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Hi Guys,
I've made my first theme and popped it on the android market, I made the decision to charge £0.99 for it as I believe it to be worth that and I know if I saw it then I would have no qualms with paying this at all, however since releasing it around 10 hours ago, ive only had 3 downloads all of which were cancelled so im trying to work out reasons why. One possible reason I can think is that they are using the Motorola Droid, where most these don't look particularly good because of the resolution, the second is that they just plain didn't like it! I do find this rather odd though as I have included 2 screenshots.
So if here's the androlib link (http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-nd-android-pandatheme-psimpleblack_5896-pExj.aspx) (screens dont do it much justice), I would appreciate any feedback. If anyone wants to download it for real then for today I will refund anyone from XDA developers who purchases it, just PM me your name after you have done so.
Thanks a lot for any help .
Looks pretty good to me, i take it the fuzziness is just in the screenshots? There's certainly A LOT worse on the market that have quite a few downloads, so I think you just have to give it time.
Yeah the fuzzyness is just the screens, thanks for the comment . Feel free to download if you want to take it for a spin and I'll refund your money making it free.
Anyone else got anything to add? getting a lot of views but little in the way of comments .
jgclifton said:
Anyone else got anything to add? getting a lot of views but little in the way of comments .
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I would suggest making the notification bar black. The white bar does not look quite right. On the other hand, I only theme AOSP ROMS, so this may not be an option for you.
I want you to know that what follows is constructive criticism in the hopes that it will help you. If I offend I apologize, and give you full permission to tell me to piss off.
When I look at the theme, it looks nice, very clean, all the graphics work, but there is nothing that grabs my attention. It seems very "flat" and I personally would refund and get a theme that would draw me in to the screen. Having said that, I think it is really great work, that with a little bit of effort could really sell. I am sorry to say that I can not tell you what it needs, but I suggest making a few mock ups in gimp (or photoshop) and asking people what they think.
Additionally, the theme looks a lot like an iphone, which may be why I do not care for the look as much another may. The idiots on the market are always looking for iphone this and that, and thus I think it could really sell given time.
Thanks, comments noted, very helpful. The black notification bar isn't an option in this sort of theme but I'll definately be looking into ways of jazzing it up for a version 2.0 .
While I love themes like this, the only issue is that every other app installed will have a regular icon. Which unfortunatly takes away from your great work..
Yeah I recognise this, i was thinking of adding extra ones for the most popular apps (facebook, twidroid etc). Maybe this is something I'll look further in to.
jgclifton said:
Yeah I recognise this, i was thinking of adding extra ones for the most popular apps (facebook, twidroid etc). Maybe this is something I'll look further in to.
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That is exactly what I did. There is no way to legally theme and distribute most market apps, so just make an addition icon pack and let people apply via bettercut.
By the way, I showed this to my wife, whom is a professional graphic designer, and asked her opinion. She suggested it is way too flat, and needs more contrast. I realize that you do not want to add color to accomplish this, as it defies the point of your theme, so she suggested to do away with the symmetry. Stagger some icons, give the homescreen a look that carries the eye of the viewer around it.
Thanks cloverdale, will definately take this into account in my future themes. Currently selling ok on the market place after making a few colour variations .
I want to create a theme, as no one here seems to have the same design sense as me; most are obsessed with trends from 2004 or something, and are fascinated by bright colors and the need for everything to be big and/or cluttered. as a minimalist, i'm basically exactly the opposite. i like clean, concise, small and unobtrusive.
Anyway, if a dalented dev and I could hook up, I could design a very nice looking exterior for Android so long as he could code it all into place. I'd be wanting to skin basically every skinnable object within Android; I want a full UI overhaul. I also want it to be the best looking thing released for the OS.
To give myself a little bit of credibility, here's a mock-up I was messing around with to provide an idea of what I'd be talking about.
http://img811.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=homel.png
is no one replying because it doesn't look good enough, or because no one is interested?
The design is very bland, more work on it would make it look pretty nice. I see you're aiming for a simple look yet, somewhat elegant.
looks very nice and clean but...
notification bar is half the size,dont know if it is possible to edit the size of it.
and it wouldnt be easy to acess the drop down menu.
Same goes to lockscreen,a lot to change...
Perhaps this are the reasons no dev is interested in this,but it is a nice concept...hope you can manage to get it done.
ZED_pt said:
looks very nice and clean but...
notification bar is half the size,dont know if it is possible to edit the size of it.
and it wouldnt be easy to acess the drop down menu.
Same goes to lockscreen,a lot to change...
Perhaps this are the reasons no dev is interested in this,but it is a nice concept...hope you can manage to get it done.
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You can change the status bar size from source: frameworks/base/core/res/res/values/dimens.xml and change the status bar dpi from 25 to "x"
that was just a mock-up. everything can/will be changed to meet the dimensions of the elements to the sizes needed for the phone. and yes, it'll looks a lot better after some more time is put into it. i posted just a barebones preview of what i hope to accomplish.
You came in here bashing many talented designers and then post that? Instead of 2004, you're going prior?
Good luck, and I hope your "new" idea (given that there are quite a few minimalist themes) turns out well.
how did i bash anyone? i mean sure my comment was a little snarky, but it wasn't meant to put anyone down.
i don't see how that's prior-2004 either way, though.
Instead of asking for "talented devs" to help you, it might work out better if you spend a little bit of time to get to know the roots of android theming, and hopefully get more going than a few minimalistic mockups. Read a few how-to guides to get things rolling and when you get to troublesome .9's and xml tweaks, that might be a better time to ask for help.
As much as all of us will be really excited to see what you come up with (I mean that seriously), I really think it would be better that you get some experience going on your own first. 'Employing' people to do the dirty work usually means the end result is nothing like what the concepts suggested (I think a lot of us remember a similar situation late last year).
Good luck, have fun. I'm looking forward to the results.
turn said:
I want to create a theme, as no one here seems to have the same design sense as me; most are obsessed with trends from 2004 or something, and are fascinated by bright colors and the need for everything to be big and/or cluttered.
http://img811.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=homel.png
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This is absolutely true, most of the themes would make my phone look like a cheap knockoff. However, I don't find yours the most appealing either. Minimalistic is good, very good, but add some more life to it (again, in a minimalistic and clean way)
It kinda reminds me of this here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=662721&highlight=xperia
turn said:
I want to create a theme, as no one here seems to have the same design sense as me; most are obsessed with trends from 2004 or something, and are fascinated by bright colors and the need for everything to be big and/or cluttered. as a minimalist, i'm basically exactly the opposite. i like clean, concise, small and unobtrusive.
Anyway, if a dalented dev and I could hook up, I could design a very nice looking exterior for Android so long as he could code it all into place. I'd be wanting to skin basically every skinnable object within Android; I want a full UI overhaul. I also want it to be the best looking thing released for the OS.
To give myself a little bit of credibility, here's a mock-up I was messing around with to provide an idea of what I'd be talking about.
http://img811.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=homel.png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do get where you're coming from and a lot of the themes posted aren't to my taste, but your design is weak. If you're going to make something so minimal that it's just a gradient fill and a font, the font needs to be something so special it can carry the whole design, and that really isn't... italics.. seriously..? It looks very dated. I think you've shown a lot of arrogance to come in here disrespecting the work put in by some very talented people, and then put forward your own amateurish design as an example of what they should be doing. You're not going to recruit anyone to help you that way.
Personally, I don't have the time or the motivation to work on full system themes without any kind of reward or pay. This is difficult, time consuming work, as you will soon find out if you make the effort to learn for yourself. I will however be leaning much more towards the minimal style in my future GDE themes, as it's my own personal preference.
Minimal is a very difficult look to pull off in an interface without looking bland, but there are some fine examples around here. Take a look at Elegance for a start. I respect that theme a lot.
Forget changing codes and such, just go to Sweeter Home and build it yourself. There are tons of themes there that look like your example.
http://www.sweeterhome.com/
Hey man, I just felt like I needed to give you some words of advice from an artistic standpoint.
I don't know your design capabilities, I don't claim this is your best, and I don't claim you are a world renown designer.
But every designer I do know deals with battling what other people say about their work.
We can choose to be offended, or we can choose to take it as a way of improving.
There are two words for this. One is greatly different from the other.
One is Criticism, and the other is constructive criticism.
Some of these posts I have seen are just pure criticism. (Perhaps this is why I see a whole page of posts gone but others I see here are constructively trying to criticize the work so that you may gain humility towards others works, and improve in your own.
This is a true barebone theme my friend, but I see potential in it. It doesn't matter what other's think, it matters what you think. If you ever need some help with this man, feel free to e-mail me. I am no dev, but I am a designer, and I would love to help you in the artistic aspects of this project, so that you can have something to be strongly proud of in the end of this. Let me know what's up. Shoot me a PM.
A loving word from one designer to another,
-VolcomDesigns
volcomdesigns said:
Hey man, I just felt like I needed to give you some words of advice from an artistic standpoint.
I don't know your design capabilities, I don't claim this is your best, and I don't claim you are a world renown designer.
But every designer I do know deals with battling what other people say about their work.
We can choose to be offended, or we can choose to take it as a way of improving.
There are two words for this. One is greatly different from the other.
One is Criticism, and the other is constructive criticism.
Some of these posts I have seen are just pure criticism. (Perhaps this is why I see a whole page of posts gone but others I see here are constructively trying to criticize the work so that you may gain humility towards others works, and improve in your own.
This is a true barebone theme my friend, but I see potential in it. It doesn't matter what other's think, it matters what you think. If you ever need some help with this man, feel free to e-mail me. I am no dev, but I am a designer, and I would love to help you in the artistic aspects of this project, so that you can have something to be strongly proud of in the end of this. Let me know what's up. Shoot me a PM.
A loving word from one designer to another,
-VolcomDesigns
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*applause* well said!
I have realized that over the last few months I have created too many different wallpapers for me to just place links on my websites so I am in the process of trying to create an APP that will not only showcase a good variety of my wallpapers available for others to use, but also I am looking into how I can incorporate some tools for wallpapers as well within the APP. Keep in mind that I am a graphic designer first, so while my wallpapers are often great (as many people have told me) I dont necessarily have the full set of skills yet to really finish this app because my coding skills are mainly website based. So any help or suggestions that anyone can provide to me would be appreciated. If there are any tools or actions you think I should add into the APP then let me know, just as if you can provide any insight as to how I can get some of these things completed let me know as well. Also if you are strong with android development and would like to help then I would be willing to work out an arrangement (one in which you get paid if your work is good). I will try to add some examples of my wallpapers below in either a zip file or as single images.
***ALSO.... Let me know if you think this is a good idea, basically Im asking if you would be interested in this app***
Thanks,
Casper
*some of the wallpapers I put in the attachment section may have icons that I also designed pictured in them. If you want the wallpaper itself just send me a message.
onenonlycasper said:
I have realized that over the last few months I have created too many different wallpapers for me to just place links on my websites so I am in the process of trying to create an APP that will not only showcase a good variety of my wallpapers available for others to use, but also I am looking into how I can incorporate some tools for wallpapers as well within the APP. Keep in mind that I am a graphic designer first, so while my wallpapers are often great (as many people have told me) I dont necessarily have the full set of skills yet to really finish this app because my coding skills are mainly website based. So any help or suggestions that anyone can provide to me would be appreciated. If there are any tools or actions you think I should add into the APP then let me know, just as if you can provide any insight as to how I can get some of these things completed let me know as well. Also if you are strong with android development and would like to help then I would be willing to work out an arrangement (one in which you get paid if your work is good). I will try to add some examples of my wallpapers below in either a zip file or as single images.
***ALSO.... Let me know if you think this is a good idea, basically Im asking if you would be interested in this app***
Thanks,
Casper
*some of the wallpapers I put in the attachment section may have icons that I also designed pictured in them. If you want the wallpaper itself just send me a message.
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You have a great idea man...good work! Your wallpapers are really well designed and clean... You take any requests to customize the wallpapers? Like that one with the paint roller would look awesome if the wall was black and the paint was ics blue
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda app-developers app
Yup good idea indeed
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Re: request DG or customizing my wallpaper designs
Thanks for feedback, also for being one of the few people who notice and appreciate clean designs in general.... My favorite style of designing and the principal I often live by when working is "K.I.S.S." (keep it simple stupid)... I get so many jobs from clients that want ridiculously cluttered or chaotic designs for logos, banners, flyers, ads, wallpapers, and even icons that they want me to cram way too much into and ultimately end up looking horrible in my opinion, but as long as they like it and of course they pay for the design, I just try to do what they request.
As far as my progress on the actual development of the app I stated initially as the purpose of this thread, I am at a standstill because I lost basically all of my progress over last 2 weeks roughly, when the VPS I set up to host my files on crashed several days ago. Normally I have a backup system in place that continuously syncs my files every hour from the computers I use to develop or design major projects on, but I was forced to work within the virtual system online all because a completely different issue caused my actual laptops I use to do most work on, to basically be shutdown for a few days while I checked my other systems and the network they run desperately on for issues and then had to wipe my main PCs clean then reinstalled the OS and other software and applications from scratch but of course I wasn't able to get back online and running on the backup systems network so that what I had completed on the VPS online could be downloaded to my local network drive and ultimately would have saved me from losing almost 2 weeks of work on a development that I do not normally work on, because I am still kinda new to Android development in general but also have not really done much work on creating apps for android from scratch so its even worse to lose data and files that really seemed to be something I'm not entirely sure if I can even recreate at all. I am a graphic designer first so I don't even use some of the necessary elements of android development at all for my normal work projects. There was definitely a big part of me that knew I should've held off on working on this app until I was back on my normal systems/set up and could keep things backing up to the secondary network drive because every small step I took working in a foreign environment with a system I barely grasped on this level.... There's no doubt some of my progress was just a matter of luck and timing, mixed with a lot of trial and error after hours of reviewing guides and other peoples work just to see if I could piece things together when I was stumped.
Now, I apologize for the very long post but I say all of this because I have been so frustrated by everything that has happened recently that just don't know if I can start over again. First I have a ton if real work to catch up on and other projects to get completed for clients asap so I don't really have the free time to get back into creating this app, second I literally felt like my brain hurt at times when staring at code or reviewing guides tutorials or data from other people to get little things working for me in this apps creation, so I just don't know if I even want to start over and try to do This crap again. So that's everything and it does kinda feel good to get it out and I guess we shall see is all I can say when it comes to completing this app....for now I'm taking a break from android development and apps.
Sent from Tapatalk app using Nexus 7-3G running god knows what ROM I recently flashed out of boredom or to test out just because I'm a serial flasher and addicted to android devices and can't seem to settle on one set up for any of my tablets/phones
Dude no worries... Sh*t happens... Life comes first you gotta take care of your work first. Songs lie you are a pretty successful graphic designer. Any tips for a noob to get into the graphic designing world? I just don't even know where to start looking for business, what to charge, out anything about the process for submitting drafts and final products. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda app-developers app
Requests for custom or personalized wallpapers
PartimusPrime said:
You have a great idea man...good work! Your wallpapers are really well designed and clean... You take any requests to customize the wallpapers? Like that one with the paint roller would look awesome if the wall was black and the paint was ics blue
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda app-developers app
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I meant to reply a while ago in regards to your question about personalizing or customizing wallpapers I have already designed to the requests of others, yeah I have been known to offer people the chance to request different colors or other minor tweaks to my original designs in order to help make it more of their own. Within the next few days I'll be posting up several more examples of some of my designs so if there are any wallpapers that you are interested in having me alter a little just PM or email me directly with exactly what you would like changed and within a few days usually I will send you the updated/altered file via email. I've also started to put together some of the icons I have worked on in the last few months and I think I'm going to release some of them either in a pack or maybe even as an app if I have the time to make something quick and dirty.
BTW*** as soon as you mentioned the idea of changing the paint design to ICS blue I was like "why didn't I think of that before", cause I love light blue in general so ICS blue was one of my favorite color schemes. I still use it on several devices whenever I theme my own stuff. Great suggestion. i'll be adding that new color of the paint wallpaper design up here as well.:good:
Thanks again....Casper
again i'll post some other wallpapers this week, but for now here is the new logo for my next web project and future app as well titled "Androids-Anonymous"
Graphic design tips and info for starting out in the field
PartimusPrime said:
Dude no worries... Sh*t happens... Life comes first you gotta take care of your work first. Songs lie you are a pretty successful graphic designer. Any tips for a noob to get into the graphic designing world? I just don't even know where to start looking for business, what to charge, out anything about the process for submitting drafts and final products. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda app-developers app
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Yeah I can definitely give you some info on starting out in the design field, I actually just helped a student of mine who graduated last semester in the fall to get started out with her photography and design business that she asked for some help in establishing things with. So some of the things I passed on to her will apply to you as well possibly, if you want more specific examples and information then it's best to just PM or email me directly and I can send you everything from templates that are good to use for contracts with clients or invoices or documents that may help. As far as pricing goes and what to charge, thats probably the hardest thing to establish for any designer no matter if they just started out of even as I have been doing this for over 10 years now I still find it hard to price jobs for clients up front. Part of it does depend on your experience and ability in general, but part of it is just up to you personally and you have to decide if your gonna be more affordable or more realistic with your rates. But again, just contact me directly and I can get a better idea of what you want to know exactly as well as what your capabilities are and how you should approach things. Hope I can help...
Ok i know these are "concepts" But can anyone make these? Or has anyone? Especially the, "you and your friends" one and the "Cartesian coordinates".
How hard would it be to make the Cartesian coordinates watch face?
Also I'm really surprised there isn't a section with faces for download that devs and/or people here have made.
Hello All
After receiving my new Gear, I shot to the internet to see what cool things were available. The watch styler app was very appealing to me, so after hours or searching I must say I am intrigued at all of the designs and I thank all of the people for their hard work in creating and posting them for our use. That being said, I would like to create my own custom designs and was wondering if there was a tutorial on how to edit the photos of a round watch face such as the rolex and make it square. I have Adobe Photoshop and I know with a bit of guidance, I could create some really cool designs.
Thank you again everyone