I don't think rich, photorealistic renderings will ever go completely out of style, mindseye, but as far as UIs go, "skeuomorphic" is a trend, not a movement, and it's being supplanted by "the flat look", specifically Microsoft Windows 8 Metro look. Even Apple is "getting it", and moving away from literal paintings of iconic representations.

Skeomorphic at top

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Flat at bottom

This sort of treatment historically has been for international signs, like No Smoking, and Men's Room, not to editorialize too much!



Which doesn't mean that We have to go with the flow. On the contrary: Microsoft has encountered so much blowback over version 8 that they issuing version 8.1 later this year and 8 adopters get a free upgrade.

I think we just really need to decide what art we are able to create is the easiest read in the UI: simpler is sometimes better, but not always. And a visually rich UI is value-added as far as customer perception goes. Look at Painter's old UI compared to PaintShop Pro, to compare two Corel products.

My Best,

Gary