Filed under: Odds and ends
New Adobe CS3 Icon Contest
After the Photoshop CS3 beta was released, we noted the new series of icons that Adobe is apparently planning to roll out all across their product line. Based on a kind of combination color-wheel and periodic table the icons have met with with a mixed response. Personally, I don't really like the minimalist design, so I'm pleased to see that Quark VS InDesign is sponsoring a contest for users to design a new set of CS3 icons. They claim that "First, second, and third place winners will divide a more than 50-item prize chest valued at more than US$7,000" and all entries will be placed on the site for free download. The contest ends on April 23, with the winner to be announced a week later.Now's the time for all those great Mac icon designers to get to work on saving us from Adobe, and maybe pick up some loot as well.
[Via MacMerc]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Adam said 8:29PM on 1-30-2007
Step forward Adam Betts...
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moo083 said 8:29PM on 1-30-2007
I was under the impression that these were only temp icons for the beta. Is that not true?
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malabooboo said 8:47PM on 1-30-2007
@moo083 - that's what most people thought, until it was made official: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2006/12/the_other_cs3_icons.html
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burbru said 8:52PM on 1-30-2007
@2, Adobe folk on the CS3 beta forums say these icons are sticking. I think they're a godsend compared to the old icons. I can't believe so many designers are so put off by them...
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nickfury said 9:05PM on 1-30-2007
I actually like the new CS3 icons. Simple, elegant and consistent. And I imagine that the block of them in my dock will stand out clearly from all the other apps, similar to the way the current Macromedia apps do.
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beg_ne said 10:17PM on 1-30-2007
I like the new icons as well. I think it looks really odd in the color wheel and can lead to a bad impression there, but as far as dock icons I think they will work fine.
I am perplexed why the new release of Flex Builder didn't include the updated icon though. Seeing as the PS beta has the new icon as well as the recently updated RoboHelp.
Gimme my swanky new flex icon Adobe, damnit!!
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BdeRWest said 10:38PM on 1-30-2007
Yeah Matt, I don't know what you're talking about. I love the new icon set.
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buddhistMonkey said 11:49PM on 1-30-2007
This contest is a great idea, and much needed. The Adobe CS3 "icons" are the worst I've ever seen from a professional developer. They're a particularly ugly black eye for a design-oriented company like Adobe. It makes me wonder what OTHER poor design decisions were implemented in the upcoming Design Suite.
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Mr Lizard said 2:41AM on 1-31-2007
Great. A dock full of letters. 'Q' for Quicktime, 'W' for Word, 'X' for Excel, 'P' for Powerpoint and now 'Ps' for Photoshop.
With all the nice icon stuff going on for iLife, I would have hoped Adobe could have come up with something a little more 'creative', given the nature of the product.
I like the way the iLife icons represent what each app is used for. A blue square with two letters in it doesn't really have the same effect.
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Brian Sexton said 12:48PM on 1-31-2007
The new icons are *NOT* consistent.
I do not care that the new icons are simplistic or even that they do not look as nice as previous icons from Adobe or Macromedia, but it does bother me that the text is neither intuitive nor consistent. For example, "Adobe Illustrator" is represented as "Ai" (as opposed to "AI" or "Il") while "Adobe Photoshop" is represented as "Ps". And yet Adobe's legal text will probably still make a big deal about how Photoshop is not to be referred to as "Photoshop", but only as "Adobe Photoshop" and not really only that, but as "Adobe® Photoshop®".
Thank goodness Adobe can't trademark individual letters or they would probably do so and their legal department would probably notice the icon discrepancy and insist that "A®d®o®b®e® P®h®o®t®o®s®h®o®p®" could not be represented in icon form by any less than "A® P®s®".
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Noel said 5:04PM on 1-31-2007
Have to side with the "Hate the new icons" camp. Every icon in the doc has a shape to it. A square takes me back to the days before transparency!
-N
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Ivan said 11:30PM on 1-31-2007
I for one love the new icons. As with most things on the internet, most of the complaints are coming from a small, vocal minority. As with most things, people only say anything when they don't like something. I believe this whole thing is blown out of proportion really, and I commend Adobe to sticking to their guns in the light of all the whiners and moaners out there.
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Printninja said 8:19PM on 3-14-2007
Sorry, but there is no reason to call them icons if they are not iconic. Two letters in a square box does not an icon make. The ideal icon speaks on two levels, directly and intuitively. A well designed icon also speaks to both sides of the brain. There is a GOOD REASON that a stop sign is a red octagon with white letters, and not just a square with the word STOP. Think about it!
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