As much as I like the design, to me, it just looks like F5 Designs on a vForum. Even though I like the design, I've seen it many times before and you have different styles combined, which makes it mix and match.

For example. Your background is has this really nice pattern going to it, very unique. Then you have the header, above the banner, plain and could have had that same texture. Then you have the banner with stripes and a splattered design on it, which doesn't make any sense. Then you have the on/off which has a Serif font on it, which is different than the logo and the rest of the text on the forum. Then for the gradients, you have a glossy appeal to the category gradient. It's a nice effect, but if you have it, you expect to see it more.

It's just too mix and match. You have to find a style and stick with it to make the skin work. Max you can have 2 styles, but they have to work together. To me, you have at least 4 (textured, gloss, vector, stripes, serif against sans serif fonts, etc. etc.).



I think you've got enough of that critique, let's move onto something else. I will list things that to me could change:

---Link colors. I can barely see the links as it is, and then the hover goes even lighter!
---Buttons (search, bookmark, etc. etc.) are text. You can get away with that if you add a background element, like a grad and a border, etc. etc. It hurts that you couldn't add the buttons for the release.
---Mini Profile Ranks. Gah... there is your serif vs. sans serif fonts again.
---Menu. If you are going to not have a background, they need to be images, and good ones for that matter.
---The Yard Sale, I would wait awhile until you get a solid member base before opening that up. It's a good idea, but will never work if you can't get more members and even more posts.
---Last but not least, your footer. The font is a hand-written looking font which does not go with the rest of the skin.




Sorry, I think you really should have taken more time with this skin to make it ultimate, I mean, I was seeing these "PreDesigns Opening Soon" signatures for the last 2-3 months, and it looks half-assed.

"There have been 62 Users Online in the Past 24 Hours (3 Staff Members, 6 Members, 54 Guests)"

That should show you that people are not liking what they are seeing. Most just take a glimpse and go to another website.




You're getting there, but there was a lot of potential and it went wasted, to me at least.