In addition to the engineering and other innovations being made at that time, we presented a radical new approach to the Mac's visual design. Rather than create a single updated version, we proposed that there should be many new and diverse appearances over the same underlying functionality. During the next two years, we developed a strategy for a whole universe of unique interface environments called "themes" (including special fonts, animations and sounds) while the engineers at Apple reworked software down to the kernel itself to make it all happen.

In the end, the Appearance Control Manager and theme fonts were released, but the themes themselves were held back.

Years later, the concept of multiple appearances was reborn on the web as a new movement of "skins."