Conversation with theme developer, Travis Hall aka RippedThemer

Travis Hall is an experienced theme developer and has worked on both Android and iOS operating systems. Check out the full interview below.

Q1. How and when did you get started with UI design and iOS theme development?

A. I began theming my iPhone 3G on iOS 4. It started with me using PSD’s from themes to make extra/alternative icons and share them with the community on Modmyi.

Then, one day I asked myself if these guys can do it, could I make my own theme? A friend and I created our first theme, Minimus, shortly after that.

Q2. Minimus theme looks stunning! What made you develop it and how much time did it take you to finish it?

A. I always loved a set of unreleased icons that my friend and I made for the original Minimus theme.

So when I had a concept for a new icon pack, I thought it would be fitting to call them Minimus 2.0.

Minimus theme

From the initial idea to the release, the project took just under 3 weeks. Even though I have multiple personal icon packs to port to iOS, Minimus and Doozy were made from scratch in Adobe Illustrator so that I have vectors for all of my artwork.

Q3. Are you currently working on any new project (may or may not be iOS-related) or theme?

A. I’m currently working on a new icon set to be released this month, Symplo. I’m also porting an icon pack of mine called Sutoroku.

Sutoroku theme

That’s Japanese for strokes and all of the icons in that set include black outer stroke. I’ve also begun an exciting personal project as an ode to my favorite movies.

Q4. Almost all themes end up being pirated. Have you ever felt that theme developers deserve money for developing themes?

A. Unfortunately, since everything gets uploaded for free, I use PayPal for people to pay me directly and thus is not on Cydia.

Of course, someone will eventually upload it to a pirate repo, but I try not to worry about that. I would love to figure out a system that I liked for uploading my work to Cydia.

Either by a pay-to-see repo, or I’ve considered putting a smaller, free version of the icon pack on the store. For example, if my theme comes with 400 icons, I would upload the theme with about 50 icons for free.

Then if they enjoy that, they could pay me directly via PayPal or other methods.

Q5. Which Apple device(s) do you own? What are your favorite tweaks, themes, and App Store apps?

A. I own a red iPhone 7 plus and I absolutely love it. I keep pretty simple in terms of tweaks.

My favorite tweak is LockPlus Pro by Junesiphone. Other tweaks I enjoy are Hidestatusbar and mySB, also by Junesiphone, and Dark Messages.

cydia

Some of my most used apps are Pinterest for inspiration, Evernote for ideas and plans, Apollo for Reddit because it’s highly customizable and makes browsing my subs very easy, and Carrot Weather.

Q6. What does your jailbreak setup look like?

A. My jailbroken lock screen setup consists of a simple widget with an easily visible clock.

My home screen usually has 12 icons plus a 4 icon dock and a widget placed in open space.

I seem to use around 20 apps every day, so I like having them accessible within a couple of taps.

Q7. What’s your stance on piracy in the jailbreak scene?

A.  I loathe piracy. It’s something that every designer and developer has had to deal with at some point in their design career.

I believe at the end of the day, each person has to decide is it worth it to keep going. If you’re having fun with your project, I suggest you keep going.

Unfortunately, if you were to average out our time into pay per hour, it’s easily possible to end up being pocket change.

piracy

I believe a new system will eventually come along that hinders pirates from easily grabbing paid apps for free. Maybe a DRM of sorts.

Q8. What can the jailbreak community expect from you in the future?

A. I plan to stick with iOS for the next couple of years at the very least. I’m very happy with iOS and the jailbreak community, so I’d like to have all of my icon packs (9) from Google Play ported to iOS at some point this year.

I also have a couple of secret projects planned for later this year.

Don’t forget to follow Travis on Twitter for latest theme updates.

2 Comments

  1. Deinna Granato April 15, 2018
    • iOS Expert April 17, 2018

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