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- Turn a TrickToday
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It isn’t often that our design community is genuinely excited about something, but when it is, we get a wonderful spurt of productivity from our inspired members. The previously-covered Bowtie is one such app and in the few days since its release there have been an onslaught of [Bowtie Theme] threads popping up.Today, I came across one that really knocked me away. The aptly-titled CD (with a little trick) by CH405 will, simply put, raise the bar on what people will do with Bowtie themes. I’ll refrain from giving away the “little trick”; instead, download, install, and click “Next”.
- Bowtie, the iTunes Controller with ClassNovember 18
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Who else loves iTunes controllers?
Looking at the music you’re listening to on your desktop has become all the rage lately. For some, gazing at an album cover on your screen provides a certain level of satisfaction — a sense that the bytes that make up a digital album have a somewhat “realistic” feeling to them — akin to, say, a physical CD.
It’s time to add another player in the competition for controllers, however: Bowtie. Created by Matt Patenaude (in partnership with Slightly Pretentious Software), the little app does one thing and one thing well: controlling iTunes. It’s the user interface that makes Bowtie interesting though, by providing a completely themeable UI to achieve the kind of hyper-realism people like me are attracted to in controllers.
And with that out of the way, let’s go to the real purpose for this post: Laurent Baumann, Bowtie’s designer, has put out 11 fantastic themes for the app to sway you over. It’s an assortment of various kinds of approaches to the controller aesthetic, ranging from faux-desktop icons to my favorite: - Frenzic FrenzyNovember 18
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If you haven’t played Frenzic, go do so. It’s like a drug — in fact, I’m fighting the urge to play as I write this. Part Simon, part Tetris and part Meteos, Frenzic is a frantic and frenzied fun-fest, and it certainly deserves this system replacement icon set by standby artist Louie Mantia, the most recent recruit to the Iconfactory (congratulations!). The set utilizes the fluorescent purple, green and orange of the Frenzic pie set against a midnight blue for a truly exciting and eye-catching theme. Louie’s eye for detail is keen as always, which is something I’ve always enjoyed about his icons. Check out Frenzic System in the forum. - An Idle RSS is the Devi’s PlaythingNovember 10
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One of the greatest visual innovations in Leopard is the 3D Dock. It’s a shame, however, that no icons take advantage of this faux-third dimension. But this is not the case with flashgc’s devi.RSS. The familiar RSS radio waves are cast in white and black glass and tipped over into The Third Dimension. I’m really hoping that either more icon artists follow suit with similar icons or, better yet, that flashgc makes a whole icon set based on devi.RSS (no pressure, flashgc). As usual, you can find this icon in the forum. - A Different Kind of WasteNovember 8
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There are many words for it. The John. El baño. The loo. The toilet.
As Japanese author Taro Gomi once wrote, “Everybody Poops.” Thus we can all relate to ve’s new and playful, albeit gross, icon WC. (For us Americans, WC stands for “water closet”, i.e. a public toilet.) I know using this porcelain throne as a trash icon will certainly inspire me to empty my trash more often to avoid seeing a dirty toilet in my Dock every time I bring it up. You can get this icon over in the forum as usual, but make sure you light a match when you’re done.