Will a skinner ever be hired to make a skin for one person?

I dont think that someone will make a skin for only one person. Short, but ironically precise.

We (Skinplant) had someone enquire about such a thing.
We opened a dialog with the person, to find out their needs, but rather unsurprisingly, when they got a price quote, they decided not to go for it. (Although we had already pretty much realised the person wanted it done for next to nothing anyway > )

In my experience, a person asking to have a skin made just for themselves is only willing to pay what a single skin is worth to them. That's somewhere in the $5 to $20 range. When a company commissions a skin to use in their application, or to promote their product, they are willing to pay waaaaaay more. That's because, for them, the skin adds value to their product and increases brand recognition.

For me, the skin author, it takes the same amount of time to make a skin, regardless of who it is for. So do I want to spend all that time and effort to earn $10, or do I want spend the same amount of time and effort to earn waaaaaay more? It's pretty much a no brainer.

If I didn't have any commercial work to do, and had some spare time on my hands, I might consider it. But I'd probably just tell them to keep their 10 bucks. More likely though, I'd rather just make a skin in my free time that I want to use and share on WC. Or, I could develop a whole suite of skins and sell it for $10. That works because lots of people will pay $10 for it, rather than just one person.

Basically, I doubt a single person commissioning a skin for personal use from an established skinner or studio would ever happen unless they were willing to pay a rediculous amount of money that was on par with corporate clients. Also, most of the individual requests are for skins related to copyrighted material that doesn't belong to the person requesting it. Corporate clients don't have that problem because they hold the copyright on the subject matter.

hmmmmmm.... I see, I see.

I guess it would be almost impossible to have someone commission a personal skin.

Me personally I would pay 50 to 100 dollars for a personal skin (one major app that is) for my private use. But I am a skin freak so maybe I don't count.

How about this:
Make a bunch of skin cuts pre-made so all a skinner or company has to do is put parts together and DONE! Masterpiece. Sort of like mass production with a personalized touch.

The only way you could do it would be to use a generic skin and add a few personal elements to make it specific to them.(their fav.color,logo,user pic,etc..)Charge 15 or 20 $ and use the 'blank' skin over and over.(you could have several 'blanks'to choose from.)(get your money in advance)

Joe you must have typed that the same time I did!

well, not exactly, I am in the final stage of 'finishing' a skin for coca cola amatil, (distributors of coca cola in australia, china, etc.)

its not for public distribution but for +- 20 people

#3

true, when selling a skin not for public distribution, but for a 'limited' number of people they mostly pay around $10 for each extra person.

hmmm I have to think about this some more... but I'm sleepy now...

I had something to say and I forgot it. I'll remeber in the morning.

Good night.

How about using skins that are already made for free and use those as templates for personal use for those who want a specific skin. That way you're not redoing a whole skin but just parts of it.

Depending on how many part the individual wants to change the cost goes up.

So if I wanted Colony in a different color and smaller window borders I go to skinplant and get my new skin for private use (free public downloads cost more)

If I want the whole colony suite redone in my likeness it too would be easier than doing a whole new suite.


What do you think???

[Message Edited]

Exclusive rights to a 'personal' skin....whether derived from a skinner's existing work or created from scratch 'should' attract the same fee....as it is the 'rights' that are being 'sold', not simply the work involved being paid for.....and the 'rights' in either case are identical....

but wouldn;t the rights being sold technically be more flexible then creating a whole new suite and rights?

What Jafo said.

And on top of that, I hate updating or reworking my old skins. Once I'm done with them, I prefer to just move on. Whenever I look back at them I see all the flaws and wish I'd done things differently. Then I start making changes to the skin, realize it's becoming vastly different than the original, scrap my update, and just start a new project alltogether. But that's just me.

mike makes a point, after each skin you have done you get better and better, so updating an old and 'ugly' skin seems pointless...

...unless you want to bring your back catalogue up to your new and improved standards

yeah, but like mike said, in that case it will turn out complete diffrend

Joe....no, that depends solely on what the artist decides for his licencing.....if ahe is happy to only allow one person to purchase the 'rights' to use a skin it does not need to matter where or why the skin originated [as long as it is the artist's, of course]....

yeah, you got a point there guys.

That turning out different thing could be annoying... expecially if the person just want a color redo and a few more buttons

just a thought...

I am brand new at this. I'm just a regular person. will i even be able to do it.

Only if you try........

#19, hard to say, ofcourse we arent 'regualar' (J/K)

We were all new to this once, Broker Mickey.

yup some of us is older kinda dusty new, but still new

me for example

We've years of combined experience and talent here and at other sites as resources to build upon what we might already know, or the start building upon what we wish to learn

oh, watch out for that Jafo person cause he has a spell checker and is living on the edge!