 8, 2007 9:17 PM
Very good stuff. I am running Metal Vista 3 right now.  
v1rtuoso
Reply #6 Wednesday, August 8, 2007 10:37 PM
Wow. Great selection; contrats to all the authors!
vStyler
Reply #7 Wednesday, August 8, 2007 11:13 PM
Thanks for the feature Brad, I always appreciate these things.

Looking forward to contributing much more and perhaps better work in the near future.  
bilbo1930
Reply #8 Thursday, August 9, 2007 12:43 AM
Great selection
nice avatar Johnny
I.R. Brainiac
Reply #9 Thursday, August 9, 2007 3:33 PM
BRANiac?!...hehehehehe...BRAINiac...its BRAINIAC!  

Thanks Brad.  (Frogbouy)      
SKoriginals
Reply #10 Thursday, August 9, 2007 10:27 PM
Great stuff and thanks for the mention   

...as always, more to come and the next few are plans to go back to a more 'extreme' style.
vStyler
Reply #11 Thursday, August 9, 2007 11:36 PM
a more 'extreme' style.


  
seldomseen
Reply #12 Friday, August 10, 2007 12:26 AM
a more 'extreme' style


Oh, yeah!   
Skinhit
Reply #13 Friday, August 10, 2007 2:14 AM
It has not been a very good summer for icons.


What an incredibly wonderful thing to say by the owner of a website where artists such as myself, Pichechl and Mr.Skope have worked very hard on IP's and contributed for free, granted we're no Mormeigel,D.Arnaez or Yangge...But I call you out Frogboy and challenge you to try your hand at an IP, Thanks for your support!
AngelicJean
Reply #14 Friday, August 10, 2007 7:26 AM
Well done to all the authors, they are magnificent and well thought of designs. Also want to say thank you for the mention, very uplifting! Stay tuned for more!
ZubaZ
Reply #15 Friday, August 10, 2007 8:00 AM
It has not been a very good summer for icons.
where artists such as myself, Pichechl and Mr.Skope have worked very hard on IP's and contributed for free


I consider "summer" June through August.  And during that time only four Icon Packs have been released.  Compared to the other "major" catagories . .  that's not much action. 
danioc
Reply #16 Friday, August 10, 2007 8:52 AM
Lot's of cool works
boss0190
Reply #17 Friday, August 10, 2007 3:05 PM
Really nice, and thanks for the feature Brad!
Jackson Olav
Reply #18 Monday, August 13, 2007 12:34 PM
Great work Frogboy!
longdude0
Reply #19 Thursday, August 16, 2007 9:29 PM
  All the shots beautiful
WebGizmos
Reply #20 Friday, August 17, 2007 4:57 AM
Great stuff of the summer...but no ObjectDock stuff? Surely there had to be something.

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