Pocket PC Skinning On the Rise
& the Active Artist!
by Doreen

Neil Faulkner is known for exceptional pocket pc skinning and is sought after for his skins. I would like to say "Thank you, Neil" on behalf of Teknidermy, for taking the time for this interview...

Tek: Most people know you as a  Pocket PC Skinner in the Pocket PC Skinning Community, but would you please share with the readers a little more about you...

Neil: I can quickly summarize who Neil Faulkner is outside of his internet persona of a Pocket PC skinner in one word...student.  I am currently pursuing a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology where I conduct research into the regulatory mechanisms of HIV gene transcription and replication.  Skinning is a way for me to relax and express my artistic side.  When I was younger (during my high school and undergraduate years), I sketched quite a bit but graduate school changed all that...the computer is now my new canvas and the PocPC programs the medium through which my creative side (outside of science) gets expressed.  It also helps that my wife is paints as a hobby.  I often ask for her input into my skin design especially when I have too many ideas and don't know what I will be adding next to a given skin...some of my better skins were created with input from her.

Tek: Neil do you remember what sparked your interest in skinning Pocket PC's?

Neil: I would have to credit my initial interest in skinning to GigaBar, a PocketPC program that allows you to change the appearance (skin) the titlebar/taskbar.  I downloaded the 1st beta of GigaBar back when I owned a Casio E-100 with its georgeous 16-bit LCD.  At that time, I was very excited to test out a program that allowed the PalmPC to be more like Win98.  I also had StarTap from the same programmer (ThumbsUp Software) on my PDA.  The combination of the two software packages allowed me to customize the appearance of my E-100 to suit my personal preferences and thus began my interest in skinning.  Before GigaBar, StarTap, and my E-100, I had never skinned any application before.

Tek: How long have you been skinning Pocket PC's?

Neil: I have been skinning the Pocket PC since April 2000 (basically the time GigaBar was 1st released)

Tek:  Neil do you remember your first skin?

Neil: I sure do...it was a skin for GigaBar called iMAC Swirl. 

Tek: Do you have a screenshot of it that you would be willing to share with us?

Neil: I will share it with you but it is somewhat embarrassing since my skin design has "evolved" considerably since the early days...it does keep me humble though because no matter how far I have come I still have a considerable ways to go.

Neil: The swirling blue area (26 pixels tall) is the GigaBar skin... the Star Trek image is one of the banners from Today's the Day.

Tek: Can you share with us a screenshot or two of your latest and greatest skins?

Neil: Latest definitely...greatest...well that depends on how you define that word. 
Here is some of my most recent work:

Tek: Which programs do you skin exactly:

Neil: I have created skins for almost every skinnable PocketPC application installed on my PDA.  These include GigaBar, WIS Bar, StarTap (wallpaper), Dashboard, Today's the Day, Windows Media Player, and Pocket TV Listings.  I also plan on creating a few skins for TimePiece, a new skinnable clock that is part of a screensaver software by Daniel Strickland...I believe that I can create some pretty interesting designs that will allow this skinnable clock to be used with other skinnable applications.

Tek: Can you tell us which is your Favorite program to skin?

Neil: I don't really have a personal favorite but I would say that Pocket TV Listings (PTVL) is a very good program to skin because all its elements can be altered...it is almost 100% skinnable.  The latest version of Dashboard has introduced new skin tags that place it in the same league as PTVL...almost every element's appearance and location on the screen can be altered.  I find GigaBar and WIS Bar to be the most difficult applications to skin because I only have 240 x 26 pixels to work with...you have to get very creative and imaginative when working in such a small workspace.

Tek: Which Graphic Programs do you use to create your skins in?

Neil: The programs I use are Macromedia's Fireworks, Photoshop, and MS Image Composer.

Tek: Which of the Graphic Program is the one you lean on most for doing your skins and why?

Neil: I use Macromedia's Fireworks for the majority of design work on my skins because it is one of the most complete graphics packages on the market in the price range that a student can reasonably afford.  It is every bit as powerful if not more so than Photoshop for the vast majority of what I do when creating skins and it also uses live effects (meaning that if I don't like an effect that I applied I can turn it off by unchecking a box rather than having to wade through multiple undos...I can also save combination of effects that I like for future use).  In short, I use this program because it does exactly what I want, saves me quite a bit of time, and allows me to experiment without fear of ruining my skins.

Tek: What kinds of options would you like to see skinned on the Pocket PC?

Neil: I would love to see the entire Pocket PC interface skinnable.  Apparently the new Pocket PC OS will be completely skinnable.  I can't wait for that but in the interim, the creators of Windows Blinds will be releasing PocPC Blinds that will allow skin designers like myself even more latitude in skinning the various PocPC's elements and dialogs.

Tek: What are your future plans in regards to skinning the Pocket PC, such as more intense work, working for hire, plans to learn how to write skinnable programs yourself etc?

Neil: I plan on creating quite a few more skins for the applications mentioned above and new ones when they are released.  Ultimately, I would really like to create my own software for which I can use my skinning talent to create interfaces for.

Tek: Which fellow skinners do you admire and/or gain some inspiration from?

Neil: Gosh there are so many where do I start.  I don't want to leave anyone out as I derive inspiration from all the skinners whose work I have seen to date.  If I would have to name at least one, I would say that Ojster's (Peter Osterversnik) work is very inspirational.  His nature skins are some of the best I have seen and are quite a departure from my techno oriented skins.  There are several other skinners out there that have created some exceptional skins... Dashboard's creator Chris over at http://www.snoopsoft.com/ ,  Robert Williams www.geocities.com/pwrbook/ ,  Christopher Subbagio, and Panagiotis Tsamoudakis at http://www.pocketpcminds.com/  to name a few.

Tek: Well Neil this sure was a pleasure for me getting to know yet another person responsible for these Fantastic Skins! And if any of you Teknidermy readers want to grab some of Neils wonderful work/skins you can download them at his web site: http://ceskins.com/skins/neilskins.html 

Thank you Neil