Interview: Jeff Schader, The Skins Factory

    // August 19th, 2009 // View Comments // Technology


    Software interface designer, pioneer in the field of desktop customization and all-around artisan-extraordinaire, it is my pleasure to introduce Jeff Schader. Founder and C.E.O. of The Skins Factory, Inc., Jeff has been involved in interface development long before the company’s trailblazing ascension in 2000. Last year, Schader created Hyperdesk: a customization-focused product and division of The Skins Factory that “enables users worldwide to transform the look & feel of Windows XP.” Today, we are pleased to announce Hyperdesk’s forthcoming Vista support. But before we jump to this exciting news, let’s talk a bit about Jeff’s history with The Skins Factory.



    Jeff, I understand The Skins Factory has been alive since 2000. What prompted the company’s establishment nine years ago and how does the company’s overall “feel” compare to that of today’s?

    I was working for another company right before I incorporated and started The Skins Factory. As that company began to fail due to mismanagement, I decided to strike out on my own. I was doing everything myself anyway for them, so it was natural to head off and do it on my own. Back then, there weren’t very many companies or design studios doing user interface design and skin/theme development, so we were pretty niche. Thanks to a strong word-of-mouth at Microsoft we really took off. Today, we’re a much more mature studio. Our client list is strong and peppered with the who’s who of the Fortune 500 and our artwork is better than ever.



    Self-described “interface ninjas,” could you talk about a few of the artists who work with The Skins Factory? Where did they come from—both online and in the real world? Have they had to adapt to a Skins Factory “style” in coming to the company?

    I’d have to start with The Skins Factory’s Creative Director and Lead Artist, William Bart. He is just an integral part of who we’ve become as a studio. His user interface design is second to none and our synergy together is just incredible. He really has his finger on the pulse of the “what’s next” and together I think we’ve become a pretty invincible team when it comes to UI design. He’s been with me since 2002 and just gets better and better as the years go on. Another incredible artist to note is Javier Ocasio. Javier works on all of our Hyperdesk themes and really performs well with the design “seeds” that William passes along. Together the three of us make quite a team. Javier has a huge following in the customization world just like William and together they bring a wealth of talent to The Skins Factory.

    I’ve been a huge KoL [Javier Ocasio] fan since his early days in the GUI community. I remember some of his old visual styles: “Fresco” and “Kuantum;” his “Strange World” wallpaper series—people drooled over that stuff. And now he’s working with you! Pretty incredible.



    In addition to your team, your clientele is particularly impressive. Companies like Microsoft, Disney, AT&T, Yahoo!, Sony Pictures—was there a certain point at which time you realized: “Wow, we’ve hit it big. We are THE interface solution for mega-corporations everywhere!”

    The second year is when we really “took off.” The jobs were pouring in, we commanded a higher rate and we were getting calls once a week from these huge companies. While we didn’t do jobs for every single Fortune 500 company that contacted us, it felt good just having them contact us in the first place. Companies like Dolby Labs, the BBC, Harmon Kardon, Nintendo and others. It’s like being nominated for an award—even though you might not have won, you still feel good. But of course we landed projects for huge companies like you mentioned as well as Warner Bros. Entertainment, Target, Atari, Alienware and many others. I guess I knew we “hit it big” when I was paying huge amounts of money to the IRS instead of getting a tax return.



    Great, let’s transition a bit. If I am not mistaken, Hyperdesk, the vision, unfolded sometime in 2007, and the product hit the customization streets around mid-2008. For the customization newbies out there, could you describe Hyperdesk in your own words?

    Hyperdesk allows users worldwide to completely refresh the look of their Windows desktop. We began doing complete desktop themes when I first started The Skins Factory. These early themes were Xbox for Microsoft Game Studios and Terminator 3 for Warner Bros. Entertainment followed by about seven or eight desktop themes for Alienware. Hyperdesk changes everything from your start menu and taskbar interface to the look and feel of every window, button and progress bar. It’s just incredible how you’re greeted by a whole new desktop once you apply a Hyperdesk theme. We also include custom icon sets, wallpapers, widgets that control either iTunes or Windows Media Player and skins for Windows Media Player. And we’re the only desktop customization solution that has licenses to create official Disney, Pixar and Star Trek desktop themes. So you can take that dated, Windows XP looking desktop and change it to something exciting. As we approach the launch of Hyperdesk Vista early next month, I think people will be shocked (in a good way) how much cooler Windows Vista will become because of what we’re doing.



    You’ve been generous enough to provide me with a beta of the DarkMatter: Gamma Ray Hypersuite for Windows Vista. And let me be the first to say, it looks even better than its Windows XP counterpart! Do you feel Vista is a more suitable platform for exploiting the potential of Hyperdesk?

    Vista is a way better platform for themes when you refer to aesthetics. The windows themselves flow much nicer and feel more solid. The icons can be much larger which is always a plus and you have both native drop shadows and transparency on Aero. The biggest drawback I see is the Live Folders. The paper sticking out on that weird angle has been tough to deal with. But we always like a challenge. We’ve been down this road before with Windows Media Player skin development and its lack of alpha transparency. The result was us not pushing the design envelope but shredding it because we had to fight jagged edges due to lack of alpha channels. Now with that said, Vista is much harder to theme. So for the artists it allows more creativity and style, but for the themer like Javier who has to build the theme it’s much more difficult.

    DarkMatter: Gamma Ray

    I see. So you gain a bit more potential, but at the cost of a difficult time breaking down the platform.

    It’s give and take.



    So you’ve done Star Trek, WALL-E, numerous flagship themes, a Disney Theme, a Crysis theme and a Sony Ericson theme—just to name a few. A remarkable lineup at the very least! Any plans for the future you’d like to share with our readers?

    We’re going to be developing a 4th DarkMatter theme called Red-Shift. This will turn the trilogy into a quadrilogy. The color scheme will be the DarkMatter alloy and black along with a crimson red—much like the Alienware DarkStar theme we did. Also, William will continue development on his Omega theme. He’s just been so busy that development’s been a bit slow. Right now focus is on the Vista launch. Once that’s accomplished we’ll begin development on the new themes.



    That sounds incredible! Well I know I’m looking forward to it and I’m sure countless others reflect my anticipation. Thank you for sharing some of your valuable time to speak with me on behalf of Embrace the Flux. Good luck with all of your future endeavors!

    Thank you for having me Morgan. It’s been fun.

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