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

The seventh interview of the series features an artist who's skins I've always been a fan of 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 Ying, Jun Jiu, aka JJ.Ying aka *yingjunjiu

JJ. Ying aka *yingjunjiu 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 Jun Jiu, for those that haven't heard about you... could you tell us all a little about yourself?

Hi every one! My name is Ying, Jun Jiu. But people know me as JJ.Ying. And I'm a 22-year-old guy who was born and grew up in China, so sorry for my poor english. I had very very dull life until I found my heart belongs to Design & Customization. For now, computer arts is not my major in university but the great interests in making skins drives me deeper and deeper in the ocean of GUI design.


Glad you found a passion in GUI. It show's in your work thats for sure. You say you are driven by your passion to create more skins, but when did you start making them?

Actually my very first skin is a WinXP login screen with a huge logo of Homeworld 2, it was 5 years ago. And after finishing dozens of CursorXP skins I found it's time to try some new challenges. So in late 2004, I started creating WindowBlinds skins. Designing the GUI of windows is always a huge project to me, there is so many limitations when you have to put some creative minds in it. I know every WB skin is not easy, but I just fell in love with making them from the day 1.





I know what you mean. Each skin presents a new challenge and having to work with limitations and sometimes sacrifice our original ideas can be tough. Luckily there are good tools at our disposal. What graphics tools do you use? any recommendations

For GUI designers, tool is not that important I think, the point is how creative you are and how many patience you can put on the details. And to me, I use Photoshop like others even though I just use it like Illustrator, I mean I almost drew everything in path but not in layers. Of course, in many cases, I'd like to use 3ds Max to help me make the perspective correct and for animations. For WindowBlinds skins, there's no doubt we can edit them with SkinStudio.


3DS Max is something i'd like to have a play with one day. I've seen some amazing things done with that program. I might be inspired more than I am if I learnt 3D modelling. Speaking of inspiration, where does your inspiration come from?

Collecting great designs from others is the thing I spent lots of time in the past years. Inspiration never comes with sitting in front of the PC running Photoshop or like. Real designs can make people feel like touching it therefore when I start to make skins I usually can get inspirations from many many other things that are well designed, of course including other related GUI works. I think the inspirations can be found in any corner of our plain lives, the issue is just whether we have the heart or eye to seek the beauty inside.



And also I wanna specially thank danillooc who gave me thousands of inspirations when I was a very very beginer of GUI deisgn and he also set a goal I may never exceed.





Agreed Other artists are always a good source of inspiration too. I've been influenced by many. DeviantART has always been an influence to me. Has deviatART been an influence to you too?

Yeah! Everytime I start my browser, visiting dA is a must-do. As a result, I just think I can't live without dA, for the hundreds of people who likes my works who cares about me and left a comment or like. I'm always motivated by you guys~ Certainly, dA is a wonderful source where I can find nice deisgns or any other arts. It almost changes the way I view the design world.

And seriously, many of my clients contacted me through da at first.


Clients huh? seems DA has been really good to you Who's work do you keep an eye out for when visiting here daily?

Just simply tooooooo many talented people all around da and there is quite a few guys I loved so much, sorry for thoese who I couldn't mention below...


danillooc, he is a genius in skin design, especially for WB skins, his works are just full of imaginations when still damn usable!

TIT0, everything he designed is just a masterpiece! I loved his style so much!

Homeryulo, I can always find proper and beautiful details in his works, sitting still and staring at his works for a quarter is always happening to me!



I know I watch out for them guys too. Too many names too list Speaking of names, where did your nickname come from? (as if it's not too obvious lol)

errr....I'm a poor little guy, hehe. Usually I only use yingjunjiu or JJ.Ying for my nickname and they all come from my real name: Ying, Jun Jiu. But in some local forums my nickname is "????"(sorry, don't know whether it can be normally displayed in you computer, it actully means "Heavy Corvette" -- My favourite unit in my favourite game, I love Homeworld~)!



Sorry, I wanna roll back a minute. You said you get clients contacting you. What kind of services do you offer? I'm sure there is a lot more potential clients reading this interview

I have a few years experience in commercial skin and icon design, more info on my site: [link]


Man of many talents huh? Any advice for those wanting to build their talent?

Practice and practice. Before we begin a kick-ass project, we have to do many ordinary ones, when handling the tool of skin editors and overall design, everyone can make good skins!


Pratice is a must, that's for sure. It's been a very informative chat. I hope everyone else has thought so too. Any final words before I let you loose back into the skinning world?

Thank you all for watching me and especially Mrrste for inviting me!






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


Thank you,
Stephen aka ^mrrste