Yet another App Icon comment...

[jepho]

I loved the very sharp, clean lines of the original app icons and the true logotype signifying a capital letter 'A'. The colours had come to be known by me and gave me instant application recognition on the Dock. The new icons look a little nondescript to my eye and they now seem similar to every other manufacturer's product line. I feel that the icon differences (refusal to be the same as the rest of the herd?) helped to distinguish Serif's new approach to vital software applications. 

I am really sorry to see this small detail lost in the general noise of icon design similarity for different OSs. The new icons are less distinctive and the capital letter 'A' is no longer obvious. That fact alone makes me wonder why Serif chose to lose the clear link with the Affinity name.  Notwithstanding the explanatory post from Ash, it felt to me as if Serif just lost a little of the mysterious something that defines Serif as a company. I am of course happy to use the Serif family of Affinity products and will continue to do so. Just a tad saddened... that's all. :(((

[Daniel Höpfl]

On 11/21/2018 at 4:05 PM, Ash said:

 

It's all ok - plenty of apps do not have material difference between iOS and Mac anymore other than the rounded corners which we are obeying. Unlike some.

I, too, do not like the new icons.

They fail the HID "Consider giving your app icon a realistic, unique shape". The (now) old icons had the very distinct triangle shape that helped me a lot. Maybe if you removed the top left corner on macOS, they would regain that shape factor.

(BTW: Until now, I did not realize that the icons show an aperture, a pencil, and ... sheets/book? Correct?)

[Alfred]

11 hours ago, fde101 said:

Meanwhile, if the Designer icon is supposed to be a pencil, I think they should sharpen it a bit more.

I’ve always thought the Designer icon depicts a ballpoint pen. If it were a pencil, I would expect the entire central triangle (rather than just the tip) to be dark.

[fde101]

9 minutes ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

I’ve always thought the Designer icon depicts a ballpoint pen. If it were a pencil, I would expect the entire central triangle (rather than just the tip) to be dark.

Ok, I can see that being a pen...  then it works a bit better.

A pencil actually has two sections in the sharpened area: the tip which is dark, and the exposed wood where the painted area around it was cut away but where the graphite at the center wasn't reached yet.  I was taking the lighter part as being the exposed wood.

[fde101]

17 minutes ago, Daniel Höpfl said:

sheets/book? Correct?

Not sure either...  basically just diagonal lines so that is probably as good a guess as any unless Serif wants to chip in with what it was actually intended to represent.

[Alfred]

8 minutes ago, fde101 said:

A pencil actually has two sections in the sharpened area: the tip which is dark, and the exposed wood where the painted area around it was cut away but where the graphite at the center wasn't reached yet.  I was taking the lighter part as being the exposed wood.

I see where you’re coming from, but the exposed wood of a sharpened pencil is (together with the tip) a triangle which meets the straight sides of the barrel. For the central lighter part on its own to represent the exposed wood, the part that’s northeast of that would have to be the end of the barrel, but the sides aren’t straight.

[fde101]

17 minutes ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

 I see where you’re coming from, but the exposed wood of a sharpened pencil is (together with the tip) a triangle which meets the straight sides of the barrel. For the central lighter part on its own to represent the exposed wood, the part that’s northeast of that would have to be the end of the barrel, but the sides aren’t straight.

Good point.  Agreed that the icon is most likely a pen.

[Alfred]

3 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Good point.

Unconscious pun? 

[jmwellborn]

1 hour ago, fde101 said:

Not sure either...  basically just diagonal lines so that is probably as good a guess as any unless Serif wants to chip in with what it was actually intended to represent.

Set beside the Photo and Designer icons, the poor Publisher icon looks a wee bit dull, dubious, and dreary.    Rather like the forgotten stepchild in the creative world.    Never mind.   All three apps are brilliant!

[dominik]

Did anyone of you have the thought that a creative person (like many of you yourself) most likely worked long and hard to come up with a design that has to serve many different tasks? Some of the tasks we perhaps even don't know (yet). As good as I know Serif (which is most likely not very good but good enough to assume the following) they have thought about the design of the icons and they have a reason for the change.

Of course it is possible to discuss the appearance of the new icons, especially in an open forum like this. But I am a little bewildered that some forumsters seem to forget that any design will never serve everybody's taste or preference.

I myself want to express my appreciation to the effort from the people at Serif to present different aspects of good or interesting design and styles. E.g. at affinityspotlight.com.

Cheers to all 
d.

[fde101]

31 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

2 hours ago, fde101 said:

Not sure either...  basically just diagonal lines so that is probably as good a guess as any unless Serif wants to chip in with what it was actually intended to represent.

Set beside the Photo and Designer icons, the poor Publisher icon looks a wee bit dull, dubious, and dreary.    Rather like the forgotten stepchild in the creative world.

I think the way the lines are pulled out make it harder to determine what they are supposed to represent.  The aperture in the Photo icon, the pen in the Designer icon...  then we get diagonal lines.

If we accept the theory that the lines are supposed to represent sheets of paper, I think it would have worked a bit better to show the corners of the sheets rather than the edges?

Other than that the specific orange color that was used doesn't hold up as well as the purple and blue; saturating it a bit more might help.  The old one did better in this regard (among others), though the diagonal lines pattern was already present there.

 

41 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

All three apps are brilliant!

Indeed

 

25 minutes ago, dominik said:

Did anyone of you have the thought that a creative person (like many of you yourself) most likely worked long and hard to come up with a design that has to serve many different tasks?

That's just it, it shouldn't be.  It is being used to represent both the application and a persona within the application, and that alone is a highly questionable choice from the beginning.  The icon was probably designed to meet a set of objectives that never should have been a goal.

[Merton Dot]

The new icons look good. I dig the logic to emphasize the similarity of the software regardless of platform. 

[floflo]

I like the new direction, the old icons had a distinct look, but they were super busy and looked a bit dated (those 90s 45° corners…). 

New ones look much more "professional" and yes, a bit boring. Good fit for a suite of "grown up" apps. 

That said, they could use a bit more contrast.  

 

[Grauzorn]

I liked the old icons.

That being said I can understand the new direction. but the new icons lacks soemthing imo. not sure what, I actually like toned down and simple logos.

In that case I prefer the old ones though.

[appuser99]

I like the new icons, they integrate nicely in the dock. The only critique I could have is that they are bigger than most other icons. But then, I usually run them in full screen, so that makes sense.

[qudsgn]

the new logo reminds me of a hardware store franchise located in Germany and other European countries.

[Old Bruce]

53 minutes ago, qudsgn said:

the new logo reminds me of a hardware store franchise located in Germany and other European countries.

 

Oohhh... I love hardware stores!