What is a "minimal" skin to you?

Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped down to its most fundamental features.

Skinwise I think the more overall flatness a skin has the more minimal it is I consider Mirev2 more a minimal skin than v1 for example, or case and maximhuz stuff is really minimal, while I think that my own stuff has become less minimal cause I try to build in lots of fancy mouseovers and stuff, cause I wanna have it look minimal but when using I enjoy havin the fancy mouseover and dropdownbuttons and stuff.
Another example, a lot of people consider areao4 minimal, which I don't, the first version maybe a bit more but the 2nd version got so many welldesigned fancy ellements like the tabs for example and lot's of stuff that is way to detailed that it could be considered minimal nevertheless there are a lot of minimal ellements included as well, like flat bars etc, still this is imo one of the best if not the best designed visualstyle out there.

also maybe this topic woul've imo been better in the customize or general discussion group ;)

In my opinion minimal is when you have everything flat and simple but its the colours which make it look so great.

Let the man open every single thread that he wants.

Now on topic:

a minimal skin is that one which doesn't have any other stuff than the merely necessary.

i agree with adz_619

Anything that is not Microsoft is minimalastic :P

Well said bit about Are04.2 tho. That VS appeals to me a lot because it is minimaitic while not being stripped down to the bone as a lot of others. Nano for example is one VS by the same group of people? not sure, anyway that was beautiful to look at but horrible to use ^^ Its a fine line as Minimal does not merely involve stripping down according to me, but also retaining an element of functionality.

ooh, I got another good one, minimal is anything not found up on wincustomize.com :P

Minimalism (to me at least) describes something which accomplishes everything intended to be accomplished, well.

There are plenty of skins that have a 'flat' look, that I would not consider minimal. Functionality is more important than mere appearance.

ooh, I got another good one, minimal is anything not found up on wincustomize.com :P

Always one in the crowd... ;)

Hehe, my bad. Had to throw that in there cos I found it quite funny (but true in way) when I heard it :P

minimal is anything not found up on wincustomize.com :P

:) hehe

"Minimalist" to me simply means "no clutter". Once could say that Customize's current incarnation is minimalistic in appearance.

Minimal has a lot to do with the graphics involved. For my designs, I like to keep it simple. In essence what that means is streamlined, low profile, non gloss type graphics.

Now I'm not saying that if you include any of the above in your work that you can't classify it as minimal, because it's merely my opinion of what is not simple. I tend to notice that when you start adding gloss, creating big detailed, glowing buttons it can easily fall into the tawdry category real fast.

Some designers want to use every feature a skin engine has but they don't know how to implement them correctly.

Minimal, in relation to visual styles, to me means removing as much as possible and attempting to find ways of replacing functions, therefore allowing for further stripping down. Minimal in design is often associated with emptiness and large space. Space is a comoditiy, so by stripping objects away things appear more expensive and professional looking (think designer brand advertising and luxury stores). That's my opinion anyway.

i totally agree with Max's Opinion