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My custom "composition notebook" skin for MacBook Air

BeyondtheTech

BeyondtheTech

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 20, 2007
2,147
715
Just wanted to start a thread here to say I came up with an exciting skin for my precious 11.6" MacBook Air. Even though I lucked out with the 50% discount at ZAGG on their Cyber Monday sale to pick up a plain invisibleSHIELD, I returned it unused when I came up with this concept.

I'll be posting the usable skin images on ZAGG's Custom Skin Designer page as soon as I receive the final ZAGGskin product from them (hopefully before this weekend), apply it on my Air, and take some shots with it.

My last skinmod with a Leica camera skin on my iPhone 4 was well-received enough to be picked up by Gizmodo on their blog post.

In the meantime, this is a Photoshop mockup of what it will look like. Let me know what you think!
 

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LS1

macrumors member
Mar 28, 2007
65
0
That's pretty good. The problem with all these gimmicky products for the Air is that they are funny for like 5 minutes, then you realize they just look crappy and take away from how beautiful the air is. Like the envelope sleeves.....
 
BeyondtheTech

BeyondtheTech

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 20, 2007
2,147
715
LS1 said:
That's pretty good. The problem with all these gimmicky products for the Air is that they are funny for like 5 minutes, then you realize they just look crappy and take away from how beautiful the air is. Like the envelope sleeves.....
Click to expand...

I can relate. After a few years of being an proud Apple owner, I'm no longer "showing off" my Apple products as I admittedly used to. Everyone already knows how beautiful and functional the Air is, I just need to protect it and get work done on it.

Since the ZAGGskin is only $5 more than the invisibleSHIELD, I decided I wanted to make a nice skin that won't be "gimmicky" or fade out over time. Since it IS a notebook, I decided, 'why not make it look like one?' ;)
 
M

molala

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2008
620
3
Cambridge, UK
I think it looks cool. Hopefully the sticker goes all the way to the edges, then it will look like a real (paper) notebook. Please post a photo when you get it.
 
F

foiden

macrumors 6502a
Dec 13, 2008
809
13
I always love these kinds of skins. Even better if they actually afford some protection. In a way, they often serve two purposes.

1. They protect the unit.
2. They make it not so obvious, in public, you're even carrying a laptop.

Even the current sleeve, I'm using, makes it seem like I'm just carrying some papers and not a 13" Ultimate MBA. You'd have to actually grab the thing and observe it, to notice "whoah there's a laptop in there!" Thank goodness for both letter and Legal format papers. They pretty much are sized like the 11" and the 13" respectively.
 
J

jksu

macrumors regular
Nov 26, 2009
244
68
BeyondtheTech said:
Just wanted to start a thread here to say I came up with an exciting skin for my precious 11.6" MacBook Air. Even though I lucked out with the 50% discount at ZAGG on their Cyber Monday sale to pick up a plain invisibleSHIELD, I returned it unused when I came up with this concept.

I'll be posting the usable skin images on ZAGG's Custom Skin Designer page as soon as I receive the final ZAGGskin product from them (hopefully before this weekend), apply it on my Air, and take some shots with it.

My last skinmod with a Leica camera skin on my iPhone 4 was well-received enough to be picked up by Gizmodo on their blog post.

In the meantime, this is a Photoshop mockup of what it will look like. Let me know what you think!
Click to expand...

awesome! love the leica camera iphone skin too. super creative.
 
A

andrewsd

macrumors 6502
Sep 27, 2008
333
0
USA/BAYERN(bavaria)
Kinda gimmicky but it does look neat. Plus that would only work with the 11.6" air as I am sure you know. I mean you could do it to any laptop I guess but it would look out of place on a larger one. You may even stump a few people with it!
 
T

truncj

macrumors member
Jun 26, 2009
53
0
Really like the idea. I got a bit sad when I realized my 13" MBA might look a bit oversized with a similar skin. I completely agree with the idea that skin should be kind of "classy" in a way...not so blatant that it gets annoying/boring but rather something that makes it yours. I remember seeing you M8 case on gizmodo too. Keep up the good work!
 
SidewaysTakumi

SidewaysTakumi

macrumors 6502a
Aug 5, 2010
793
133
Texas
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

I absolutely, without a doubt LOVE IT! Great idea and good job!
 
Darth.Titan

Darth.Titan

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2007
2,906
753
Austin, TX
Pete A said:
You covered the trackpad too? Doesn't that impair its functioning?
Click to expand...

Having owned a full-body Invisible Shield, I can tell you that the trackpad works fine covered... mostly.

Unfortunately the IS material is pretty sticky and caused difficulty with swiping gestures. So the trackpad cover was pulled of pretty quickly.
 
BeyondtheTech

BeyondtheTech

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 20, 2007
2,147
715
A couple of notes:

1. There's no skin to go around the LCD. Why they didn't include that is beyond me. Hopefully they'll come up with a revised layout and I'll buy that particular layer.

2. It's a dry install. I actually didn't read the description on ZAGG's site, and thought it would require a wet application like the invisibleSHIELD. Thankfully, it's not. It adhere's pretty well for something that didn't feel like when I pulled the individual skins from its printed sheet.

3. It does NOT go to the edges. A slight disappointment, but it does cover where the exposure is most susceptible to scratches and marring. No protection of this type is going to prevent it from getting banged or dented, so I'm okay with this. I would have appreciated it more if there were skins for the tapered sides.

4. It has a soft sticky feel to it, but I can still do swiping and dragging, though a tad more pronounced. This only ensures me that my MacBook Air is doing what I really want done, so again, I'm fine with it.

I contacted ZAGG if they could help me sell this skin as a potential artist, as it took some time to create it from scratch. Haven't gotten an answer from them yet.

BAH! I just realized I messed up a little bit on the details on the front cover. It's supposed to be "29.95 cm x 19.2 cm." I'll have to fix that in the PSD file. Also, I can put handwriting in red to personalize it even more, like how I Photoshopped it in my profile photo here: http://about.me/raphaelsalgado


Using Mage Software's Display Rotation Menu software, I'm able to turn the Air's display to Portrait Flipped and actually hold the Air on its side like a notebook. Unfortunately, the trackpad doesn't rotate with the display, so trying to control it was awkward at best. But, for Zinio or reading eBooks, that could be interesting...

http://www.magesw.com/displayrotation/
 
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GoCubsGo

GoCubsGo

macrumors Nehalem
Feb 19, 2005
35,742
155
It's very cute. Not sure how the iPad would look but I'd be interested in seeing it.
 
T

teski

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2010
216
8
B

barmann

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2010
941
626
Germany
Thanks a lot for the file download links on the website; to be frank, I think your skins look hideous, though . ;)
 
G

glitch44

macrumors 65816
Feb 28, 2006
1,121
157
barmann said:
Thanks a lot for the file download links on the website; to be frank, I think your skins look hideous, though . ;)
Click to expand...

What the hell? He did something nice by putting his skins up for free. What's the point of insulting him? Just move on to another thread if you don't like them.
 
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