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I'll start:

Just to clarify before I ramble further about something probably inconsequential for most:: nothing here is meant to be a passive-aggressive dig at any site or even criticism of any particular approach! These are just musings mostly in praise of a detail I've come to really appreciate but hadn't really thought about consciously until recently. I'm also interested in others' thoughts and opinions on this so I look forward to any discussion that comes up.

I personally love it when AU fandom site skins don't feature any graphics of characters from canon. For me, the feeling of that disconnect from any existing body of canon characters and, by association, their stories is super neat when writing in an AU context. However, since it's obviously still the same world(building) adapted from the source material, being able to visually communicate the particular impression of an IP without overt reference to any pantheon of posterchildren becomes more reliant on capturing an overall design language that's often really difficult to pin down.

In some cases, implementing certain typefaces or colour schemes is already enough. If an IP has a lot of specific in-universe symbols and character-independent imagery then that can obviously help a lot too. Symbolism more generally and more subtle references might also be useful and I find all these things in combination can make the whole RP experience even more immersive and compelling (assuming everything else unrelated to the AESTHETIC have been done well). Particularly cool examples I can think of is when a site is made to look like an in-universe website which is a very specific concept not applicable to all cases.

Anyways, now that I've been looking under the hood, I've found there's an incredibly difficult balance to maintain. On one hand, I'm trying to commit to preserving that distance and disconnect I mentioned earlier in an almost "self-sufficient" sense of zero reliance of canon characters to represent an IP. At the same time, I also recognise that without any actual expertise/competence in graphical design, communicating a coherent and cohesive association with the source material becomes very difficult. I worry that in chasing one "ideal" or "vision", it becomes easy for a site to feel almost too detached from the given fandom. Naturally, what does/doesn't "work" operates on very much a case-by-case basis and there's obviously absolutely nothing wrong with AU sites that do make use of canon graphics! This is just one teeny tiny isolated non-exclusive interpretation of "fidelity" that I'm trying to observe and explore with absolutely no judgment towards others.

To skin wizards and players alike: what has been your experience of this? Is it even something you've ever really thought about? What have been some interesting methods you've implemented or seen to appropriately convey the vibe/aesthetic of a fandom site?