Be an iGoogle Artist
Monday May 5, 2008
I've used iGoogle for a while now. I picked a theme when I first set up my page and didn't think much of it after that.
Then just a few days ago I was fiddling around (read: wasting time and putting off doing whatever I should have been doing at that point in time) and started looking for new themes. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could use a different theme on each tab so I started picking themes to match the general subject of each of my iGoogle tabs -- I have a tab for topics related to each of my Web sites, one for entertainment/games, and one for general news, etc. There are quite a few nice designs but there are also themes that seem boring or a tad amateurish. The thought crossed my mind ever so briefly that it might be fun to create my own theme.
More Google:
Then this morning the feed on one of my tabs showed me "iGoogle theme, great promotional tool for designers," a post by Ivan at creativebits. He suggests that submitting your own iGoogle themes might be a good way for artists to get some publicity. At first read the specs seem a little daunting, but not too terribly technical. Not sure if I'll actually do it, but the idea of creating some pretty new themes is floating around in my head right now.
What about you? Do you think the idea of doing iGoogle themes as a kind of promotional tool has merit?
Comments
I quite like some of the design used in the iGoogle themes, and oddly enough, I was not that impressed with some of the new ‘artist’ themes, even though i do like the artists. Many were just way too distracting.
The funny thing is that I was thinking of how one would design a custom theme for themselves, or maybe to share with a few friends.
It could possibly be a great way to advertise your design work, but only if it was subtle. Also, as I’d like to point out to some of the artists who have contributed themes - less is definitely better!