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

Ive making stupid decisions, it doesn't happen very often

but it seems that firing Forstall put a lot of pressure to finish iOS 7 on time...
 
To all those dissatisfied users of iOS, of which there should be around 0.1% of the iPhone ownership total, please realise that this is A BETA RELEASE, and for the rest of you... you don't own a device running the FINAL release yet, so please reserve all rambling, irrational rants for the day of the final release.

Please note, the above is available in 100 different languages, including Fandroidese and WinMoFanese, so if you require a translation, please consult:

http://127.0.0.1 - they value your comments and feedback.


PS: Viewing myriad blogs containing screenshots and then extended, biased rants about iOS 7's current BETA 1 state (just wanted to re-iterate that again, in case the masses missed it) does not make you a valid iOS 7 user, and makes the scope of your well-balanced and considered opinion of iOS 7 to be almost nil.
 
Rogifan said:
I have no doubt that feedback about the icons has gone up to the highest levels at Apple. There's a good possibility things will change. Doing a re-design of this magnitude in 6 months is definitely going to result in a work in progress. The rumors were out there that iOS was behind schedule. So it's very possible they rushed to get something out they could demo and its still in a state of flux.
Click to expand...

I agree with this.
 
iOS 7 is beautiful. The coordinated typography is stylish. I watched the keynote with my whole family and each of us loved the new look instantly.
 
gpsouza said:
The main point is:

This is NOT a professional phone. Seems like it was designed to teenager girls. POINT.

During my observation, it seems that another problem to me is that the gradient is not uniform. Some icons use from brighter do darker colors, and others from darker to brighter colors. This causes inconsistency.
Click to expand...

What exactly was so consistant with the icons in iOS 6? :confused:

Since we are picking things apart,

Inconsistency in iOS 6
  • Clouds and Blue background on the Photos icon are different than they are in mail
  • The Videos icon is Blue and white, but in a different shade than the other blue icons, and has no clouds
  • The Shadowcast and gradient for Videos icon is inconsistant with that of many other icons
  • Reminders, Camera, notes Passbook and some other icons do not have a glossy apearance, nor faux-glare / shadow that others do

I think the key point we should all take into consideration, is each of us have different personal taste, and Apple can't possibly please all of us. For the same reason Apple gives us freedom to change Lock screen and wallpaper pictures, they should allow the same for icons.

It would be nice if we had the option of selecting our own themes and icon sets. Make whatever Apple chooses default, but let the users decide what theme they like.
 
ladeer said:
third rule, they got rid of a lot of inconsistent/odd flares like the starburst behind itune, the four ugly squares on game center, the complex graphics on newstand, photo, and safari, and simply flatten the colors into a few layers. (safari and photo all had a lot more colors to give a painting look). now, they are flattened. newstand used to show all its contents which would look kind of busy in such a small icon. now it's a pretty stash.
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newsstand looks like it was created in MS Paint. seriously

rule four, they organize similar things by color. mail and safari have always been blue. but they also changed colors so all the instant communication apps are green: facetime, message, and phone.
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Other than green, there's no organization by color. Even the blue icons have gradients going opposite directions

lastly, i also like how they moved the weather from "sun with a number" to "partly cloudy." the old icon doesn't convey it's weather as clearly as the second, almost universal icon. (if u look from far away, the old icon could be a yellow dot on a blue background w/ a number below. it could mean a lot of things. but the partly cloudy hiding the sun is 100% weather.)
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from far away, the new icon reminds me of an egg over easy
 
I hate the iOS 7 stills I'd seen. But this video won me over instantly.

I think it looks fantastic. I must be in the minority..?
 
It would be nice for the browser app (Safari) to look somewhat unlike a compass and the compass to remain...a compass since they are keen on redesign of icons. I think 40% of that trailer was icon discussion.
 
I think you gotta cut apple some slack here. They really delivered on the change we all wanted. I do not like a few icons but not all them. I think some are really nice. Not all the ones I list in dont like are as bad as others. I think Safari is by far the worst.

Icons I like
Message
Phone
Music
Calculator
Compass
Mail
Clock (Although they need to use that swiss borrowed one for sure)
weather
contacts
stocks
videos

Icons I dislike
App Store
iTunes Store
Safari
Camera
Notes
Maps
Settings
Facetime
Calander
passbook
 
qpdbqp said:
Change is good. But what I see is pure crap. If I saw those icons in a potential employees portfolio, I'd keep looking.

  • The radius on the corners looks like they been increased and feels awkward.
  • For the gradients, it looks like someone just discovered the overlay blending mode in PS or AI. It's so harsh.
  • There's not enough white space around some of them (safari, iTunes, clock, etc)
  • In most cases, and especially here, I seriously hate gradients the go from dark to light.

Start over.
Click to expand...

You don't like gradients that go from dark to light.... Even when the sun is the cause of the illumination? :p
 
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.
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To be fair, the marketing departments in most of the companies I've worked for have had some pretty smart graphics and design people. As, I would imagine, does Apple's, they have some of the best branding out there.
 
121024043122-apple-flower-power-imac-large-gallery-horizontal.jpg


Remember, Ives designed this.
 
Last edited:
The marketing team sure did get everybody talking about the icons. Conspiracy? Marketing ploy? lolz
 
HopkinFrog said:
The marketing team sure did get everybody talking about the icons. Conspiracy? Marketing ploy? lolz
Click to expand...

The more people "hate" them, the more that shows they have passion, which means these same people have massive potential for slowing down, gathering their composure and waiting for the full release... by which time most of them will have the physical iOS 7 installed, and will have changed their minds...

... rinse and repeat, such tiresome, predictable consumer behaviour...


zzzz
 
Sure, flat and minimalist approach is a great principle. But there is a fine line between sophisticated minimalism and simplistic mediocrity.

For instance these my icons look flat, but a bit more sophisticated and also more consistent.

icons_shot.jpg
 
Probably really silly, but I did think that apple would hold back on some design elements until it was ready to go public.
Make something nice to create hype and give developers to test, sort out all the bugs and then throw in the full design elements in the GM.
 
The icons look great. Sure, the settings icon could be simpler, and perhaps the iTunes and App Store logos could be smaller. But really, the only one that sticks out as being truly bad is the Game Center icon - it looks like a leftover from iOS 6, and doesn't do a good job of conveying its purpose. Other than that, whoever designed them did a pretty good job.
 
kmj2318 said:
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.

Image
Click to expand...

Where did you find that?
 
downpour said:
How can anyone like this...

kyO6dQV.jpg


I thought the whole point of this redesign was to get rid of the glossy fake reflections and cheesy gradients.
Click to expand...

Yea, there is no consistency. Some icons are in 3D, some are very basic and flat.
 
johnnyenvy said:
I think you gotta cut apple some slack here. They really delivered on the change we all wanted. I do not like a few icons but not all them. I think some are really nice. Not all the ones I list in dont like are as bad as others. I think Safari is by far the worst.

Icons I like
Message
Phone
Music
Calculator
Compass
Mail
Clock (Although they need to use that swiss borrowed one for sure)
weather
contacts
stocks
videos

Icons I dislike
App Store
iTunes Store
Safari
Camera
Notes
Maps
Settings
Facetime
Calander
passbook
Click to expand...


I'm a bit different I like:
Messages, Phone and FaceTime - although they need a different green IMO
Calendar (I really like this even though everyone seems to hate)
Photos (I hated the sunflower icon before)
AppStore and iTunes Store
Clock
Contacts is fine (although hate the side colours)
I would like Passbook if the colors were different
Calculator is acceptable as is compass and stocks
Maps

What I don't like
Settings
Safari
Notes (IMO the worst icon - the app isn't much better and the Mac Notes app is even uglier)
Reminders (It's ok maybe a color change would be better)
Videos (but i think a less harsh gradient would be ok)
Weather - make it live already!
Camera (it's ok but nothing special)
Folders (if it was more transparent it would look good but in most backgrounds it looks solid tray and fugly)
Newsstand
Game centre (I tell a lie notes isn't the ugliest this is!)
 
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