note: as of 9 february 2023, some of the information in this blog post is out-of-date. please refer to the galaxy themes documentation for the latest information on creating and submitting galaxy themes. in this article, i'll share essential visual design requirements and tips that you can use to create a quality samsung themes design portfolio, and increase your chances of passing the review process. when you’re ready to submit a theme portfolio, make sure to visit the how to submit a samsung themes portfolio blog to learn about the open submission cycle, portfolio requirements, and more. let's get started, shall we? theme design requirements in my experience reviewing theme designs, there are often three key visual design elements missing from many theme portfolio submissions: six ui screens, default icon customization, and a highly original design. when any of these are absent, applicants are instructed to resubmit their theme design. let’s take a closer look into these requirements. submit six ui screens first and foremost, it is a requirement to include all six ui screens in your theme design: lock screen, home screen, dialer, contact, message, and notifications. let’s imagine that michelangelo woke up one day to create a theme design based on the sistine chapel ceiling. because he’s an established and famous artist, he confidently submits his work during the open submission window but decides to only include five screens instead of six. sorry, mike you’ll need to resubmit your work, you’ve got to include all six screens in your portfolio! customize all icons the second requirement is that all default icons must be customized. to find out what qualifies as a default icon, simply download the photoshop theme template. open the file and review the first layer named 1_lockscreen and the second layer named 2_homescreen. in the home screen layer, you’ll find these icons: email, camera, gallery, galaxy apps, phone, contacts, messages, internet, and apps. in the lock screen you’ll find the phone and camera icons. always use original art use your own original art in your theme designs; never use someone else’s images. established theme designers can use images for which they have a license, but portfolio submissions must be original work. theme design tips this next section consists of style tips, online tools, and simple methods to overcome creative roadblocks to improve your designs. we’ve all heard the saying “less is more,” right? it’s true, sometimes less is more. however, there are times when a design relies so much on minimalism that the art falls short of spectacular. another example is a work of art that’s beautifully executed. colors, shapes, and composition work well together, but the text isn’t legible; hence the little details get lost and the design fails. so, how do you create a beautifully balanced design? let’s find out. beware heavy minimalism simplicity in design is not a dangerous route to take. in fact, it’s one of the most popular categories in the samsung theme store. however, be cautious not to heavily rely on negative space. if you do not plan to intentionally use a minimalistic style, then all other artistic techniques should speak creative volumes. you can still create simple, elegantly-crafted visual designs, but be mindful that a mobile ui interface needs to be functional as well as visually appealing. design with consistency to produce a good, consistent theme design you must have a blueprint and the tools to help you build a solid foundation. the blueprint can be that you sketch out several iterations of your ideas on paper. next, is choosing the tool to help you pick the right color palette. finally, get a second opinion, ask for feedback and find out if there any inconsistencies in your design. whether six mobile ui screens, an icon pack, or a settings screen, your samsung themes design must portray your style as a whole. colors, font and text legibility, line weight and thickness, transparency, and color harmony must all be considered across the board. remember, whether your theme is painstakingly created from scratch or a beautiful photo that you took from the mountaintops of the himalayas, your icons, fonts, and other ui elements need to gracefully mesh with your background photo or image. i know it sounds easier said than done, but these basic methodologies will help you create a robust, well-balanced, theme design. design using high-res graphics unless you’re intentionally using pixilation as an artistic style, use high-res graphics and images. any visible signs of low resolution or blurry pixilation can impact the quality of your work in a not-so-positive way. here are a few resources where you can learn more about exporting graphics for mobile devices, exporting graphics for mobile apps, and working with images. don't overlook fonts and text font and text legibility should be a key part of your objective when designing themes. when i want to make sure text is legible, i have my peers give a look. the average person should be able to read the text twelve inches away from their eyes. if you’re placing the screen near your face to read the text, then that means the legibility test has failed. more information on this topic can be found here. find inspiration sometimes we have one of those days where the creative juices aren’t flowing. if that happens, i sometimes jump to other websites for inspiration. for example, i head over to behance for some digital-heavy art, or if i’m looking for something edgier, i jump to juxtapoz. shake things up a bit, push the envelope, and show us what you’ve got! focus on color one strong characteristic of good theme design is harmonious color relationship. how this is orchestrated throughout all ui elements and screens could be the difference between getting access to the theme editor or resubmitting your work. when i need a refresher, i refer to online tools and some color theory concepts. below is a short list of links that help me work with colors a little better. references: inspirational color palettes from images understanding color schemes color harmonies tools: adobe color cc color palette generator create a color palette from an image closing thoughts these tips have helped me improve my designs, and it is my hope that you’ll find them to be useful as you take the first step in your journey as a samsung themes developer. once you’ve put this advice into practice and are ready to submit a theme portfolio for review, visit the how to submit a samsung themes portfolio article for everything you need to know about the open submission cycle, submission requirements, and more. so, what are you waiting for? join the samsung developer program and start creating beautifully hand-crafted themes today! support for technical questions and answers, please create a support ticket help from the global community theme resources introducing samsung themes service design & develop theme apps theme webinars designing themes for samsung devices top 10 tips to maximize your revenue with samsung themes

samsung galaxy watches run on wear os powered by samsung and have many features, including custom watch faces that you can create with watch face studio (wfs). wfs provides a "theme" feature that allows you to implement multi-color theme palettes to watch face components. theme colors enhance your watch faces by making them more expressive and attractive, and give users customization options. this article introduces the basic concepts of creating color themes for watch faces: defining theme color palettes applying theme colors to components using theme colors on different backgrounds to follow along with the demonstrations in this article, install watch face studio and download the sample project. defining theme color palettes to apply theme colors to watch face components, you must define a theme color palette. wfs enables you to add up to 30 theme colors to a project. to create a theme color palette: in your wfs project, select the “style” tab. click the “+” (plus sign) button next to “theme color palette.” use the color picker to define the color you want. click "ok" to set the chosen color. figure 1: adding theme colors each row in the “theme color palette” section represents a separate theme color palette. a theme color palette is initially created with a single color, but a palette supports up to three colors. the additional colors can be different shades of the main color or contrasting colors. to implement additional colors for a palette: in the “theme color palette” section, select the theme color you want to change. use the color picker to define the color you want. you can also check how the selected color compares to the original color. click "ok" to set the chosen color. figure 2: adding theme colors to a palette the following figure shows several multi-color theme palettes defined for the project. figure 3: multi-color theme palettes applying theme colors to components when you have defined one or more theme color palettes, you can apply the colors to the watch face components. to apply a theme color to a watch face component: select the component and go to the “properties” tab. unfold the “color” section. fill the “apply theme color” checkbox. from the dropdown menu, select whether to apply the first,second, or third theme color from the palette. figure 4: applying theme color to a component to quickly apply the theme color to components: select the components you want to apply the theme color to. in the “layer” tab, click the “apply theme color” icon to cycle through the first, second, and third theme color. the following figure shows the theme colors applied to the components in the sample project. the theme color is not applied to the step icon, battery icon, and progress bars. figure 5: theme colors applied to multiple components now that you have applied theme colors to the watch face components, you can preview the result on the "run" tab or the run window. you can use the selected theme color from the "run" tab of wfs and see the output in the preview window. figure 6: theme color preview note : note: icons and images on complications are converted to grayscale after theme colors are applied. consequently, theme colors can appear differently on them. for information about applying theme colors to complications, see design complications using watch face studio. using theme colors on different backgrounds to expand the customization options of your watch face, you can implement multiple backgrounds to complement the theme color palettes. users can combine their choice of theme color palette and background to suit their preference. to add a background to the watch face: add an image component and define the image as the background. if you want to add more background images, select the background component. in the “style” tab, click the “+” (plus sign) button and select the images to be implemented as backgrounds. you can use the customization editor to preview any combination of theme color palette and background: to open the customization editor, in the “style” tab, click the “customization editor” button. use the side menu to switch between the colors and backgrounds you want to preview. figure 7: customization editor you can also preview the theme colors from the “run” tab. the following examples demonstrate how the same theme colors can provide a different look and feel depending on the background. figure 8: theme colors against varying backgrounds finally, test your watch face on an actual watch or emulator. with up to 10 backgrounds and 30 theme colors, up to 300 background and color combinations are possible. figure 9: examples of sample project output additional resources for more information on designing watch faces with watch face studio, see create a watch face with watch face studio on the android developers site. discuss ideas with other expert developers at samsung developers forum and get tips, help, and answers to your development questions. learn more about watch face studio and other samsung sdks and tools from the samsung developers blog.

this document was updated on 12 july 2023 to reflect the latest changes to the submission window. if you are interested in designing and selling ui themes for samsung mobile devices, you must first pass a design evaluation. the design evaluation is where a team at samsung reviews a set of three design mockups that you create: the screens of your ui theme concept. we call this your “themes studio portfolio submission”. show us what the different screens and app icons look like, and if we like your skills, we’ll give you access to themes studio, our free software for building ui themes for samsung galaxy mobile devices. your themes can then be sold globally on galaxy store. designing the mockup, your themes studio portfolio using your favorite design program, create three different mockups of a samsung ui theme. each mockup must include the 6 required screens: lock, home, messages, dialer, contacts, and settings. if any of the 6 screens are not included in a mockup in your themes studio portfolio, your application will be rejected. in addition to the 6 screens, each mockup must include re-designs of the 8 app icons. do not use the default samsung app icons. doing so will cause your application to be rejected. theme studio portfolio starter kit download the theme studio portfolio starter kit (14.1mb) ver 1.2 to help ensure that your submission meets the requirements, download our starter kit to assist with designing the required 6 screens. the starter kit includes a photoshop template that utilizes “smart” objects and the generate image assets feature. for designers not using photoshop, we have included an example pdf showing the required 6 screens, app icons, and symbols, as well as a transparent png of a samsung mobile device. feel free to use any design program that you like, just make sure each screen design is 1440 pixels wide by 3040 pixels tall. theme portfolio design tips be unique. there are a lot of themes available on galaxy store, and the best way to stand out is to create something different. don’t use copyrighted or stock images. we want to see your talents as a designer to create a custom design. if you use copyrighted or stock images, your portfolio will be rejected. cohesive design. make sure all of your 6 screens in a mockup design feel like the same theme. adjust and revise your artwork for each screen, but make sure they match the overall design concept. nice colors. design each theme within a specific color palette. this will ensure that your theme conveys a specific mood. for help with selecting a color palette, search online for websites that have color palette generating tools, such as color.adobe.com/create careful with fonts. fonts can be fun, but fonts can also be too crazy. you can use a stylistic font, just choose one that people can actually read, and read quickly. simple app icons. the symbols you design for each app icon should have a clear meaning. do not place a distracting background behind each app icon. all design elements within the app icon should relate to that specific icon. refrain from using a common design element across all app icons. take a break. when you are done with your theme mockup, step away for a moment. do something that takes your mind off of your designs. when you return, you will look at your designs as a whole and not see the specific elements of your theme. is it cohesive? do all of the screens within your theme go together? are the apps and fonts easy to read? have you designed something unique? if you are confident that your theme mockup is strong, excellent! time to submit! submitting your application and themes portfolio to apply to become a themes designer, visit developer.samsung.com/galaxy-themes and click the “get started” button. this will open the themes overview page. if the submission window is open, the “open/click to apply” button will be displayed for you to apply and submit your themes portfolio. theme designers are recruited every two years. see below for the open window dates. to submit your themes portfolio, save the 6 ui jpg screens as a single pdf document and upload with your application. submit more than three mockups in a themes portfolio? sure. in fact, this is encouraged. keep in mind though that you will be judged on all of your theme designs. if you submit a strong design and a weak design, they will be judged together. remember, you are being judged as a themes designer so be sure that all of your mockups in your theme portfolio are equally strong. cover letter submitting a cover letter with your application is not required, but it definitely helps. we would love to learn more about you as a designer. tell us why you want to design galaxy themes and sell them to the world. tell us something interesting about yourself. share links to other design projects or portfolios. samsung is looking for great designers to sell their themes on galaxy store. don't say you only want to learn the software or just create themes for yourself. when can you submit your themes portfolio? because this is an exclusive group of designers, your portfolio can only be submitted during certain times. we call this the “open window.” once every two years, samsung opens the window for applying to become a themes designer. along with your application, you will include three mockup designs consisting of 6 ui screens in your themes portfolio. the latest open window: july 1 - july 31, 2023 the review process after the submission window has closed, a team at samsung will take approximately 4-8 weeks to review all applications and portfolios. acceptance if your application is approved, you will receive an email with instructions on how to access the themes studio software and further information about how to begin publishing your theme designs to galaxy store. noteif your application is approved, you will be able to publish your themes for a period of two years. after two years, you must apply for an extension at which time your portfolio is re-evaluated. rejection & resubmitting if your application was rejected, you will receive an email notification informing you about the rejection. you can apply again during the next application cycle. take some time to address the potential reasons as to why your original theme might have been rejected. do not submit the same portfolio again without any changes. top reasons for rejection: did not submit the required 6 screens for each mockup did not re-design all app icons graphics were not high-res theme portfolio was not cohesive theme design was not well executed theme design was too simple similar theme already on galaxy themes store another cause for rejection is the use of imagery that you did not design yourself. it is not allowed to use copyrighted, stock imagery or pictures you find on the internet. your theme design must contain only custom artwork that you created yourself. start designing! samsung is looking for designers that are ready and excited to sell their ui theme designs to the world. take advantage of this unique opportunity and submit your themes portfolio during the next open window! follow up this site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account or by subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.

important notice : thank you for your interest in becoming a themes designer. recruitment of new themes designers has ended. a new themes designer operation policy is being prepared and will be announced around june 2023. this document was updated on 9 february 2023. a key component of theme design is custom icons. these icons can launch apps like email, camera, and music, and are also used as weather app symbols and user-interface indicators throughout a theme. icons are a great way to show off your design skills, enhance your theme concept, and set your design apart from others. they can be sold as icon packs or as part of a galaxy theme on the galaxy store. in this article, you'll find some useful tips for both prospective galaxy theme designers and current designers on how to create custom theme icons. becoming a samsung theme partner only those who have been accepted into a samsung theme partnership can design and sell themes on the galaxy store. you can learn more about how to apply for a theme partnership by reading how to submit a galaxy themes portfolio. you can download the theme editor software and start customizing the icons in your theme design once you're a part of the program. customization when building a theme there are many opportunities to replace the default icons, buttons, and indicator symbols with customized graphics. however, only the icons in the icon pack have to be customized when you submit a theme for approval. the theme will be rejected if the default icons are not replaced with customized icons. non-customizable icons certain icons cannot be changed. these icons include third-party apps like youtube and facebook, or system apps like smart switch and optical reader. however, you can still add a custom background or frame to these icons by using the icon tray feature. read below for more information on icon trays. icon design tips download default icons. if you would like to have example files of the default icons, download by right-clicking one of the icons in the ui preview window and selecting [download]. to download all of the icons, right-click and select [download all]. size and resolution. icons within the icon pack must be 144 pixels square in size, with a screen resolution of 72ppi. color mode. the document image color mode for icons must be either grayscale or rgb. adobe illustrator. use a vector-based program like adobe illustrator to easily edit or enlarge your icon artwork without losing quality. adobe photoshop. if using a bitmap-based program like adobe photoshop, place vector artwork as smart object layers. this allows the artwork to be enlarged without losing quality. document size. as mobile device screens improve, the themes editor software may increase the required size for app icons. start with a larger document size that can be easily reduced to 144 pixels. example: a 576 pixel document can be reduced to 144 pixels when multiplying by 25%. designing at a larger size ensures that you have master files that can be exported larger than 144 pixels in the future. jpgs & pngs. even though icons can be imported into theme editor as jpgs or pngs, i would suggest pngs to allow for transparent backgrounds. color palette. icons are easy to read at a quick glance when fewer colors are used. create a simplified, cohesive color palette with enough background contrast so that your icons can be seen. icon tray use the icon tray feature to add a background or frame to your icon pack apps. the icon tray displays an additional image independent of the icon image within the app. this is helpful when adding a similar background, or to frame third-party and system app icons that cannot be customized. to use the icon tray feature, click [icon pack] in the sidebar and then [app icons]. then, click anywhere in the ui preview window that is not within the dotted-lined rows of icons to display the icon tray builder window. select [all apps] if you would like every app in the ui theme to have the same custom background. select [unassigned apps] to add a custom background to the app icons that cannot be customized. when choosing this option you must still replace the icons that can be customized. weather widget icons the weather widget consists of 27 icons, one for each weather condition. even though it is not required to change these symbols, doing so is a great way to create a unique theme. to access the weather widget, click [home screen] in the sidebar and then [partly sunny] in the default ui screen window. take note that the size of the icons are 219 x 219 pixels. calendar app icon there are two options to customize the calendar app. the first is to upload a custom icon that symbolizes a calendar. the second option is to create a live icon that shows the current date on top of a custom icon background. 1. to create a live icon, click [icon pack] in the left sidebar and then the [calendar app icon row] in the default ui screen window. 2. click the [default icon] to the right of the calendar app to replace the app icon. once replaced, the option to add a live icon will appear. 3. click [live icon] to open the icon builder. in this window you can add a calendar background image, and set the font color for both the day of the week and day of the month. both font colors must be changed from the default font colors. if not, the save button will not be active. if you do not want the day of the week to appear, set the font color opacity to 0% in the middle option of the three customizable sections. if you would like the style of the standard calendar icon to match the style of the live icon, place a checkmark next to [set the current preview as a normal]. if not, an icon image must be uploaded for the normal calendar icon. free icons for free themes if you would like to offer a free theme and are looking for free icons, you can download different public icon packs by logging into your samsung account and visiting the themes page. these free icons are only available to those who have been accepted as a theme partner. each icon set is a photoshop file with embedded smart object icons. you can customize and save icons individually. uploading icons click the image button to the right of each icon to upload an individual icon. click the "add all" folder button in the upper right of the icons window to add a group. if using the "add all" feature, file names must match the names the default icons. bad design the majority of theme partnership applications are rejected because: icons are not customized backgrounds make the icon too difficult to read symbols do not correlate to their specific app icons are poor quality below are examples of bad icons: final design thoughts your icon designs have the greatest impact on the look of your theme design and give it unique characteristics. true for all aspects of ui design, clean and simple is the approach you should take when designing app icons. they should be easy to read not only at first glance but also when distinguishing between other apps on the same ui screen. testing the readability of your apps at actual size is very important. it is highly suggested to either view your theme on a mobile phone or print out your theme at actual size. stepping back and quickly glancing allows you to determine if your icons are designed well and that it's easy to understand what they represent. for tips on designing themes, be sure to read the blog design tips: galaxy themes. if you are not familiar with 9-patch images or the 9-patch editor, please read the blog use the 9-patch editor to create responsive galaxy themes components. follow up this site has many resources for developers looking to build for and integrate with samsung devices and services. stay in touch with the latest news by creating a free account or by subscribing to our monthly newsletter. visit the marketing resources page for information on promoting and distributing your apps. finally, our developer forum is an excellent way to stay up-to-date on all things related to the galaxy ecosystem.

this year at sdc18 the first-ever best of 2018 samsung galaxy apps awards winners were announced! the awards recognize the top publishers who have stood out amongst the galaxy apps store’s boutique of expertly curated apps. to kick-off our ‘best of 2018’ series, we spoke with zhu guangxu, this year’s winner for best themes designer to get some insights on how he creates themes that stand out from the crowd. how did you get into designing themes? i graduated from college with a major in electrical engineering, but during my sophomore year, i inadvertently came across theme stores. out of curiosity, i did some research on themes, and taught myself how to make them. i created some themes which made it to the online store. many people liked them, and that’s when i realized creating themes could be more than a hobby. how would you describe your approach to design? a good theme takes time to create and perfect before it is ready to be used on a smartphone. my inspiration comes from the world around me, examining every little detail, which is far more complicated than a theme. that is the soul and essence of designers. what is your process for designing themes? i start with the wallpaper, and base the logos on that design to match the colours, paying close attention to the details. what is the most important thing to consider when designing themes? when it comes to theme design, the user’s first impression is everything. overall style and general likability of a theme are the main things i consider during theme design. watch zhu guangxu’s acceptance speech for the best of 2018 theme designer award. what is the biggest technical challenge you faced as a themes designer? when designing themes, i would start off by trying to create the best design possible, and then would often would run into technical issues with the smartphone operating systems. however, thanks to a strong team, i was able to work around those issues to still create the quality theme designs i had in mind. what design element do you think all good themes have in common? themes come in all kinds of styles, from super cool, to classic minimalist, to purely beautiful. because themes are so diverse, it’s hard to pinpoint a specific design element that makes them stand out. but no matter the theme style, you can always tell when a lot of work has gone into creating the wallpaper and logos, a trademark of a quality theme. how do you keep your theme designs fresh and relevant? i pay close attention to the smartphone industry, specifically market trends and consumer insights. i’ll often create and design interfaces based on what consumers are currently excited about. what advice do you have for designers who are starting out to have a successful themes business? keep working on new themes and promoting high quality free themes. this will help you build a loyal following who will be looking out for your next designs. how has samsung helped your business? i became a samsung designer about six months ago and it’s been a great resource in my themes development. working with samsung gives me access to monthly reports that help me get a sense of what themes are popular with consumers, to help inform my future designs. so far things are going well, and i look forward to more ways to collaborate with samsung in the future. thanks to zhu guangxu for sharing his advice on theme design. be sure to follow us on @samsung_dev for more interviews with the best of 2018 winners coming out in the next couple of weeks. for now, you can find out more about the program in our samsung best of 2018 winners announced post.

when building galaxy themes, certain graphic elements need to be a 9-patch png image to display correctly on a phone. an excellent example of this is a dialog box graphic that resizes depending on the amount of text it contains. in this blog, i'll walk you through how to create both a dialog box and a switch, so you're able to design galaxy themes that follow design best practices. getting started create a graphic for the 9-patch image using a program like photoshop or gimp. make sure that the background is transparent and that the artwork does not go to the edge. 9-patch images use the outer edge to determine what areas stretch and what areas contain text. these are called handles, one-pixel-thick lines that don’t appear when the graphic is used in the phone ui theme. i created a 500-pixel square document for the dialog box example,. i then drew a centered, black 384-pixel square and a gray 10-pixel line with radius corners set to 50 pixels. note: be sure to add a .9 before the file name extension when saving your png, this ensures the file is recognized as a 9-patch image. example: filename.9.png. using the 9-patch editor open the samsung themes editor software. click the [common] sidebar button and then the [dialog] button. from within the [background] section, click the pencil icon to open the 9-patch editor. click the [open] button and navigate your hard drive to select your .9.png file. determine what part of the graphic will stretch. use the pencil tool to draw a single-pixel-thick line at the edge of the canvas area. the top edge denotes the horizontal stretch area, and the left edge the vertical stretch area. make sure [show patches] is selected at the bottom of the editor window, and then select the pencil tool in the lower-left corner. using the pencil tool can be a little tricky since it only activates when your cursor is at the single-pixel-edge of your canvas. you’ll know you are at the edge when your cursor arrow turns into the pencil tool. place the pencil tool at the approximate horizontal center of the graphic, and draw to the right. as you draw, guidelines and a shaded green area expand. the shaded area represents the part of the graphic that will stretch to resize the dialog box. draw a matching line at the center of the left side of the canvas to determine the vertical stretch area. if needed, you can re-adjust the handles by clicking and dragging the guides. once drawn, the numeric value for the length of the handles is displayed, along with values for the unaffected areas. these non-affected areas of the graphic will not stretch, thus maintaining the perfect arc for each rounded corner. next, we determine the content area in which the text is displayed. make sure [show content] is selected at the bottom of the editor window. then draw handles on the bottom and right edge of the canvas, aligned with the beginning of each rounded corner. think of this as setting the margins for the text area. in the right-side preview area, you’ll see a purple shaded box that represents the content area for the text within the dialog box. determining the content area is optional. you might have a 9-patch image that is strictly a graphic without any text. for the 9-patch image to function correctly, all you need are the patch handles at the top and left. click [save] and then [exit] to save the 9-patch image. a popup window will appear asking you to confirm importing the image into samsung themes editor. click “ok” to import the 9-patch image. in the preview window, you’ll see that the imported dialog box has stretched to fit the dialog text and buttons without stretching the rounded corners. advanced 9-patch an example of a more complex 9-patch image is the background track area of a switch. let’s take a closer look to see how this type of button is built. with the [common] sidebar button selected in themes editor, choose [switches]. right-click on the track graphic symbol to download the 9-patch image file. take note of where on your computer the 9-patch image will be saved. click the pencil button to open the 9-patch editor and then select [open]. navigate your hard drive to choose the downloaded 9-patch image. use the zoom feature to enlarge the workspace area to get a closer look at the handles. notice that even though the graphic is a circle, by drawing a small horizontal patch handle at the top, the circle stretches horizontally as needed while still maintaining nicely-curved sides. handles should be at least two pixels long for the stretched 9-patch image to display correctly when resized. two handles have been drawn in the empty vertical area on the right side of the canvas to prevent the circle image from stretching vertically. this means that the area without the handles will not stretch. note: the content area for this example image is set by the left and bottom handle lines; however, there’s no text within this 9-patch image so content area handles are not required. using 9-patch images ensures that your galaxy themes look great and function correctly. if you would like to become a galaxy themes developer and download our themes editor software, read our resource page on how to get started.

our best of galaxy store awards series highlights publishers who won awards at our second annual best of galaxy store awards ceremony at the samsung developer conference. these publishers represent the top performing apps of the year, pushing the boundaries of innovation, quality, and creativity. next in our series, we sat down with cogul planet, the winners of not one, but two awards: best themes brand collaboration and best themes designer (big brand). the cogul planet team shared their inspiration for their mlb themes, technical challenges they faced, and advice for designers who want to have a successful galaxy themes business. check out the interview below! what inspired your idea for the mlb themes? there are many ways for a fan to cheer on his or her favorite team or favorite player. some of those ways are to visit a game in the stadium, buy a uniform, cap, or purchase other accessories. they can also participate as members of team clubs. fans interact in these ways because they want to feel a sense of belonging. they want to feel that they contribute or that they belong to the team dynamic. taking that into consideration, we thought that applying a sense of belonging into the fans' mobile devices, which they check and use nonstop throughout the day, could be a new way for a fan to be part of the fandom as well as maximize their sense of belongingness and satisfaction. although there are many online wallpapers of mlb teams and players with some available on the mlb site, we wanted to take the next step and provide a more advanced experience to the users by not only providing wallpapers, but also designing icons, buttons, animations, and sounds. how would you describe your approach to design? first, we like to design themes that are easy to use from a user perspective. even if a theme is filled with pretty and cool images, if it doesn’t have good legibility or doesn't harmonize overall, the user will get tired of it. from a designer’s point of view, we want to communicate the topic of a theme clearly and harmonically so the theme stands out among many other themes. creating a theme that can capture both design and readability is our main approach to creating themes. what is your process for designing galaxy themes? the first step in the process of designing a theme is to have a concept meeting with the designers and the planning department. the meeting will occur two to three times each week. during the meeting, seasonal issues and trends of major countries are discussed. meeting participants recommend concept production ideas. we always try to maximize each designer’s individuality or merit by applying their ideas and supporting them for an optimized result. once the concept is set, each person will sketch their ideas and share them with each other. after ideas and sketches are shared, drafts are made. in case of different feelings and aesthetics among two drafts, we choose one and proceed with the work on the editor. the final theme reflects more individuality than the team, but the team collaborates a lot in the production process. what is the most important thing to consider when designing galaxy themes? it’s important to attract consumers’ attention with a pretty and cool design, but one of the things we think about most when designing is legibility. especially the home screen, the dial screen, and the message screen that are frequently used, and the purpose of their use is clear, so if poor readability interferes with that purpose, users will feel uncomfortable using their smartphone and will find a different theme soon. what is the biggest technical challenge you face as a galaxy themes designer? at first, video lock screens were not supported and as technology evolved, it was difficult to learn new skills by using a video production program in addition to a lock screen produced by a theme studio. to create a theme that is more complete with maximized quality, designers need more skills and to always be learning new skills to adapt to advanced technologies. what design elements do you think all good galaxy themes have in common? popular and pretty galaxy themes have a clear concept and are clearly visible for users. when users use various functions of their device, they can experience the detailed work which gives them a fun and complete feeling. for example, we think you bought a good theme when the details of the lock screen pattern, iris design, buttons, switches, and keyboards feel alive. these themes are legible and comfortable to use. how do you keep your galaxy theme designs fresh and relevant? we do a lot of research to understand the tastes of galaxy theme users and to create new and fresh themes that haven't been seen in the traditional theme store. we use new concepts or mix and match two categories to create something brand new and fresh. what advice do you have for designers who are starting out to have a successful galaxy themes business? if you study the tastes and minds of galaxy theme users, you can come up with a variety of themes that suit your individuality. it’s as important to be up to date with trends, markets, and seasonal events of the theme store as it is to create a new theme. how did it feel to be recognized with two awards? i felt proud and responsible to win two awards among countless sellers. since becoming a member of the theme store in 2016, cogul planet has launched nearly 20,000 applications so far and has been working hard to create new trends and segments such as ebichu, siba, mlb and “good job today.” i believe our contribution both quantitatively and qualitatively to the theme store was recognized and rewarded. in the future, we will continue to create many good and fresh themes so that our users can have a better and easier experience using our galaxy themes! thanks to cogul planet, inc. for sharing their insights on the complexity of theme designs, how to approach design thinking, and how new designers can get started building galaxy themes for the theme store! if you're on a samsung device, check out their designs and mlb themes. follow us @samsung_dev for more interviews with best of galaxy store awards 2019 winners.

to kick-off our ‘devs doing it right 2’ series, we spoke with melanie lombardi, president of echo visuals, a design company that focuses on creating fun, eye-catching themes and watch faces for samsung devices. please tell us a bit about echo visuals and how your company got into developing themes for samsung. before echo visuals was founded, i created themes for samsung as an individual seller. i received an s6 edge as a gift, and stumbled across the theme store when it was in its early stages. i noticed a banner in the theme store which said they were accepting new designers for theme development, and that is where the journey began. i started small with a few free themes, and after that i started monetizing my themes with hopes that it could turn into a full-time business. and, finally, it did. however, now that the theme store has grown significantly and has many more theme developers, we have to keep up with the quantity of themes being released daily and we’re hoping that we will soon be able to increase our capacity and our theme production. what are the biggest technical/design hurdles you have to clear when designing a theme? echo visuals creates high-quality, animated themes. from the beginning, engineering them has been the most difficult part. at the earliest stages we were free with respect to animation image resolution, playback speed and file size, so we were able to create themes with complex animations. after that, however, tight guidelines were put into place, and we struggled to keep delivering themes with high-quality animations. how did you go about solving this challenge? we studied the animated tool in-depth so that we could still create great animated themes, even though they had to be simplified. before the guidelines were put into place, we would create the animations with video-editing software and then export them as a series of still images. we could then import them into the editor. with the guidelines, we no longer had the ability to do this, so we studied the animated tool and created the animations within the tool instead of on separate video-editing software. we imported different image layers into the tool and animated them manually by using frame actions and simple effects, so that we could still offer animated themes that users were satisfied with. what does your planning process look like? the first thing we do before creating a theme is look at the current climate, identify what might be missing in the store, and analyze user feedback. once we have all of these pieces, we’re able to make a decision on which type of theme will be made next. the next step is to create the theme’s animation, build the theme, have it tested by samsung, and then finally release it in the store. from a design perspective, what is the most important ux consideration you have to take into account when developing a theme? it’s easy to overdo it with theme design. finding the right balance is critical. if you customize too little, then users do not feel like they are getting any value out of your product. if you overdo it, then all of a sudden the design is too distracting and takes away from the purpose of the phone. it’s important to find the right balance to ensure users feel happy with both the amount of customization, as well as the usability of their device. can you tell us about one of your top performing themes and what made it so successful? our most popular theme two years in a row is gear (premium live). we believe that users like the animated lock screen, sounds, and simplicity of the theme. it has a very clean design that can be appreciated by a wide audience. how do you see echo visuals evolving as content formats shift with the advent of new technologies? we’re always looking at what’s next. every time a new device or a new os is released, we go through all of our themes and update them for compatibility and improvements. we adapt our designs to make sure they fit the new phone’s resolution, as well as create any new assets that are needed. it’s also important to us that users can keep using the themes they have already purchased, even after they switch to a different phone, so we do everything we can to keep our themes up to date. are there emerging technologies that you’re keeping your eye on? we’re always keeping an eye on new technologies that are implemented on new devices. the way we design will keep evolving and we will adapt to the changes in ui that new technologies bring. our goal is to always examine new features, then integrate them into both new and existing content where it makes sense to do so. what advice can you share to upcoming designers who are interested in developing for themes for samsung? my advice for upcoming theme designers is to create an art portfolio that shows your creativity, design skills and interests. it would be helpful to show your artistic ability and any previous experience in mobile ui design or another artistic field. if you are new to creating themes, i recommend you come up with your own style so that your themes stand out from others. many themes are released in the store per day, but if your themes have their own unique style, they will definitely catch the users’ attention. thanks to melanie for sharing her thoughts with us. make sure to like us on facebook so you don’t miss any of the great interviews we’ll be posting in the coming weeks. we’re excited to see how these top designers are doing it right!

as we continue to recognize the best of galaxy store awards, we now feature x9 studio, winner of best indie themes designer. john shih, principal at x9 studio, shares his journey from industrial designer to themes designer. learn how he made the transition, the universal elements of design, and tips for those interested in taking a similar path. how did you get into designing themes? i’m an industrial design consultant who helps companies developing new consumer products and physical products, such as toys, consumer electronics, medical equipment, etc. i think that separates me from most theme developers who are coming from a graphic design background of sorts. i discovered the galaxy themes program while producing my first watch face app in late 2018 and jumped on the opportunity to be a part of the themes early access program. how did you make the transition from industrial designer to a themes designer? in 2013, i was in the process of preparing to launch a traditional wristwatch company via kickstarter.com. but i realized that market would soon be replaced by smartwatches, so i shelved it and started learning android app development in my spare time. a few years later, i investigated wearable platforms and noticed samsung's smartwatch platform was more developed than google’s. then i bought a galaxy watch and discovered galaxy watch designer and galaxy themes studio tools which led me to become a samsung developer. how has being an industrial designer helped you in designing software apps? apps such as galaxy themes and watch faces are basically virtual products in digital form. while the process of designing physical products is completely different than developing apps, design fundamentals such as color theory, contrast, proportion, and many other aspects are universal. i must point out one unique strength of industrial design that can apply to designing interfaces: the ability to conceptualize and execute designs in three dimensions. traditional graphic design deals mostly with two dimensions. when designing themes, what is the most important ux consideration in terms of design? a well-designed theme involves arranging all of its elements in an elegant and logical manner that produces a seamless interaction between the user and mobile phone. elegant layout and logical layout are often contradicting each other. for example, scientific instrument panels in real-life are often boring but very logical for their easy-to-read purpose. while the scientific instrument panels in movies are visually pleasing, they are typically not so easy to read. for designing themes, the most important ux consideration is usability. well-designed themes encompass a balanced dance between visually pleasing elements and logical layout. you were awarded best indie themes designer, however you got started as a galaxy watch designer. yes, developing a watch face is not only more related to industrial design than developing themes, but it’s also what i intended to do back in 2013. as a designer do you use a similar process when designing themes and watch faces? usability is universal, it’s a blueprint for successful design in both themes and watch faces. however, the two have very different usages. watch faces are meant to be used in a very short duration like a few seconds, while interaction with mobile phones are much longer. the design approach for the two are quite different as well. what is the biggest technical/design hurdle when designing a watch face? i would say it’s the physical screen size, there’s only so much information you can put in a 360x360 pixel area before the watch face becomes overloaded with clusters of information. what is the biggest technical/design hurdle when designing a theme? unlike watch faces, which consist of one or two pages at the most, phones have tens of pages. the same pages may have different elements depending on os versions and phone models. the biggest challenge designing themes for me is familiarizing myself with the overall layout of each os version. staying abreast of the most popular samsung phone models is also an ongoing process. based on your journey from industrial designer to watch face designer and now award winning themes designer, are there any tips you can give designers who are interested in taking a similar journey? human-product interaction is universal for both virtual/digital and physical products. physical products deal with ergonomics and digital/virtual products deal with interaction. but the end goal for both is the same: to create a seamless and pleasant user experience for the products. for industrial designers, watch face development is relatively the same with industrial design, so it would be a good starting point to get their feet wet. what is next for x9 studio? developing virtual goods for virtual worlds is another area that i’m looking at. but for the immediate future, i’ll continue to focus on watch faces and themes development. what advice do you have for new designers looking to create a successful theme or watch app business? for new designers who just got out of school, my advice is to continue your design education through your first job or two. learn about watch and theme app development, and make a few apps on your own spare time and see where it takes you. for seasoned designers, create some apps using galaxy watch designer and galaxy themes studio. see if it’s the right path for you. having a realistic expectation will go a long way. rome wasn’t built in a day. keep your day job while building up your app portfolio. eventually you’ll be able to work anywhere on earth where the internet reaches. how has samsung helped your business? coming from a completely different industry with very limited knowledge of app development, the samsung developer program (sdp) and fellow samsung developers have been instrumental to the success of x9 studio. the sdp website provides a wealth of learning materials, and the sdp team members provide invaluable insights for new developers like me, which are absolutely the keys to x9 studio’s growth. samsung’s developer community, like the developer forum is another valuable resource. we want to thank john for sharing his journey to becoming the best indie themes designer 2019 and the universal aspects of product and software design. be sure to check out x9 studio’s themes portfolio and download your favorite in the galaxy store. if you're reading this on a samsung device, check out the x9 studio brand page. follow us on twitter at @samsung_dev for more developer interviews as well as tips for building games, apps, and more for the galaxy store. find out more about our best of galaxy store awards.

spring is here and it’s a good time to clean house in your digital world. from your design process to galaxy store presence, it’s important to revisit past work to make sure it’s in top shape. to help you get started, members of the samsung developers community have been sharing advice on how they’ve successfully refined their processes and maintained a strong galaxy store presence. we conclude our ‘refresh for success’ series with olga gabay from zeru studio, known for their beautiful themes, wallpapers and always-on displays. read on to find out how olga maintains design quality in her portfolio. when and why did you start designing themes? i started designing themes over three years ago, without any prior experience in this field. however, being a graphic designer for 26 years, i already had a process that could take me from an initial inspiration to an end product. first, i make a quick sketch with my tablet, search for the matching stock material, then create a series of 3-4 quick drafts that will represent the home screen, lock screen, messenger and dial pad backgrounds. these images may vary from modified stock photos to complex digital art that may take many hours to complete. once i’m satisfied with my design, i finalize it in galaxy themes studio. in my first year, i was trying to figure out the market demand and create various seasonal products. then i discovered promotional events are better for building demand than following popular topics. so, in my second year i put a lot of effort into chasing the upcoming events calendar. it wasn’t until the middle of my third year that i gave up following common requests. i decided to come up with designs based on my current mood and whatever comes to mind. also, i stopped thinking about how many sales this or that theme can make. theme designs by zeru studio how often do you revisit your old designs and update them? from time to time, as long as refreshing the given binary is still available. whenever i need to update a theme for a new samsung device, i run through all the major screens and give them a fresh look. i almost always end up fixing at least a few colors, addressing visibility issues, and updating keyboard buttons or some other ui graphic elements. it might take a tremendous amount of time, but there is still value in prioritizing these updates over creating brand new themes during the active updating season, typically at the end/start of a year. if there is a new feature being rolled out with a scheduled one ui update, i will go through all my old themes and decide which ones to update. recently, i added video call screen backgrounds to over 25 of my existing themes, despite it not having any sales or promotional value. it's my way of showing appreciation to those who still use my products and it gives me a sense of professional satisfaction. when new platforms are released, do you check to make sure all designs are working? it's way too time consuming and not even possible on the newer devices to re-check all old binaries. instead, i prefer reacting to user feedback. sometimes, i will check for certain issues (most often contrast or icon/text visibility) to make sure everything is okay after the latest one ui updates. i rely on the remote test lab (rtl) on a regular basis to check designs, because i don’t keep old galaxy devices. are there any specific files you would recommend to always keep handy? keep literally everything! extra disk or cloud space is not that expensive nowadays. it's very important to keep all source files like vector formats, psds, hi-resolution images and videos. image fonts, icons, buttons and backgrounds tend to change in size and proportion with every new device, and that's when old files become handy. also, source files are often needed to create promotional materials. what’s the one piece of advice you’d give a designer about organizing their work to keep it fresh? it’s difficult to give advice that’s helpful to every type of designer. some bigger companies who are producing thousands of designs might want to be very organized, but smaller operations might be more comfortable in a system that looks a bit chaotic from the outside. the best advice i can give is to find what works for you so organizing is easy and doesn’t feel like a chore. thanks to olga for sharing helpful advice on improving the design process and refreshing old themes to maintain their quality. you can connect with olga and zeru studio on instagram, facebook, and twitter. you can also check out zeru studio’s full collection of themes in galaxy store. we hope you found our ‘refresh for success’ series helpful in getting your digital refresh started. remember, making galaxy store updates is key to keeping your seller account active. you need two activities every three months that trigger an app review by the seller portal team. an activity takes many forms, and can be anything from uploading a new app, to updating a current app, hanging the description or adding/updating photos. however, changing the price of an app does not count. follow us on twitter at @samsung_dev for more developer interviews and tips for designing themes, watch faces, and more for galaxy store.