So here it is ladies and gentlemen.

The skin to ring in my return to scene. I'd like to introduce you to Pulse. It's something I came up with to get on board the whole scene where typography and clean graphics are the way to go.

Pulse features a few new features that I haven't ever used in skins before. The first being restoring the old Messenger 8.1 feature that had 16x16 display pictures in the compact contact list.

And the second being the super compact alert design which I showed off a bit yesterday.

Anyway here is the release screenshot for good measure.



DOWNLOAD

Now onto the business of future skins. For now the skins I will be making will be for Messenger 2009 only. Messenger 2011 has been on my mind and I have looked into it, but its not something that I will be working with until later on in the year.

As I mentioned earlier I will be opening the floor for people to apply as official testers for my skins. Basically I'll get maybe 5 or 6 people who will be super important and be able to see what I am working on and will be able to bounce ideas off. People who have good design skills will get higher priority.

The other thing is that testers must be active on these forums to answer questions and stuff people may have about using skins in general. I would also ask that they check the Design Evolved Facebook page in case people ask for support there as well.

The reason I say this is because I have missed a lot in the past in terms of talking to people with all the other stuff I have going on.

So yeah if you have a interest in helping and not just having early access to my skins then just leave a message here. I have a pretty big idea for a future skin and I know that its something that will need some extensive testing.

I'll make up my mind on who gets to become testers later on. For now enjoy the release.

Wow stunning!

Amazing my friend! Awesome as always!

I thought it looked a bit too standard at first, but having time to look it over at work, I love the simple text "activities" menu in the chat windows as well as the DP/status image. I really like the colours surrounding the text area and the bevel effect. Also the colourful "highlight" on the contact list is pretty outstanding.

I usually love skins, but can't stand to see them every day and revert to the classic look. I'd consider using this one permanently.

It's also great to hear your skinning again and it might breath a bit of life back into it

I like. But I'm using WLM 2011 right now

Amazing as always Willz.

Great skin.

However, there is no formatting in names within toasts..

Willz, you were not online when i spotted this, so im posting it


look at the typing message area, that image is distorted
dunno why

but its not a big deal

Edit:
*Windows 7 Ultimate (6.1.7600)
Windows Live Messenger 14.0.0416
Messenger Plus! Live 4.85.0.386
Skin: Pulse 1.0.0

quote:

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Originally posted by blackjack
Willz, you were not online when i spotted this, so im posting it


look at the typing message area, that image is distorted
dunno why

but its not a big deal

Edit:
*Windows 7 Ultimate (6.1.7600)
Windows Live Messenger 14.0.0416
Messenger Plus! Live 4.85.0.386
Skin: Pulse 1.0.0

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Nice skin. I'm downloading! A definite reason I'm staying with WLM 2009

New Update is available on the skins database. This fixes any weird resizing that people may get whilst using the skin.

Is it me, or does this gap seem overly large?


It just seems to be really out place, compared to all the other messenger alerts. i.e. MDL, Messenger Plus.

Yeah its because size calculations are still the same so it thinks the alert is the original size. unfortunately i cant edit the spacing between each alert but I could edit the actual alert size which is odd.

You get used to it after a while. Its just one of those things where I was tricking messenger into doing something I wanted it to

What font do you use for interface text? It's showing an ugly font (the default Chinese font) under my Chinese Windows 7

quote:

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Originally posted by Mnjul
What font do you use for interface text? It's showing an ugly font (the default Chinese font) under my Chinese Windows 7

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Well, I got it - I don't have Helvetica on my Windows. Does it come with Windows 7 preinstalled (on English versions)?

the font is bundled with the skin so I don't think its that.

quote:

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Originally posted by Willz
the font is bundled with the skin so I don't think its that.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Mnjul

quote:

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Originally posted by Willz
the font is bundled with the skin so I don't think its that.

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Does that mean I should have Helvetica listed in my windows fonts when I have the skin installed? This is not the case for me.

Anyway, I have the screenshot of the sign-in window, with and without your skin.
I don't know about you, but for me, the font is really ugly (and ugly-ly bigger) when your skin is applied

And I downloaded/installed Helvetica fonts and it's still not fixed D:

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Yeah you're right, manually installing the fonts inside the skin directory didn't work.

btw, it's not Chinese version of WLM - my WLM is English. But the Windows is Chinese. As for the font, this will be good, I presume:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=368
(Downside is that XP by default doesn't have this, unless Office 2007+ is installed. But then again, Windows XP's Chinese versions don't have any sans-serif Chinese fonts at all.)
- Also you won't want to bundle the Chinese font in your plsk - Chinese font file size are prohibitively large, usually as high as several MBs.

I don't seem to be able to open a chat windows while the skin is enabled... It just locks-up the contact list.

What settings have you got applied (if any)? I'll see if i can get mine to lock up.

I'll have to take a screenshot when I get home. I'll try it without a skin first to double check it's not my WLM installation

For the record, I predicted back in February you'd come back after your "resignation". You could say it was an.....impulseive decision

Pretty skin none the less.

Looks great!  I've been using Ev0 for a while, but I think I might stick to this now. 

quote:

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Originally posted by Willz
What settings have you got applied (if any)? I'll see if i can get mine to lock up.

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Had a run through it and I could not get it to crash on my main computer. Yet on my secondary when I enabled the middle emoticon option it causes the lockup.

My guess is there is still a problem with the custom emoticon compatibility in 2009. I'll take a look but for now just enable the default or the 2011 emoticons and it all should be good.

UPDATE
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Ok well I've found a temporary fix for now. Messenger seems to like me replacing emoticons less and less by the day by the looks of it. Anyway I have sent v1.0.1 containing this fix to Menthix so it should be up later in the day.

Thank god it's not just me. The update also fixed the issue with the gap in the border to the chat window text area Nice work

Great skin.

Here's my suggestion...

The arrows next to nickname & personal message are very bold/loud and kinda ruin the nice feel to the skin.



If they was removed, it'd look a look better imo:



But obviously we need them there for functionality, so something a bit more unobtrusive I think would look better.

The other thing is that it'd be nice if the nickname, etc. were faded out while 'appearing offline'. I didn't notice I was offline earlier, because I didn't particularly look at the colour around my display pic.

But great work.

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris4
Great skin.

Here's my suggestion...

The arrows next to nickname & personal message are very bold/loud and kinda ruin the nice feel to the skin.



If they was removed, it'd look a look better imo:



But obviously we need them there for functionality, so something a bit more unobtrusive I think would look better.

The other thing is that it'd be nice if the nickname, etc. were faded out while 'appearing offline'. I didn't notice I was offline earlier, because I didn't particularly look at the colour around my display pic.

But great work.

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Btw i dont know if its just me but the Scroll on the contact list is invisible until you Hover it



As you can see in the image, it is invisible =/

For those looking for the ad remover, its in the place where all my other ad removers have been for the past year or so . Look it up.

Also blackjack the scroll is not invisible, its just a really light grey. I can see it in the screenshot you put up

Umm, you are right, but i dont see it, the scroll i see on conversations is different.

I had to change the curves on my image to see if there was a ''light grey'' scroll bar

only then i spotted it

Edit: Just changed the light value on my screen, but even then its hard to see it, lol

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris4
Great skin.

Here's my suggestion...

The arrows next to nickname & personal message are very bold/loud and kinda ruin the nice feel to the skin.



If they was removed, it'd look a look better imo:



But obviously we need them there for functionality, so something a bit more unobtrusive I think would look better.

The other thing is that it'd be nice if the nickname, etc. were faded out while 'appearing offline'. I didn't notice I was offline earlier, because I didn't particularly look at the colour around my display pic.

But great work.

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the point of the skin was to have typography stand out more than anything else. Changing it would kinda defeat the purpose of what I had in mind.

Very nice.

Hi!

Hey willz  nice  job!

really stunning design!

Seeya!

quote:

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Originally posted by SuperSonic
Also; you can't fully enjoy this skin with ads on it either, A-Patch is a must with this one.

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Herm...

Will there be an update to make it compatible with WLM 2011?

I like this skin, but i can't use it in WLM 2011.