Desiging Skins
 

I am curious as we are embarking on designing skins for my website/forums. What are the best types of skins? Do we simply modify what VB has done with a few personal touches here and there, or is pure custom the best way to go across the board?

This thread was inspired after seeing this guys site:

http://www.ageofantiquity.com/forum/

And while I think our skins are pretty damn good, that is off the charts and very impressive work. We only have like 3 skins done and are more and more going towards a custom look and away from VB standards.

I just wanna know whether people prefer pure custom or whether they like a mix of VB standard buttons/table colors and some custom headers and such or what...

I usually just start with the default style and edit to my liking, so I can see all the variables and everything and make sure I still have them.

I would imagine it is personal preference though.

too much eyecandy for me

you should be asking your visitors .. they are the ones using your site

keep in mind, a drastic change in any interface will cause havoc

I hope the eye candy thing wasn't directed towards me, I wouldn't take it as insulting, I'd just disagree. I mean, we're still using VB gradient designs for sub-headers and footers, the headers are getting a lil graphical, we changed the bulletin boards because I hate them, and so on. Aside from that all of the small folder icons and such are standard VB with the tables simply going through color changes. So there really isn't a lot of "custom" on my own forums. However that dudes is off the chart with eye candy, so I think you're referring to his.

I dunno it's a great look, I think what hurts him is his honesty on not marketing enough and possibly his topic of coverage. But the overall design work put into it is incredible. I don't think too flashy either, it just looks really nice.

I guess overall I was wondering what designers liked to do moreso from time to time, as well as what forum owners have noticed in regards to the skins' they've added. Do custom one's work better than variations of VB standard? Or do you keep it as simple as possible with just color changes?

this site style is very attractive for the topic... the eye-candy is exactly what is needed to refresh the content of such sites that are usually abandonned by lack of tease...