When customizing your desktop, which element is your "base"?

[SomeGuyDude]

I'm pretty sure none of us picks desktop elements randomly when customizing. We don't just take whichever icons and GTK themes we like with no consideration for anything else.

So that's the question: which part do you start with? Do you pick a GTK theme and then an icon theme to match and a wallpaper that looks okay?

Personally, I start with the wallpaper, then GTK, then icons, then cursor theme.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Actually I do randomly choose what my desktop looks like, from icon packs to the GTK theme and whatever else I feel needs changing.

[spupy]

I usually start with a GTK theme i like. I then make a fluxbox style to match it. Wallpaper doesn't have to be connected to the theme, only the colors should be ok together, also no screaming colors on wallpaper. Icons are random too, but I don't change them much - will be using Tango and Gnome icons for a long time to come.

[Wobedraggled]

Theme/icons/backdrop

[NightwishFan]

I choose a decent wallpaper and theme around it. I take special care with icon themes as they make a bigger difference then you would think.

[kerry_s]

i don't even bother any more. i just put enough to get the job done. customizing is to addicting, once you start you can't stop, even when you think you got it just right, you'll find something you just got to mess with.
background= very simple just black
file manager= all text
menu= hardly use it, so don't bother fancying it up

[Barrucadu]

Depends. If I see a nice background, I will use that. A nice GTK theme, I will use that. And the same for icon themes.

[will1911a1]

I generally base my desktop off whatever wallpaper I pick out.

[AmishFury]

i start with the walpaper and figure out of a light theme or a dark theme would look best with it... even though i spend maybe 5 seconds total looking at my desktop

i generally stick with the human icon set i have yet to find one i like enough to switch

[Iehova]

I always base wallpaper, icons etc. off my GTK theme, although I've been using the same icon theme (Kamel) for a while now. This customization lark really is addictive, and I'm never simply content, always on the look out for better themes.

[smartboyathome]

I usually start with a theme (E17 or Emerald/GTK depending which comp I am on), and build around that.

[Lostincyberspace]

it really depends for me some times it is a theme others it is a back ground and few have been based on pointers for the mouse.

[chucky chuckaluck]

it depends. i never know which element is going to strike me first. it's probably easier for me to find everything else if i find the icon theme first, but it rarely works out that way (maybe that's why i don't use a lot of icons). it's certainly easier for me to find, or make a wallpaper. today, i started messing with e17 some. i have to start with the themes in e17 as i have no idea how to edit them. then, i just find a wallpaper to match (see attached). with openbox, or fluxbox, i can edit the themes to look however i wish and there are enough gtk themes that are pretty neutral.

[Alien.col]

I choose a theme and build everything else around it.

[smartboyathome]

it depends. i never know which element is going to strike me first. it's probably easier for me to find everything else if i find the icon theme first, but it rarely works out that way (maybe that's why i don't use a lot of icons). it's certainly easier for me to find, or make a wallpaper. today, i started messing with e17 some. i have to start with the themes in e17 as i have no idea how to edit them. then, i just find a wallpaper to match (see attached). with openbox, or fluxbox, i can edit the themes to look however i wish and there are enough gtk themes that are pretty neutral.

Here is a guide (http://cafelinux.org/forum/index.php/topic,1292.0.html) to help you with e17 theming. I find it is pretty easy once you learn how. :)

[NightwishFan]

I make good use of my panel. :popcorn:

[chucky chuckaluck]

Here is a guide (http://cafelinux.org/forum/index.php/topic,1292.0.html) to help you with e17 theming. I find it is pretty easy once you learn how. :)

oh, thanks. i usually start losing my patience with e17 before it ever occurs to me to look into theming.

[Xzallion]

I personally pick a concept then the color scheme that would go with it. For example, an iron man desktop that features the colors of the armor ("Hot rod red" & gold), then pick a desktop environ/window manager that compliments this style (for Iron man it would be KDE, Fluxbox, or Openbox) then I proceed to customize that until I have the colors/window borders just right. Then comes the panels, switching between the kicker, kiba, AWN, or whatever else I feel adds to it. Then a conky script for it, along with an icon and sound set. The sound set is usually the hardest part.

[Sinkingships7]

I used to customize a lot, but as Kerry_S said, it get's too addicting. I tend to stick with one of the provided-by-default GTK themes. And by stick with, I mean I only use the Glossy blue theme. I use the Mint set (provided) of icons, and I don't change my cursor. My desktop always has to look clean. I could never use a picture of a forest as my desktop. Forest's are full of dirt. My desktop is attached.

[markp1989]

i usualy chose a gtk theme i like the looks of then change the colours of it (if there not locked) to my liking, then i look for icons to fit, then a wallpaper to fit, and finaly i look for a awn theme to fit

[yatt]

Depends. If I find a great wallpaper/theme/icon set/etc I will change to use that, and try to merge everything else as best I can.

I can fairly easily change the color of my theme and my icon set comes in a couple colors. Wallpapers are easy enough to find, but tend to be my base the most often. I have stuck with the same theme and icon set for a really long time, just changing the colors to make it match.