2nd Place: Pro LCD by Harold Harmon
Author: Harold Harmon
Final Score: 89%
Description: An original Metallic Framed LCD Interface.
Biography: None provided.
Comments
Posted by Phillip Ryu (Panel) at March 28, 2004 10:49 PM
Hmm I'd love to see Joe Kohlmann get his hands on this mockup ;)
Pro LCD is a mockup I'm rooting for, because it seems like one of those perfect meshes between beauty and usability. I love the mix of steel and an LCD interface; this is in a way, two themes in one. But compared to say, Digital Device, the interface within an interface gives Pro LCD a bit more visual interest than sticking with pure LCD. Congrats on an idea well made, and good luck with the contest Harold!
Posted by Harlan Lewis (Panel) at March 28, 2004 11:03 PM
Definitely a unique approach, and one that I like quite a bit. There are some small inconsistencies (toolbar widget implies a menu, for example), and some of those menubar and menu borders don't look entirely possible, but there isn't anything major here that can't be fixed easily if it's turned into an actual theme.
And yes, Joe Kohlmann on Pro LCD would be quite a match, heh.
Posted by Max Rudberg (Panel) at March 29, 2004 08:01 AM
This is a cool approach to a theme, and a more logical solution than Digital Device. I especially like the menubar. I can't really think of any flaws more than what's been mentioned. If you like the style, you will like the execution of it, I think.
I agree with Phill that Joe should make this theme :)
Posted by Kevin Husted (Panel) at March 29, 2004 09:15 AM
The first time I saw this theme I fell in love with it. Its got that (yes IM saying it again)super sexy look which makes you just want to stare at it, the twist here is just as easily as you can sit in awe of its beauty, you can work with it and work effieciently without the usualy problems of eyecandy themes such as overly contrasty elements which seem to over stimulate your eyes.
I would love to do this theme but i would be even happier if I had designed it :)
Posted by Joe Kohlmann (Panel) at March 29, 2004 09:33 AM
Well, Phill showed this on to me and I must say that I really like it, in fact I wanted to enclose Digital Device in some other material originally, and this mockup nails that perfectly. I love the execution of the elements, specifically how each is contained in its own LCD. The rest of the look is stellar, specifically the very slick metal and the drop shadows on the parts inside the LCD. The design is also consistent; luckily the designer realized this. However, I'm not sure if that Aqua window would be possible; it looks like it'd need window borders to work out fully. However, there's always Metalifizer if needed. Seriously Phill, I would love (Did I say love? I meant need! ;-) )to make this mockup... I think that the voters will like this one.
Posted by Steve Streza (Panel) at March 29, 2004 10:08 AM
It's Digital Device all over again, and it seems to be even better (sorry Joe! ^^). My only problem is that it seems that each LCD seems just a bit too embedded into the panel. Maybe just a pixel less of shadowing?
Still, this rocks.
Posted by William Bart (Panel) at March 29, 2004 11:16 AM
A thing of beauty... some bits that aren't actually do-able yet in an OSX theme, but overall quite nice. I love the inset controls with liquid crystal displays... I could see this one being very popular.
Posted by Chris McElligott at March 30, 2004 11:40 PM
I would have loved this theme is the LCD look had more a shine to it. A bit of a light source coming down on it. It looks nice now its just really flat compared to the rest of the theme.
Posted by Angel Rendon at March 31, 2004 12:15 AM
This theme is awesome, very creative.
Posted by TheIceMan at March 31, 2004 12:19 AM
Very creative. I hope this mockup makes it to a full theme. There's just something about the simplicity that just makes you want to stare at it, like the Palm handheld displays (the older models). Overall, the creativity and usability of this mockup should take this baby all the way to the top.
Posted by NetworkShadow at March 31, 2004 12:23 AM
Sure one of the better themes posted, but I wouldn't give it first place.
Posted by Sage at March 31, 2004 12:24 AM
Quite possibly my favorite entry. Take everything good about Digital Device, makes it even better, and adds a bit of Aqua feel to it. And check out how well the metallic surfaces are rendered!
My only suggestion is to tone down the strokes a bit around each widget... it's almost black, and doesn't look realistic compared to the rest of the theme. Otherwise, make it, make it!! :-)
Posted by Charley Newcomer at March 31, 2004 12:34 AM
Very Nice! Clean, Cool, & Usable.
I'd like to see another version of this theme released with darker metallic surfaces.Not too much darker, but darker.
Good Work.
Posted by OwlBoy at March 31, 2004 01:03 AM
What digital device should have been?
Great work!
Posted by Dace at March 31, 2004 01:28 AM
Reminds me of my Co-Pilot theme mock-up
Posted by N775UA at March 31, 2004 01:58 AM
That's right, Dace. It's all about you. Great work, Harold.
Posted by Dace at March 31, 2004 02:07 AM
Sorry, didn't know it posted at all....kept getting an error when I tried to post.
Anyways, if you don't believe me take a look for yourself: http://www.geocities.com/jake_kross/clie3.txt
Posted by walkingmac at March 31, 2004 02:08 AM
idk.... i like it ALOT.... but feel that the 'everything in it is own lcd display might be a bit much. I would almost like to see a few of the items (ie... the menus bar menus without the border but still colored, the title bars thus making like only the window name in lcd or something to that effect, etc) slightly different. Just making more usable and less flawed. Great theme.. definitely a contender
Posted by DigitalEl at March 31, 2004 03:16 AM
It does look like Dace's mockup, but is better executed IMHO. This would absolutely rock an aluminum PowerBook or G5. I might like it less on my plasticky white iMac, though. Beautiful work.
Posted by holger schindel at March 31, 2004 05:20 AM
harold go on...that will be the theme i use.
Posted by rhodiad at March 31, 2004 05:33 AM
Nice work here! I'd love to see a couple variations. (Think back-lit blue Indiglow, or maybe even a reversed glowing LED look.)
BTW, is it possible to put shadows and colors/images in the drive bay on the metal windows? I 'm not complaining, I'd really like to know. Guess I thought it was always white... not that I blame Harold for making it look nicer in the mockup, of course. :) Oh, and Harold, I know I'm being picky here, but you might want to make the interior radius of the titlebar LCD area match the external radius of the window edge... that is, if it's possible--it may very well already be as close as it can be within the constraints of OSX themes.
And speaking of, it's too bad we can't have Kaleidoscope-style shadows on the text. (Basically K just drew the text twice, offset by a pixel, allowing for a shadowed or embossed look on the text.) Imagine shadows on the text that matched the other shadowed LCD elements... maybe someday that feature could be added.
Posted by [ idle. ] at March 31, 2004 06:15 AM
i'm not sure why this reminds me of oldskool future Scifi TV series. maybe the clean smooth metal and the rounded corners? well, nicely executed.
[ idle. ]
Posted by Michael Salbato at March 31, 2004 06:24 AM
Another one of my favorite entries. I can't say anything that hasn't been said at this point though. Excellent work. I think the menubar highlighting could use some slight tweaking, but everything else is very well-done. I'm certainly hoping this ends up one of the winners.
Posted by Gito at March 31, 2004 07:02 AM
A very promising theme! I am a big fan of DigitalDevice and I keep telling myself that I won't ever switch themes again because I really like DD. This theme is original with the perfect combination. Metal and green look good!
Posted by Debugman at March 31, 2004 07:03 AM
Whoaw that's the nicest!
Posted by carbonfiber at March 31, 2004 08:22 AM
Amazing, i love this theme. hope it wins
Posted by 3nzo at March 31, 2004 08:30 AM
Nice..but the border around the menus seems a bit much... seems like it would be more lean and fluid if the menu was just the LCD part that dropped down.
Posted by serg. at March 31, 2004 09:21 AM
I sure do hope this mockup wins one of the prices. .
Posted by badidea at March 31, 2004 09:47 AM
This is my winner!
Posted by L'Ombre at March 31, 2004 09:52 AM
I really like this theme, and like many of the other comments here, I think that it would be nicer if the metal-to-LCD transition weren't so abrupt and deep.
Posted by Dan Shannon at March 31, 2004 10:09 AM
The LCD effect just seems like too much. It would get awkward after time.
Posted by alfredo at March 31, 2004 01:42 PM
I like it, I like it!!!
Posted by at March 31, 2004 02:24 PM
I'm a graphic designer, and I have been for 14 years. This is simply one of the best themes that i have seen. Congratulations Harold, I hope you win. (I wanted to build a theme too, but work kept me busy!)
Posted by at March 31, 2004 02:37 PM
Looks too goddamn much like Digital Device... Which sucks
Posted by Harlan Lewis (Panel) at March 31, 2004 05:15 PM
rhodiad,
Now that you mention it, there is a background color behind those drives in the metal window! That's not possible, heh. It just fit the look so well in the mockup my eyes just drifted right over it.
Posted by Harold Harmon at March 31, 2004 05:22 PM
Thank you all for the comments. Except of course the poster who feels this is too goddamn much like Digital Device, but is unwilling to state who he/she is :).
Dace, I just went searching for your co-pilot mockup so that i could get an idea what it looked like. The only real similarity I can see is that both have an lcd look. The actual design here was a derivitave of a theme I am making for Windowblinds and a desktopX object I am making which has an LCD screen. Thought I would throw them together and see what happened.
As far as elements that can't be done... well you will have to excuse me there. You see I don't own a Mac.. never have. My next computer will be a Mac, but probably not for several months. So when it came time to design I had to pretty much guess at constraints.
Again, thanks for all the positive comments. I feel a bit overwhelemed by the responses.
Posted by Scottish at March 31, 2004 07:47 PM
I'm a little surprised to hear Max say he especially loves the menu bar, because that seems clearly to be the worst-looking part to me, aesthetically. The View menu is squished into the right border of that LCD, the highlight around Finder leaves too much space on the right (too little on the left?), and I'm not sure I'd want that LCD changing every time I switch apps. The first two would likely be fixed with actual implementation of the theme, but still not sure about the third. My only other slight complaint is that the border around the menu LCDs should be the same thickness all the way around.
Those complaints aside, I must say, it still looks sexy!
Posted by paularms at March 31, 2004 07:51 PM
my first response was... ick... the colors are pretty gross.
please remember that LCDs can come in colors BESIDES puke green. red, blue, bright green, black, white... they are all usable and not too expensive LCD types. My vote is for this theme ONLY if you promise to make different "flavors" of the LCD color.
Posted by Mike Matas at March 31, 2004 10:36 PM
I do like the whole LCD look but I do not think the metaphor was really executed very well. I would have much rather seen the window title bar be metal and the rest of the window be all LCD. These little screens that make up buttons are just kinda strange to me. If I had a digital device that looked like one of these windows i would be very hesitant to use it. It seems like this would have been better either having it be all LCD or having only non clickable displays such as the progress bar and windows title in the LCD look.
Posted by Slappy at March 31, 2004 11:00 PM
PURE MASTERPEACE, AMAZING IT IS THE BEST INTEGRATION, BETWEEN DIGITAL AND USIBITLY IVE EVER SEEN, IT HAS A SLEEK BUT MATURE STYLE TO IT.
Posted by Christipher Walter at April 1, 2004 06:46 PM
Amazing work, just perfect clean ! I really hope you win !! My apologize
Posted by David Kiltz at April 2, 2004 02:38 AM
Well done but all the metal makes it feel heavy to me. Also, the greenish background reminds me of first generation handhelds...
Posted by Bruce Baugh at April 2, 2004 06:25 AM
This is great for controls, but I'm hard pressed to believe many people could actually enjoy looking at the data in applications this way for very long.
Posted by sayonaraML at April 2, 2004 09:11 PM
This is my favorite! If Joe does the work, it's on my Mac rightaway...
Posted by james at April 3, 2004 11:55 AM
i find the long lcd shapes to be far too much on the top of the windows and menubar.
i'm not sure how else it could be done, but i'm not too fond of that part. otherwise, great job
Posted by Bill Snebold at April 3, 2004 04:49 PM
While I like the general concept of this theme, I feel some of the choices made by the designer don't really work.
1. There's no visual distinction made between buttons, menus and indicators (such as progress bars).
2. Treating the "grab area" of the window with a LCD look makes it less intuitive than leaving it with a metal treatment.
3. The window bar LCD panels are too rounded.
Overall, I think this theme needs a lot more tweaks before it ready for release.
Posted by Daniel Goffin at April 4, 2004 07:55 PM
Harold, congratulations. A more than well deserved second place and as soon as this mockup has become reality its going to take its righteous place among the top themes the OSX platform currently has to offer. I'm already looking forward to that.
Posted by Paul Johnson at April 4, 2004 08:57 PM
Congrats, Harold! Good show! I'll enjoy seeing how this design evolves as it's made into a working theme.
Posted by Philip Beck at April 4, 2004 09:20 PM
Ditto !!!
Posted by Ernest Liu at April 4, 2004 10:10 PM
No surprise this theme won! First time I saw it, it was obviously a winner. Can't wait to get my hands on this theme!
Posted by yoxi at April 5, 2004 02:37 AM
Personal taste is a fascinating thing - I disliked this theme as intensely as I liked the 1st & 3rd place winners - more than anything else, it makes me think of: an early mobile phone (I think that's 'cellphone' in American) mated with an iPod with a hangover... but to win 2nd place it must be something that a whole load of people really would want their macs to look like. So well done to the artist for hitting the spot, even if it's miles from mine ;)
Posted by Max Rudberg (Panel) at April 5, 2004 11:02 AM
Congratulations Harold!
I didn't rate this theme as high as the other winners, but it's well done and hope it turns out well :)
Posted by Philip Beck at April 5, 2004 05:06 PM
I'd like to see this theme developed with a bit stronger color - perhpas some blues.
Posted by Harlan Lewis (Panel) at April 5, 2004 08:01 PM
Work has begun on turning this into a theme, btw. Even in its very limited amount done, it looks better as a gui than it does as a mockup. And damn, it sure is easier to make these things when someone else does all the actual making work :P.
Posted by merlin at April 6, 2004 06:44 AM
kevin said "without the usualy problems of eyecandy themes such as overly contrasty elements which seem to over stimulate your eyes."
But I think it really over stimulates the eyes, because of everything embedded that loose the user. I think the title bar should not be inside a "screen". And the double arrow bring confusion with pop-up menu.
For me the menus are the weakest pieces in this theme.
Otherwise it's really well executed.Congratulations?
Posted by SticKboy at April 14, 2004 07:50 AM
When is this going to be made into a full theme? Please, please hrry along; I can't wait to use it!
Posted by Juan Lopez at May 10, 2004 10:34 AM
Windows version coming soon??????
Posted by at October 8, 2004 05:05 PM
Man.. if somebody's going to write a bot to spam the comment system, the least they could do is make its messages legible.. O_o
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