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Jony Ive Put Apple's Marketing Team in Charge of iOS 7 Icon Design

MacRumors said:
First of all, many of the new icons were primarily designed by members of Apple's marketing and communications department, not the app design team.
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That's innovative and inspirational. Therefore, the next time I need a plumber, I will call my dentist.

Seriously, had the icons been a universal success, would this distinction have become knowledge? Jony Ive is in charge and so has the final say on development and so the buck stops there.
 
In other words

we rolled them out to see what everyone thinks, and since everyone hates them, we will be changing them
 
I must say that I really like this look. Been waiting to try iOS out and now that it's similar to Android and Windows phone I can finally do it!
 
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Reactions: Jynto
Not a bad idea to put them in charge of the conceptual side of the designs, and let Jony and the team polish them to something more aesthetic.

Newstand and Game Centre are horrible but otherwise they look nice, if a little TOO flat.
 
Benjamins said:
don't be surprised to see those icons change several times before the final release.
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I want to believe that, but I've never seen Apple fundamentally change the look of something which is ALL over their website, ever… but fingers crossed :/
 
Daalseth said:
Putting Marketing people in charge of ANYTHING critical is a bad idea. They aren't engineers, they aren't interface people, heck, they aren't even graphics and design people. Marketing is full of glorified sales people. As others have said this explains a lot.
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I disagree. Apple has had some stunning marketing over the years. Consider that Jony Ive KNOWS those people, they're not just marketing suits to him.

And frankly, this is scarcely news. The obvious thing to say is DUH. Of course its going to change, its not like Apple had a blindfold when presenting the icon designs. Stuff is going to change. They know its nutty looking. I don't think there is much divisiveness in the overall UI design. Everyone I'm speaking to and reading is really enjoying their time with it. Except Android fans, who are really big time feature creatures. They really don't get the concept of artfulness at all.
 
the icons are the part that I dislike the most about the beta. That said, they're just icons, and they're not TERRIBLE. Just not what I would choose.

I like the way Apple did it though. They changed everything DRASTICALLY, and now they can clean it up as they go along. Instead of just making small changes here and there.

People shouldn't complain (too much) about what they see in an early beta. It is what it is.
 
Obvious news is obvious.

If you didn't realise that these icons are on a `Beta 1` release and are subject to change, you don't know Apple very well at all.

Will all the screaming rants now be silenced? No, they'll just displace the moaning to something else... :p
 
myrtlebee said:
Who the hell, when given the opportunity to desigh the most important part -- the homescreen and color pallate -- of the world's most iconic operating system decides to leave it up to a marketing team? Ive, get with the game, man. Do some damage control on this baby and rectify this cluster ****.
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Calm down, it's a beta release. Icons can be changed on a whim with little to no bearing on any other part of the OS. Focusing valuable time and energy on such a superfluous part of the interface early on in a project would be a massive waste of resources.
 
Hmm... Or... Maybe Apple just leaked this to justify why the app icons look the way they do, and to have a good excuse why they'll change them upon the official release, even though, this is how they intended to have them look all along. At first they were designed with a grid system and were well thought out, and after all of the uproar over the look of them, "oh, we just gave that job to marketing". Just saying.

icons_zps1e0792f2.jpg
 
dannys1 said:
I want to believe that, but I've never seen Apple fundamentally change the look of something which is ALL over their website, ever… but fingers crossed :/
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Because the changes don't have to be as significant as the one from iOS 6 to 7 for the icons to look a lot better and more uniform, and more reflective of the content their house. It's kind of funny tapping on the goofy weather app to see the stunning content inside of it.
 
Daws001 said:
I guess I'm in the minority but I actually like the new icons.
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I agree with you. I actually like them too. I think the problem we have here, is that some people just cannot seem to adapt to change. They are used to icons that have been around since the first iPhone.
 
Lets remember, Jony organized a comprehensive system wide redesign, and pulled it off in 7 months. Of course the betas right now are still very early, they just started 7-8 months ago. I think the fact that they had something to present this soon, being as POLISHED as it is, is an incredible achievement.

There's still some loose ends to tie up of course, but I think overall what they showed in just the short amount of time Jony's had to orchestrate this is an absolute testament to his ability as a designer, and more importantly as a leader.

Only icon I really have a problem with is GameCenter (and the apps design as well). Everything else I actually like a lot. Safari I think looks great, yet that seems to be the one most people dislike.

And anyone thinking that they can't change the look of a final release from a beta, think again. Look at iOS 4 when Steve announced it, versus what shipped. The textures changed in folders and multitasking bar, the app switching animation changed, the "window lift" animation for multitasking was sped up. A lot of details changed in iOS 4. Just like I imagine will happen when iOS 7 finally releases.
 
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That compass icon is really awfull. Of all the concepts they had, they chose this? I'd really like to be a spectator of the sessions where they made the final call, it must have been intruging.
 
abz1981 said:
I agree with you. I actually like them too. I think the problem we have here, is that some people just cannot seem to adapt to change. They are used to icons that have been around since the first iPhone.
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Wrong. Ugly is ugly.
 
I thought it was the kitchen staff..

Well, any change just has to be for the better. I must admit, I'm very much into shadows and gradients and piano laquer stuff. Will take me some time to get used to the new look.
 
AppleMark said:
That's innovative and inspirational. Therefore, the next time I need a plumber, I will call my dentist.
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I'm not defending the icons in any way, but that's a pretty goofy comparison. You do know that marketing departments spend a lot of time...designing things, right?
 
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