Long Live Skeuomorphism
 

What is "skeuomorphism" (hereafter sm for short)? So glad you asked. It is something that I suspect most of us love about our VI's and plugins. As this article helpfully explains "Skeuomorphism is where an object in software mimics its real world counterpart. The “trash can” is, perhaps, the most recognizable skeuomorphic object. Though the good old “save” icon was once skeuomorphic but following the demise of the floppy disc – it no longer bears resemblance to the world of today."



In our world, sm is the visual design of all the VI's and plugins we use. The detailed emulations of knobs, sliders, and dials, along with everything else that makes our digital components look just like their hardware counterparts. Personally I love it. The more detailed the better.



It is easy to see that none of our virtual gear need look anything like a piece of hardware to be be functional or even to sound great. But, it can inspire creativity in ways that the "flat screen" model can not.



SM might require more design and graphic resources, but would we really prefer some boring functional flat screen for everything?



Thoughts?