Welcome to Skinmasters! A series of interviews with top graphic designers and skinners on deviantART.

The forth interview of the series, and my first as Gallery Director , features an artist who's skins I first used before I even got into skinning and has been around for as long as I can remember . It's a pleasure to interview him. The famous Skinner/Themer I am talking about is of course Ryan Henricus aka ~Josephs

Ryan Henricus aka ~Josephs is a name known in many deskmod forums and specialised sites on customization. He has made some great skins. You should definitely check out his works! I've selected a few of my favourites for your viewing



Hello Ryan, for those that haven't heard about you... could you give us a brief biography?

My name is Ryan Henricus, I'm a 19 year old web-designer and I live in Sydney, Australia. I've been into interface design for about 7 years now, and first started designing about 4 years ago. Interface design now has me a career in the web industry.


Cool, Now let's talk about your skins. When did you start to make them?

I started in October 2004, and my first skin was a windows bootscreen. It seemed like a great start, because I could be as creative as I liked, but didn't have to be too concerned about converting the design into a theme file.





What graphic tools do you use? Any recommendations?

Well, it really depends on the purpose. There's a tool for everything, but most of my work gets done in Photoshop CS3. Honestly I prefer Photoshop CS2 because I found it more solid and hogs less resources. I'd recommened Aliaxis IconWorkshop for making your icons, and Stardock SkinStudio for Windows Media Player skins.

Unfortunatly, I haven't found too many other development tools you can use to actually create your skins. I find that most applications which read from a skin file, actually read a formatted text file describing the use of the theme's images you've made. Which means, you'll need to get used to how to format your own theme files. I'd suggest having a look at how others have formatted theirs, and following a similar style.



Where does your inspiration come from?

I am usually inspired by music. Often, a musical flow can inspire me to imagine things of a similar context. So if the music is loud and exciting, perhaps a colourful and vibrant setting could be the inspiration of the theme. I'd imagine it would be difficult to be creative if you can't simply think of something interesting. So sometimes, looking at what other's have been inspired by can be a great place to start.

The way that I see it, is designing is like directing.
I always design listening to music. Every movie has theme and scene music, and when I sit infront of Photoshop with my headphones blaring, It's as if I am devloping my own story.

I also find that it's very important to write things down. If you ever have an Idea, drawing would probably be the fastest way to freeze that idea into actual matter. I find this is especially useful incase you attempt to design what you've thought of immediatly. The effort and time used into designing your idea from scratch will often be too time consuming to actually remember what you've thought of!





Has deviatART been an influence to you? How big was that influence?

Of course! Considering that the main medium of my design is digital, and deviantART being a huge online community, then deviantART must be the only way to share what you've made! And since deviantART has given it's members a voice, artists can share thoughts and comments about their works, and others alike. It's a great feeling knowing that others appreciate your work. Understanding this, it's a great feeling knowing you can make others feel appreciated! Feeling apprecated in this digital world, provides inspiration to continue your work.



Who are your favourite designers on deviantART. Could you name a few?

There are really too many too mention, but perhaps mine are a little mainstream. In this skinning industry, I believe there are too many artists which come and leave that can really retain that title of "Favourite". All I know, is that I appreciate quality. And nothing says theme quality like ~danillooc, Tiggz, Mike Bryant or Lasse Salling. Most of which are now contracted by the Stardock MyColors team.

But that's not all, because there are artists for everything. I think the 4impressions design team are absolutly sensational, and the guys over at breedart are very detailed and quality artists.



Where did your nickname come from?

It's not such an amazing story, but a while ago friends of mine were throwing around names at eachother, for laughs. And as it turns out, I'm a Josephs. Which I think, honestly suits my personality better than my real name. It's difficult to explain how it really feels, it's not related too religious contexts.. It's more like, Joe, big pimpin' Joe!



What kind of services do you offer? I'm sure there is a lot of potential clients reading this interview

Well, I am an interface designer.
And the best thing the Web Design industry has taught me, is that you don't have to be multitalented to produce your artwork, because you're a specialist. I say this, because the main thing that's hindered my releases on deviantART is my programming talent. Not only do I have to design the interface, but I have to make it work as well. If I could simply worry about the design, and not how to implent it into functional computer context, then I can really get creative.



Any advice for those that are starting to create their own skins?

Take your time. If you want to be an artist, nothing says quality, like quality. So take your time, and polish your artwork.



Any final words to add?

Join my website if you want, it's cool. JosephsART.NET






I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed making it. Head on over to his website


Thank you,
Stephen aka ^mrrste