Shaping the Page
New Twitter Theme for Kiwi Inspired by Swiss Design
Kiwi is a desktop Twitter client for the Mac, and I’ve been using it since version 2.0 was recently released. One of the unique “features” of Kiwi is the ability to customize the interface with themes. The Theme API is quite flexible, and uses standard HTML and CSS to control the look of your Twitter timelines. We couldn’t resist designing our own theme, and our first one is called Swiss.
The themes that ship with Kiwi are really nice, but for the most part are very flashy. Our goal with the Swiss theme was to pay homage to the clean and minimalist Swiss style of design. Which meant we put some design restrictions on ourselves: no bevels, no glossy objects, no drop shadows, no gradients, and no rounded corners. Not that a design can’t be “Swiss” if it has any of those things, but those are the boundaries we decided to stay within. For colors we stuck with white, red, and shades of gray. And of course a strict use of Helvetica Neue for the type. Here’s a screen shot:
The only place we broke out of our design restrictions was with the theme’s icon. A flat, 2D icon just seemed too out of place in the context of the other theme icons. So we decided it was the one place we could add a bit of texture and depth to the theme.
If your eyes are looking for a break from the pizazz and flash of other Twitter clients or Kiwi themes, then give Swiss a try. Here’s how:
Download Swiss here [279 KB].
After downloading Swiss simply double-click the Swiss theme file and Kiwi takes care of the rest. In Kiwi’s preferences, select the Swiss theme from the Themes tab, and you’re ready to go. You can also find other 3rd party themes at the Kiwi Themes site. Enjoy!
Tweet