Re: Thinking about Refreshing the Firefox Icon
Alex Faaborg
mozillazine]
We are now in the process of refreshing the Firefox application icon,
so I wanted to address some of the initial questions we are getting,
and look at some specific examples in the technology industry of
product brand evolution.
==Questions==
>Isn't a .5 release the wrong time to revise the application icon,
shouldn't we wait for Firefox 4?
There aren't a whole lot of other products out there that issue .5
releases (more on this below), so as a result there isn't really a lot
of precedent for what is normal, and what is surprising. The reason
for this is that we've been able to work on Firefox in shorter (albeit
not as short as everyone would like) iterative development cycles.
But I guess the larger issue here is "is Firefox 3.5 a significant
enough release to warrant a revised icon?" Looking at the long list
of all of amazing things our community has been able to pull off for
this release, at least my opinion is: yes, it definitely is.
>Is there enough time for an organized deployment of the new icon
across all of the places where it needs to be updated?
Not really. Our plan is to get the icon updated in the product
itself, and on mozilla.com in places where we are specifically talking
about Firefox 3.5 in time for the launch. We'll of course make images
available at a range of resolutions as soon as we finalize them so
people can update download buttons and other instances of the Firefox
3.5 icon during the Release Candidate phase, while we are throughly
testing the application. There admittedly isn't as much time as
everyone would like, but that's the nature of a very competitive (and
exciting) marketplace.
>Imagine how many wallpapers and t-shirts will be thrown out!
One doesn't need to walk more than two feet in the Mountain View
office to run into the current Firefox logo, so I have a pretty
visceral sense of how disruptive shipping a new icon would be. In
fact, we were so worried about the logistics of doing an update around
the time of launching Firefox 3 that we ultimately decided to canceled
the project entirely. In retrospect, my opinion is that a gradual
transition (and the logistical challenges that come with it) is worth
not being frozen in time. Also, the most valuable and cherished t-
shirts in our community are often the old ones, so if you have a
current Firefox t-shirt, a new icon will make it retro, and give it an
ever increasing nostalgia value.
>Why bother fixing something that isn't broken?
In a marketplace that is focused on products that are newer, faster,
lighter and shinier, design work is inherently perishable. Part of
this is larger trends and fashion (for a period of time cars had
fins), and part of this is simply ongoing visual change as an
indication of overall progress.
==The Evolution of Product Brands==
Here are some examples of the visual evolution of some other major
technology product brands.
>Internet Explorer
http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20090515-evolvingProductBrand/ieEvolution768.png
The shape remains very consistent, with the evolution occurring with
the texture, color and lighting.
>Windows
http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20090515-evolvingProductBrand/windowsEvolution768.png
>OS X
http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20090515-evolvingProductBrand/osXEvolution768.png
Here we see an example of new branding for every dot release (10.1 to
10.5). Consistency is achieved primarily with the X. But even the
style of the X evolves with each iteration, eventually losing serifs,
and transitioning from aqua blue through jaguar spots, to two phases
of brushed metal, and most recently obsidian (in space!)
>SONY PlayStation
http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20090515-evolvingProductBrand/playstationEvolution768.png
>Nintendo
http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20090515-evolvingProductBrand/nintendoEvolution768.png
The brand starts with divergent Japanese and North American versions,
then merges together. Nintendo as a product brand is then largely
abandoned in favor of a new simpler brand.
>Xbox
http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20090515-evolvingProductBrand/xboxEvolution768.png
Brand consistency is achieved primarily with the color green, and an X
that breaks through some form of surface. The notion of an inner
glowing core is also consistent between versions.
In comparison to these, our strategy is going to be more in line with
the more conservative approaches to product brand evolution (IE, OS X,
Xbox). In the following post I'll detail the history and planned
evolution of the Firefox icon.
-Alex
On May 6, 2009, at 1:20 AM, Alex Faaborg wrote:
> As we get closer to releasing Shiretoko (Firefox 3.5) we are
> considering that this might be a good time to update and evolve the
> Firefox application icon. We will likely be leveraging some
> conceptual work created by Jon Hicks during the development of
> Firefox 3, but otherwise we are just now getting started.
>
> I'll be posting regular updates to this group, as well as my blog at http://blog.mozilla.com/faaborg
> (in case you read this group but not planet, or vice versa). As
> the project progresses I'll be posting the creative briefs as we
> send them out, draft artwork as it comes in, and I'll be
> highlighting some of the feedback we are receiving from the community.
>
> But before diving too deep into the specifics of how the Firefox
> icon might be evolving, I would like have at least one thread
> focusing on the higher level question of why refreshing the icon is
> probably a good idea.
>
> A Visual Indication of Progress
>
> When thinking about how people perceive a software application, I
> often picture the tip of an iceberg. So much of the innovation,
> hard work and brainpower from our development community goes into
> significant and important improvements that usually aren't readily
> apparent to the user. This is particularly true when you are
> building a Web browser, since the application is fundamentally
> creating a platform for other applications.
>
> Firefox 3.5 is in many ways more of a platform release than a user
> interface release. That's not to say we haven't added a lot of
> valuable user facing features, but the underlying changes that are
> shipping with Firefox 3.5 are really remarkable. This release adds
> support for HTML5 audio and video, downloadable fonts, geolocation,
> and a wealth of other great features for Web developers. But
> perhaps most notably Firefox 3.5's JavaScript performance is 3 to 4
> times faster than Firefox 3 thanks to a brand new engine, and 10
> times faster than Firefox 2.
>
> But all of these improvements, despite being really powerful for the
> development of the Web, are not exactly apparent before you even
> launch the application. And because of this it is perhaps too easy
> to unfairly assume when you download the new version that the
> product is stagnating, and that unlike a (admittedly very shiny)
> competitor, we are no longer on the bleeding edge of pushing the Web
> forward.
>
> The Icon as a Chassis
>
> Something else that I've been thinking a lot about recently is how
> effectively visual information in an exterior chassis can
> communicate the power of the complex system that it contains. Two
> examples would be the design of sports cars and the industrial
> design of high end gaming computers. In the case of sports cars,
> you can look at a still image of a car you have never seen before,
> and immediately assume from the air vents and arcs in the exterior
> body that it is in fact a really high performance vehicle. In
> reality it might be a concept car that doesn't even contain an
> engine, and people have to push it around. Somehow the same
> psychological biases come into play with gaming pcs, and the ironic
> thing is that they aren't even meant to move to begin with, so the
> extent to which they are aerodynamic is perhaps even more curious.
>
> Another similarity between sports cars and the industrial design of
> high end gaming pcs is that their appearance evolves rapidly enough
> over time that it is obvious that the older models are starting to
> get really out of date.
>
> So what do these physical chassis that contain engines and
> processors have to do with the Firefox icon? In many ways all three
> have to complete the same objective: they all have to instantly
> communicate to the driver/gamer/user how powerful, well built, and
> brand new they are. Now of course aerodynamic properties are even
> less relevant in the world of software, but nevertheless the OS X
> 10.5 dock is considerably more aerodynamic than the OS X 10.4 dock.
>
> So to answer the question of why I think refreshing the Firefox
> application icon for 3.5 is worthwhile, it's because I think we
> should be viewing the icon as an exterior chassis for an underlying
> engine that has recently undergone some really significant changes.
>
> _______________________________________________
> dev-apps-firefox mailing list
> dev-apps...@lists.mozilla.org
> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-apps-firefox
Alex Faaborg
is going to be primarily based on some conceptual sketches and renders
created in 2007 by Jon Hicks, the designer who rendered the original
Firefox icon.
We are now working with the very talented Iconfactory to create the
final render of the icon that will be used for Firefox 3.5 (Jon is
currently a senior designer at Opera, and they are incredibly lucky to
have him!) The Firefox 3.5 icon is being created by the artist
Anthony Piraino, and we are really fortunate to have such a talented
group of people working to evolve Firefox's visual identity.
==The Short Version==
Here is the short version of the planned changes to the Firefox icon:
Things we are planning to maintain
1) Color
2) Overall shape and layout (specifically the head and arm)
3) Generic continents (so as not to show any form of geographic
preference)
Things we are planning to modernize
1) Shape of the tail (no longer 2D)
2) Textures (soft fox, glossy earth)
3) Simplify the overall level of detail
==The Long Version==
Note: some of the renders have a "concept" watermark over them to help
reduce confusion as they start to spread across the Web, my apologies
for having to partially obfuscate the work. Click through for the
full size.
http://people.mozilla.com/~faaborg/files/20090515-creativeBrief/creativeBrief-i1.png
==Feedback==
In addition to the feedback we will be getting through this blog
(syndicated to planet.mozilla.org), I've also started discussions at
mozilla.dev.apps.firefox, mozillazine, and bugzilla for full coverage
of our community.
I would also like to specifically thank the following people who
provided initial feedback on the creative brief, and are also ready to
provide feedback on iterations as they arrive:
Original Mozilla Visual Identity Team
Daniel Burka
Stephen DesRoches
Steven Garrity
Kevin Gerich
Jon Hicks (cc'd)
Stephen Horlander
Mike Beltzner
Paul Kim
John Slater
Tara Shahian
Madhava Enros
Aza Raskin
Jennifer Boriss
Sean Martell
Alexander Limi
> cherished t-shirts in our community are often the old ones, so if