Theme For A Week Contest Winners!
After over a month of submissions, voting, and feedback from users and judges, the MacThemes Theme For a Week Contest has finally come to a close. Since July 25th, 55 theme entries have been competing for the public’s and judges’ vote in order to have their submission developed into a fully functioning theme and win over $1,000 in Mac software. Finally, after two Digg front page appearances and 7,000 votes, we have the winners!
Wather Color came out of the competition in an excellent 3rd place, falling just behind Peter Mathis’ Plexis, also at 7.2 out of 10. Receiving 3.5 stars from the public when it was added just one month ago, Toner’s latest theming foray was quickly lauded by visitors and commenters, one describing it as a “GunMetal version of NickelCobalt”.
The judges were similarly positive of Toner’s work. ShapeShifter developer Jason Harris noted the well-executed implementation of the gray theme concept, as well as applauding the “good use of bevels”. David Lanham, while critical of details like the Apple logo and resize handle, felt that “all elements fit into the theme’s feel” and that the beveling was “done very well”. Anthony Piraino, while also taking off points for some minor details, agreed that it was a “great looking theme” and that it was “very interesting to look at”. Not shying away from deciding the title, the judges awarded Wather Color third place.
Described by Mathis as an attempt to create a sleek, professional-looking theme, Plexis won the hearts of many users, garnering 3.5 stars, and the second victory in the Theme for a Week contest. A polished, scratch-resistant polymer, the dark, occasionally glossy elements of the theme stand out wonderfully and makes for a very beautiful dark theme.
But what did the judges have to say? David Lanham described it as being “so close to being an awesome semi-dark theme” but that it “needs some more tweaking”; Anthony Piraino shared similar emotions, mentioning that it is “very pleasing to look at” but that “some of the elements could use a bit more articulation”. In addition, Jason Harris, while finding the controls “very nicely done”, was crticial of the titlebar widgets, stating they “don’t go with the rest of the theme at all”. While these small things knocked off a few points for Mathis’ entry, it was still worthy enough of a title in the judges’ eyes, rewarding it 2nd place.
Patrick Yan’s downright stunning cross of Aero and Aqua was met positively when it was first submitted weeks ago to the general public, and it seems the judges had nothing less than victory in mind for Patrick Yan’s beautiful Vista/OS X beauty. Featuring smooth, silky transparency coupled with glassy black-and-blue widgets, it is, indeed, worthy of first prize.
So then, what was it that made Aeroesque so appealing to the judges? Anthony Piraino described it as “beautifully rendered” and that it “looks like a fun theme to use”. David Lanham was also quite positive, mentioning that the transparency was “a great touch” and that the “choice of grey inside the windows and recessed areas looks very pleasant”. Jason Harris, however, had just one request: “Please win”, a fulfilled request, indeed.
And that’s the end of it! We’d like to thank all the other entrants, as well as the support of our voters and judges. If you would like to receive the judges’ comments on your entry, you can send an email to dave@macthemes2.net.
Thanks again everyone (voters, judges, and sponsors!), and the developers of these three works of art will be announced later this week (we mean it!).
September 1st, 2007 at 3:46 am
two weeks for first and second place to be very similar themes
September 1st, 2007 at 3:51 am
Josh, what are you talking about? They’re totally different, they are just dark.
September 1st, 2007 at 5:09 am
aeroesque deserves every single bit of that first place spot. i’d love to see that mockup come to life as a theme. congrats, patrick.
September 1st, 2007 at 5:10 am
I would say they’re fairly similar compared to all the entries and compared to themes that already exist. I’m not complaining or anything
September 1st, 2007 at 5:40 am
Wow, I like Toner’s work. Congratatulations.
Sorry for being a noob, where can we download those themes?
Thanks.
September 1st, 2007 at 6:09 am
Can’t say I agree with first place but I didn’t envy the judges for having to choose just 3 from some great mockups.
I really hope ‘Eikos’, ‘Pluto’, ‘California’, ‘Silent Alarm’, ‘Wather Color’, ‘Plexis’ and maybe ‘BYG’ (with some modifications) still make it to full themes!
September 1st, 2007 at 6:13 am
As good as these really are, I still am a little annoyed that the resources of this contest are to be spent making an OS X theme to make the mac more like Windows… however I am very grateful that Aeroesque looks much much better than the real Aero. Congratulations to the three winners, heckuva cool contest
September 1st, 2007 at 9:09 am
fssss, these are variants from the same theme??
September 1st, 2007 at 10:44 am
Man, what in the hell? Way to pick 3 themes that don’t seem to really push the boundaries at all. Acerocide I guess was just too interesting and new to be picked. Hmmm.
September 1st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Boundaries will be pushed. I got ideas… boundary pushing ideas. Just wait and see.
September 1st, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Threed - can’t wait.. Plexis should have come first. No offense to Patrick Yan but Aeroesque just looks like a theme that would come bundled with WindowBlinds *euugh*
But who am I to argue. =P
September 1st, 2007 at 4:44 pm
This sucks
September 1st, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Congrats…Although I really dont agree with the winner..A mac looking like vista is all kinds of wrong…Blister does it better imo. Excited about plexis being developed though..now thats a mac theme!!!
September 1st, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Well, I’m dissappointed. Black themes always end up being unusable and distracting for me. Although some look cool, I never use them for more than a few minutes because they always have some problems (text coloring issues in some apps, etc) due to OS X limited theming capabilities. I really wanted Pluto to win….oh well. Congrats to the winner.
September 1st, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Aeroesqe looks very good, much better than the real Aero. I’d love to see some of the losers, such as Soft Light, White Plastic, The Pink Scratched Theme, and Acerocide to be developed into real themes. Congrats to the winners!
September 1st, 2007 at 9:15 pm
nice themes!!!, where I can download it?? thanks alot!
September 2nd, 2007 at 1:22 am
I think the selection of winners is fine. “Pushing boundaries” doesn’t always make a theme good, and in many cases has had the exact opposite effect. And for those complaining that the winner’s entry looks too much like windows, I happen to think that Vista looks rather nice (especially after seeing it in action). Mac enthusiast or not, let’s not be biased when giving criticism or opinions on PC-related things.
September 2nd, 2007 at 3:42 am
I thought Aeroesque should be the winner.
Great job on the mockup…hope it makes it to a release.
September 2nd, 2007 at 8:24 am
Ernest Liu.. finding a UI attractive is objective and purely down to personal preference. It has (at least in my case) nothing to do with brand allegiance. You said it yourself - you happen to think Vista looks nice.. and you think the selection of winners is fine.
The best Apple themes and even Aqua itself tend to be very different to Windows themes, and Aeroesque is essentially just an adaptation of Windows styling. That’s not a reason to win in my personal opinion, but I don’t know what criteria the judging panel were using to judge each theme.
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Some nice themes here
But can’t we see the others that didn’t make it ? Oh and also bigger previews (or maybe I’ve missed something), that’d be great.
September 3rd, 2007 at 5:49 am
Congratulations people at macthemes on a great contest. We’ve all seen some beautiful and interesting mock-ups. I hope some of them that didn’t make it to be winners WILL be made some day.
Too bad though that 2 dark themes have won 1st and 2nd place. Like OEM said: Dark themes are not useable for days in a row, but just for a few minutes.
So in my humble opinion I think it’s a waste for good theme-makers (we don’t know who they are yet) to be spending weeks and weeks compiling these winners into themes (all that effort!) just to make a theme that people will ‘try out for a few minutes to see what it looks like’ and then to switch back to their well-known and useable theme.
Again, I totally enjoyed the contest and would love to be able to make mock-ups like the ones I have seen!
September 3rd, 2007 at 9:44 pm
@Mem: I do agree. Nothing to debate there.
@PimPamPet: I think it may only be a fraction of people who really find dark themes unusable. I’ve used and loved dark themes myself, my personal favorite being eXec. Nonetheless, I do hope this will come out as a usable theme.
September 4th, 2007 at 2:42 am
Horrendous works, amazing that people actually voted for these themes.
September 4th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
http://macthemes2.net/contest/themes/union/
: ((((
not for the menu, right, but this was original. the only one i voted.
September 4th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
People should respect the winners and the judges… just in case next time there wasn’t contest, for example. Congrats to the 3. Good work, and to the rest of people who has participated
September 4th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
No offense guys but all these comps look like any other already published theme with a little variation, of course. Man, I miss those days of Kaleidoscope where there were some very creative themes. Here’s a link for all of those that never got to see these Kaleidoscope themes ( http://kaleidoscope.net/schemes/schemespotlight.shtml ).
Please accept my honest apologies if I have offended anyone with my words.
September 4th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
I really miss Kaleidoscope.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Congrats to the winners! I’m looking forward to these three and other top themes being built. Request for the dark themes: Keep usability in mind for Pro apps like CS3. Since many of us use one or many of these apps professionally, it’s sometimes not possible to use some dark themes and still be usable, let alone productive. I know there may be issues designing themes to cover “all the bases”, but starting with certain “boundaries” may help things come together.:)
Great contest guys!
September 7th, 2007 at 3:52 am
Yuck, better to wear aqua all the way.
September 9th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
When will they be available for downloading?
September 14th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Hey were can i download Plexis from any1?
THANKS