Comments on: New Thunderbird Icon: Iteration 1

By: Chris Edmonds

Chris Edmonds — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:51:01 +0000

I love the new icon and liked the contrast the red “wax stamp” brought in iteration 3 . . .

By: James John Malcolm

James John Malcolm — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:30:58 +0000

I still think the envelope needs to be slightly yellow/orange. It just looks a bit greyish now.

By: Slapo

Slapo — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:15:40 +0000

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the old one, why change it?

By: SLA80

SLA80 — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:06:09 +0000

Quote from comment #17:
> Yes, the bird looks indeed friendlier than in the old icon.

This is because now it looks even more like a DOVE.
You know, there are decorative doves with similar crest, look here:
1) http://fun4fun.ru/uploads/posts/2008-06/1212588344_14.jpg
2) http://www.dovesinflightdecorating.com/Doves/images/‘Lace%20Dove’,%20Bride.JPG

By: Ivan

Ivan — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:46:43 +0000

I agree with previous commenters about the @ on the envelope and the color of the envelope. As for the thunderbird, it is already a clear improvement over the older design in pretty much every aspect. That said, I’d like to offer two possible additional improvements on the Thunderbird’s wings:

1) The wings might look better if they blended in with the body – there is a color difference where the wing joins the body, which looks a little odd at a higher resolution.

2) The new Firefox logo added texture to the firefox where there were previously only distinctive vector shapes. The design of the wings in the thunderbird are already a huge improvement over the old one – but perhaps the wings might be a good place to add a little texture and vibrancy – the new wing colors are duller than the original Thunderbird icon.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:38:31 +0000

In addition – I should add that I do like the bird as is.

In coloring – I think the idea of integrating some orange is cool. Also, seeing as this is “thunder”bird – perhaps yellow would fit somewhere in the design? Sure thunder doesn’t have a color, but it makes you think of lightning – and thus – yellow…

By: JoeDoe

JoeDoe — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:22:29 +0000

Yes, the bird looks indeed friendlier than in the old icon. As mentioned previously I would search for a other envelope color, because at the moment shadow and envelope kind of blend into each other. I would also drop the @ letter, since it get’s lost easily in smaller sized icon versions and it somehow doesn’t match with the overall look and feel of the icon.

By: jamey

jamey — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:50:19 +0000

I would like to see numbder #3 http://www.rebron.org/marketing/logo/creative-brief-thunderbird-3.png
but with the head looking to the side
ken brings up a great point about the shadow

By: cantalou

cantalou — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:55:51 +0000

Blue bird is cool and much better
I agree with the overall feedback on envelope
@ logo is useless or should be more contrasted
Why not including somehow @ logo is the bird wings?
I like #13 comment on using orange Firefox color to increase contrast.
Wait for next iteration

By: Gijswijs

Gijswijs — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:28:18 +0000

I think you should consider dropping the ‘@’ symbol. It doesn’t add anything to the message you want to convey with the icon, it only adds noise. It’s not that people are confused about Thunderbird, wether it’s a tool to send snail mail. Kill your darlings, drop the ‘@’ symbol!

By: SLA80

SLA80 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:41:13 +0000

I agree with others, adding @ symbol was bad idea.
Also, with gray envelope, icon have lost a half of colors!
I have a suggestion:
* Color the BIRD using Firefox 3.5 icon’s GLOBE palette (which is blue),
* Color the ENVELOPE using Firefox 3.5 icon’s FOX palette (which is ORANGE).
This will make both Fx and Tb icons closely related to each other.
And orange is much nicer color (for envelope) than gray.

By: aamod

aamod — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 03:32:46 +0000

Great work on the first iteration. Especially with the overall look of bird; it kinda looks more decent. The smoothing of eyes and reducing glowing feathers gives bird a nice look. But, as previous commenters said envelope and ‘@’ symbol needs to be in contrast. What can be done is keep the envelope gray and a yellow ‘@’ symbol or vice versa.

By: Ken Saunders

Ken Saunders — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 02:35:23 +0000

The bird looks fantastic! Great job softening, rounding, and smoothing it out. The details on the head are really nice as are the overall color changes.

Enough has been said about the envelope.

The shadow however I really don’t care for. I understand the desire to complete a rounded shape but there must be a better way. The logo is very round looking now that work has been done to it and the shadow really doesn’t make any sense and never has.
The light source is coming from the top and top left (mostly) so if there is to be a shadow at all, it should be displayed in a more realistic way that follows the natural characteristics of lighting.

Again though, the bird looks great!

By: Roger Lancefield

Roger Lancefield — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:19:45 +0000

Out of context the new icon is nice and cool IMO. However, I (like the previous commenters) would prefer something with more colour and contrast to help it stand-out from adjacent icons, even if it means warmer, less fashionable hues.

By: John Drinkwater

John Drinkwater — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:07:28 +0000

Manilla please!

By: Daniel Glazman

Daniel Glazman — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:52:35 +0000

Set page zoom to 30% and compare the two icons: the @ sign will be invisible, the old icon has more visible details, the bird’s face in the new icon is nicer, etc.
In other words, I think something between your current proposal and the original icon is what you’re looking for; the currently proposed icon is very nice but will offer far less details at small sizes.

By: The Open Sourcerer

The Open Sourcerer — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:51:16 +0000

Yep I kind of agree with everyone else.

You’ll lose the @ as soon as it gets much smaller and the envelope needs to have more contrast.

By: John Slater

John Slater — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:20:32 +0000

Good stuff! I definitely like the direction the bird is going in, and I agree with the other commenters that the grey envelope might not be best. I already have several icons in my dock with that color scheme (Camino, iTunes, Safari, among others)…might be better to forge a more unique direction. I do think that the treatment of the current envelope is way overdue for an update, but my vote would be to stick with a warmer color there.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:21:47 +0000

I agree that a brighter envelope would be good. It feels very monotoned. The firefox logo has a good contrast with the orange and blue. This icon is very single-toned and kinda blah. The @ symbol will definitely be lost in a smaller size, so I don’t see the point in including it in the larger icon.

By: ge

ge — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:42:08 +0000

I agree–no me parece necesaria la simbolo @

Why not a more colorful envelope (orange?), since that’s the point of thunderbird — email!

By: Adrian

Adrian — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:41:53 +0000

Me gusta la idea de que el el sobre sea de color Blanco, aunque no me parece necesaria la presencia del simbolo @.

Adrian

By: Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:00:07 +0000

It looks kinda cold – I feel like visiting a morgue ;) I like the good contrast in the old icon. The @ symbol needs to be more eye-catching. And please not so comic-styled like the Firefox 3.5 icon.

By: Robert Accettura

Robert Accettura — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:33:22 +0000

Curious what that would look like in a smaller size…

The letter’s contrast made it stand out, which is somewhat important considering the bird is really not important if your trying to figure out what the app is by looking at the icon. I suspect the blue/white will just look like a gray/blue blob rather than the more distinct envelope.