VanillaSoap’s Rick Patrick is a relative newcomer to the Mac OS X GUI customization scene, coming out of nowhere with his debut theme, LutetiumGUI. And now, within a month of his first release, he’s back again with another top notch theme for the professionals. Introducing Niqu, spiritual successor to Ric Zito’s axed project Simple Grey, and simply the best professional theme available so far for OS X.

Take a look at the screenshots. When I had my first look, I was reminded of several of my favorite designs. There are hints of Raymond’s TiSkin in Niqu’s titlebar widgets, and Kevin’s Studio Pro in the bluish grey toolbar background, and Bill Bart’s BBX: Mercury in the buttons. And of course, Niqu shows similarities to Ric Zito’s updated SimpleGrey mockup, which included a matching color scheme of black plastic elements and grey backgrounds. But this is not a mix of several themes, or an extensive modification of one. Niqu is entirely original, completely consistent, and stands clearly by itself.

There are three defining styles for this theme. For all background elements, Niqu is grey, which is easy on the eyes, an important quality for professional artists who need to concentrate on their work rather than the interface. For all clickable elements, Niqu is a black plastic, which brings much needed contrast to the theme. Finally, several important and active elements are highlighted in blue gel (and other colors in Niqu’s many variations), which help draw the eye towards progress bars and throbbing push buttons. But for professionals, this blue is tastefully used, and as a result, Niqu is extremely usable. It’s one of few themes that can fade away while you’re working on a project, yet stand on its own as an eye catching theme when showing off your Mac to some buddies.

Also importantly, Niqu has been designed with a logical interface in mind. Unlike many other eye catching projects that look great but feel a bit off, each one of Niqu’s buttons and selections look physically pressable. Like Aqua, buttons are made of a sort of gel, which makes them very inviting to press, unlike the less friendly, “sharp” buttons in themes such as ProLCD and Milk. And to further this style of realism, buttons are subtly embedded in the windows, which is a nice touch.

And of course, as a MacThemes Production, Niqu will be a very complete package by release. Currently, the theme is planned to contain four variants with differently colored accents: the regular (blue), Niqu Dae (pink), Niqu Dew (green), and Niqu Ina (orange). And in addition, there is a “pro” variant of each that tones down the bright colors. All in all, Niqu will have eight total variations. And it goes without saying that the theme will also include an exhaustive number of application skins, including ones for iTunes, Safari, iChat, and many others. And several matching, original desktops. And a cursor set. This will be as full of a package as any previous MacThemes Production.

You can download Niqu here.

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