Nov 17, 2008 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
If you're a Star Trek fan, you wouldn't pay to download a desktop background image -- also called wallpaper -- from the upcoming movie. That sort of thing is always available for free on movie websites.

But Jeff Schader is boldly betting that fans will pay $14.95 to transform their computers into immersive Star Trek experiences, trekifying everything from icons to the look of window frames.

Ten years ago, Schader didn't know how to use a computer mouse. (Seriously.) Now he's chief executive of The Skins Factory, a successful digital interface design company. The eight-year-old business is run virtually out of his home office in Cooper City, with the help of an all-freelance staff.

It started with creating customized frames -- also known as skins -- that changed the look of programs like Winamp and Windows Media Player.

Skins go beyond changing a window border from blue to green, or changing your wallpaper to a picture of your cat. They're about making your media player look like a Batman logo rather than a boring box. They're about making your computer look like it belongs in a Mickey Mouse cartoon when you click the Start menu.

What Schader started with $6,000 and a credit card now has a client list that's the Who's Who of the technology and entertainment industries: Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Capcom, Sony, Activision and Yahoo!, to name a few.

The Skins Factory has always made themes and skins for brands, movies and games. But this is the first time Schader is selling his company's work in retail outlets.

"We've been making skins for people for so long, it's only natural to take the next step," Schader said.

The company has branded the desktop themes as Hypersuites, and there are themes for the Disney Pixar movie WALL-E, classic Disney characters and some very spacey designs called Darkmatter. He began selling them at the end of July at CompUSA, TigerDirect.com, Amazon.com and his site, Hyperdesk.com. He plans for the first Star Trek theme -- based on the original series -- to hit stores at the end of December. A theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation and a Borg theme will be ready before the new movie hits theaters in May 2009.

'I was worried people would be like, 'Oh, it's 15 bucks, and the economy is tanking,' but it hasn't really stopped anybody," Schader said, adding that his site got about 623,000 hits in October, up from 220,000 hits when he started selling them in August.

Making these themes isn't cheap. It costs roughly $20,000 to produce one theme, and icons can cost as much as $500 a piece.

"For companies, it's part of a brand initiative," Schader said as he pulled up his company's Disney theme. "Every window has Mickey Mouse on it. It doesn't get any more immersive than this."

Schader said he doesn't have many competitors, but it goes without saying that customization remains a hot item for fanatics. So he's not worried that business will slow down anytime soon.

"Themes are such a niche," Schader said. "Anyone can do a theme, but not everyone can do a good theme. We have competition, . . . but they're more about quantity than quality."

The Skins Factory is also expanding with plans to offer desktop themes for Mac operating systems -- something not many studios do.

Although brands tied to science fiction, sports and hobbies do very well with this type of marketing, others don't.

"From a marketing perspective, not everyone can do it. Certain car companies can do it. High-end companies can do it or BMW," said Taigh White, president elect of the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association. "It has to be a brand or a product where there are fanatics."

While free skins can be found easily online, White has no doubt people will pay to customize computers.

"People love free and used to associate the Web with free," White said. "Now some people are wary of downloading things on their computer. There's a psychology out there that if it costs $15, it's not going to screw up my computer."

The path to The Skins Factory began when Schader got tired of waiting tables at Shula's on The Beach. A friend suggested he take a certification class for computer networking. "I just got my computer two weeks before," Schader said. 'They're talking about OSI packet layers, and I'm like 'How do you use the mouse?' " He later worked for Circuit City. He began talking about skins on media players to a customer who was so impressed he hired Schader to manage a group of artists and programmers to create skins for a company called ByteAudio.

Eighteen months later, the company went under after being indicted for securities fraud.
"It was probably one of the worst companies I've ever seen," Schader said. "My boss was really nice, I mean, he was indicted on securities fraud, but except for that, he was a really good boss. . . . I learned a lot about how to run a company and how not to run a company."

In December 2000, after the company fell behind on his paychecks for the third time in a row, Schader made a bold decision. 'I said 'Screw it, I'm going to take the artists and the contacts and incorporate The Skins Factory.' " The first year he made $46,000 in revenue.

"I wasn't eating ramen noodles," Schader said. "But I wasn't eating at Shula's."
The next year, revenue rose to $370,000. A year later it was $470,000, then $600,000. He said his company is now making roughly $900,000 in revenue.

"What's your bedroom look like? You've got pictures on the wall? You paint it? You've got knick-knacks? It's the same thing. Customizing your own space," Schader said. "You're on your computer all day long. If you have to look at your Fisher-Price blue Windows XP all day long with the same wallpaper, it gets boring."

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