Oscar Trelles

And They Said I was the Only One…

There’s actually a bunch of people not liking the new icons for the Adobe products, to the point that there’s a now an open contest to come up with new ideas. However boring or ugly these icons might seem to some people, the rationale behind the campaign makes total sense.

“If something is not broken, don’t fix it” is what I’ve been hearing and repeting myself when discusing the new icons that will the products we use everyday. I don’t hate them, but I don’t love them. I will definitely miss the curvy “F” I have become familiar with for the past few years.

I’m sure people within Adobe had their own concerns, but they are ultimately looking at the big picture: after merger with Macromedia and the adquisition of other software companies, Adobe wants to unify their new universe of products under an homogeneous look and feel. Icons are an important part of how a software company markets their products, as they decorate interfaces, splash screens, packaging an a pletora of other adevertising materials. That’s why it makes sense that, in order to present their products as an integrated group, Adobe chose to use the “periodic table” as their paradigm for this initiative.