Alex Faaborg

I like iteration 1 better. This one is just too pronounced.

The tail is much better in this one than in draft 1, IMO. I like it a lot.

I rather like the flames from the concept rendering, and feel like these flames are too sharp compared to it.

The head/left half of the icon is nice and soft, but then the right half is very spiky, and doesn’t seem to match well.

I would be incredibly pleased with the head half of this icon, and the tail half of the “2008 Concept Rendering” from here.

I agree with TheTechFan. And the textures are getting really cool, but you need to work on the lightning. The logo needs to pop out more.

1) As before, it would be far more helpful to display the draft rendering alongside the current icon for comparison purposes.

2) This version is overall much darker than the current icon. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad change. You had said in the creative brief that you were not going to change the color scheme, and this one seems to have introduced purple (thus diverging from the blue-orange-yellow scheme in the current icon).

3) The spikier flames on this draft are a step in the right direction, compared to the wavy flames of the first draft.

4) As with the last draft, the gloss on the globe puts the emphasis in the wrong place: the globe is not all that important, the firefox is what makes the logo, but it’s underemphasized.

5) Also as with the last draft, leaving bits of the blue globe visible through the flame-tail detracts from the icon, making it look messy.

This iteration has gone overboard on the globe being dark. The actual fox is fantastic but the water/continents and stroke around the globe are just too dark. Just my humble opinion.

I love the new fox texture — now it actually truly feels soft and furry. The new globe, I feel, is a step in the right direction, but I’d rather it not be glossy, and perhaps not as varied in color of ocean (the shade of the blue changes drastically, without reason, since there doesn’t overall seem to be a light source at the spot). Oh well… The tail still doesn’t feel like fire to me. A blend between draft I and II, taking the red from this one, but making it more “flowing,” would be better. I also recommend not having separate back and front colors for the fire — if it’s fire, it has no back.
Lastly, I want to point out that I really like the addition of a white antarctica.

The inner flames on this one are too pronounced and too “spiky” IMO, it makes that part of the icon seem very noisy.

The fur on this iteration is perfect, though. He looks really cuddly if he wasn’t 1000 degrees celsius

Don’t look much different to the previous version except for different colouring and treatment of the planet.

I still don’t like the tail at all. The “Spiky point” and “Wrapping behind globe” bits in particular. Seems like all the artists ‘rendering’ the Hicks design are unwilling to change the shaping of the tail. Therefore shouldn’t we ask Jon Hicks to do a different sketch?

I don’t like the new shape of the flames. I think they need to be more streamlined and simplified. Basically one step away from a tadpole’s tail. And emphasising more the wrap around look that can barely be seen in this render (maybe modelling in 3d to get a better idea of what it should look like)…

Oh and also I would like the globe to have a slightly metallic look. As opposed to the “crystal” look that is getting a little outdated. I think the globe used in vista network connections is a good modern example.

The top part of the old icon is still the best. in my opinion you should combine the flames with the new planet and the ob top part of the icon

I found iteration 1 to be too much like fire and, therefore, too aggressive. I like iteration 2 better, I suppose.

I think the flames are much better in this second version. However, I’m not keen on the rest. If you were to have these flames with the rest of the first draft, I reckon you’d have a winner.

I think the flames in the first draft look more like liquid than flames, whereas these flames are a lot more energetic and lively.

I like Draft-1 better all in all, but I like the richer/deeper/more contrasted colors used here in Draft-2.

i prefer current icon to iterations 1 & 2 regarding the end of the fox which is curved towards its head in current icon.
It feels more dynamic.
With iterations 1 & 2 i don’t feel the fox to be in circle about to be closed

Like the new flame style very much – more like fire and less like red water. Perhaps the shape of the flames toward the end of the tail could be improved.

Would love to see this tail with the rest of the previous icon as I think the colours are over-saturated here.

I also think the fox part of the globe looks good. The globe looks nice and the fox looks smooth. But the flames are distracting, especially with the blue coming through. The flames also look chaotic and plastic-ish.

Also, in the Fx2 icon, there was no seperation of fire and fox. It looks like a fireish fox. Now there s a clear seperation of fox and fire, and I’m not sure I like that.

Less plastic looking, but still a bit flat. Better than #1, though.

I wonder what it would look like to have the left half of the logo the new, soft fox and the right half to have the old-style flames. Kind of like same old fire, but now nice and cuddly.

IMO, the fox and the fire are much, much better than in iteration 1. I don’t, however, like the concave part of the globe at all, and I miss the old continents.

I pretty much like the “Conceptual Rendering” made by Jon Hicks, ten times more than this or the 1st iteration.

It has a much more humane colors and nice feel to it, and looks more modern.

Here’s my few cents:

1. Since when (fire)fox got a little bald?

2. If the ‘fire’ from (fire)fox is so hot, the ice on the North Pole should have melted, right?

3. The shadows are really well done in this iteration.

The second draft looks better then the first, about the “fox” part. However I think the “earth” part is too unified with the fox because it is drawn with dark colors. When it becomes 16×16, it is hard to detect them as “a fox and the earth”…

Better than iteration I but still a little bit plastic and flat.

I really like the bright fox over the dark globe. The contrast really makes the icon pop in comparison to the old one. This looks very good.

I do like how the tail is turning out, although I find it too ’spiky’. The globe on the other hand is too distracting, and looked much better in older versions. Adan Betts had done an IMO better representation of the globe in his icon http://www.artofadambetts.com/weblog/?p=124 that didn’t distract from the main part: the fox of fire.

Nice work, I’m waiting for the futures iterations !

I really like the fox/panda’s left side (body and head), it’s perfect with this new texture and coat, but I quite don’t like the new fire tail, too plate, too “trend flames” like on tuned cars, not enough sober, nor the new globe render.

Good continuation !

This looks acceptable. I just wonder if it deviates too much from the original, but I am not sure.

I like this version better specially the additional volume added to the flames.
I think the fox part still looks too flat and it should either be projecting a shadow over the globe or, more appropriately, lightning some the globe’s surface with an orange glow.

The flames on the tail are too aggressive, and also all over the place, instead of homogenous like in the old version.

Also, why is the blue planet poking through the flames here and there?

The fox is also too even in its coloration, making it read like a comet instead of a fox (when you view it at normal icon resolution that is).

This is not an improvement, and I expected more from the Iconfactory.

I just noticed this in the brief:

“Simplify the overall level of detail”

Complete failure on that part, imo. The tail flames are much, much busier than the original logo.

It’s too dark and drastically changes the feel of the logo from happy and cute to sad and mean. The purple and the red adds to this darkness and is completely unnecessary. The fox now looks uneven on the head making the logo uneven to the left and makes the body on the bottom look to thin. The proportion looks wrong and may mainly be due to the spiky hair. The flames are tacky and belong on a muscle car or some cheap tattoo. Part of the tail wrapping around the bottom and right side so that you see part of the blue is a neat look, but at the end of the day doesn’t work for a logo and probably wouldn’t scale well.

As Miroslav Mazel noted, the globe’s coloring changes abruptly and dramatically for no apparent reason. And as Tom noted, the attempt to make it appear glossy shifts the emphasis to where it doesn’t belong. Please go back to something closer to the current globe.

not sure about this direction…
I love the 1st iteration tail WAY more than this one, that seems more a mix-and-match with the old one…
Also, the new globe could be cool, but right now it’s a bit too dark, the head and snout of the fox has a very poor contrast with the background than before…
keep up the good work!

Another vote against the tail on this version. If you go with a tail more like iteration 1 or the conceptual rendering there is a chance people will realise (like I did for the first time on seeing those) that it’s meant to be fire.

Having a glossy planet just doesn’t look or feel right to me.

I like this one; the fox is soft with a striking tail, but I think there could be some improvements.

1) The inner flame on the tip of the tail looks too much like webbing. The flames here should be reordered to get a interleaving look.

2) To give a more 3D look and intensify the wrapping and engulfing of the tail around the planet, you could give cues on the left side that the tail has gone around. Think about how it would look like from the back.

3) You might consider revealing more of the planet in the lower right, giving the impression of a tampering of the tail into the rear of the fox.

4) The planet looks a little too much like the Atlantic Ocean.

The addition of an ice cap is interesting, I like it.

I think his arm needs to be furrier(like in the drawing) and feel more connected to the rest of the body.

Just a few points which I’m sure will be sorted out by the next iteration. The transition from fox and fire tail should be more subtle. At the moment they look a little forced.
I like the way the fire is wrapping around the globe in 3d. The inner-fire needs to be more subtle. As a previous comment mentions, the inner-fire looks like webbing. I love the introduction of the north-pole..its fantastic. Maybe make it a little more larger. Otherwise it will look like the fire is melting the pole! I also feel that the globe should have some kind of shadow or orange glow from the firefox.

I Don’t like

Clutter

TOO RED.

I would prefer can see the Fox’s face or front side.. When I teach my customer (not know English) through phone to double click the Firefox icon, I don’t know how to direct them, as for IE, I can told them “look for an blue E and double click on it.”, but Firefox is very hard (because cannot see the whole Fox, just see back side)..

They’re all pretty in large sizes (though I like the current 3.0 icon a bit better), but what about the 32×32 and 16×16 sizes? Especially the latter.

What I’m trying to say is that whatever you come up with, I am sure it will look great in such a large size. But making an icon that looks good in 16px sizes as well is a lot more difficult. Make sure you get /the small one/ right too, don’t put it off after the large one has been finalized! The contrast of light and dark regions will matter a lot more there.

Too red and not pretty.

Muuuuuch better than Draft1!
Red is good, tail is better.
Good job!

You seem to be drifting towards semi-recognisable continents for the globe. Note how everyone has assumed that you’ve added the North Pole (or, humorously, Antarctica). This is something that you’ve reasonably said you wanted to avoid and it creates a certain amount of cognitive dissonance. You should probably either have an accurate Earth globe, or switch back to properly unrecognisable continent outlines. Half way just looks like you got it wrong.

I like the new logo, but:
1) would like to see examples at the usual sizes (menus, window decorations & taskbar are the places that matter.
2)I don’t like being able to see the earth under the tail, i think a smooth

p.s if you update the earth, remember to update minefield too

p.p.s take care not to make the minefield icon too similar to the kde network icon (if it was just a bit more glossed it would be hard to tell them apart) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nuvola_filesystems_socket.png (but without the plug.

The tip of Firefox’s tail should be a point, not look like a flipper or a webbed foot. It’s all visual mess on the end of the flame, and that’s the area that looks messiest.

I like the direction of the 2nd iteration and trust that you will do a great job with it. While highly visual and central to the identity it’s impossible to cater all the tastes.

I do hope that the flames will eventually engulf the planet and we get to see the face of the Fox.

Mayhap that this was your idea all along, and I just spoiled some surprise for 4, but nevertheless.

In short: you have my trust here. Ignore the flame and keep it up.

I guess that I was wrong when I said “people are confusing refreshing/updating the icon/logo with redesigning it altogether”. I don’t care for this one at all and wouldn’t be too quick to place it on my sites to promote Firefox if I were to use it at all. I’d just prefer to use the wordmark.
This draft looks more like the original (Fx 1.0) logo.
It is too dark.
The contrasts are poor.
The tail grabs all of the attention which is too much.
It looks like someone punched the fox in the snout because now it’s shorter and fatter (Why was that changed at all?).
The hair tufts on the bottom right of the fox’s head looks scraggly, chewed on.
Now the globe.
It’s just awful. Has it evolved that greatly since 2004 that there is now an ice cap? Is an ice age approaching?
The globe is way too dark and the lighting isn’t logical at all. How can the bottom be lighter than the top especially when the fox is blocking it. Does it have an inner glow? And how can there be a shine/gloss representing reflected light when the greatest amount of light is at the bottom and the top is dark.
That gloss won’t be identifiable anyway at smaller sizes. People have been proudly displaying and sporting the current logo with the gloss for years and all of a sudden they have an issue with it? Gloss and shine give things a polished look and while that may be somewhat Web 2.0-ish to some, it’s a very popular and appealing look. If anything, remove the gloss entirely but go back to the current Fx globe. It would make printing and stitching the logo easier, less expensive, and it would look better overall on different types of “real world” media plus the lighting at the top of the globe would be sufficient to keep it looking hip.
Back to evolution. What’s up with the massive continental drift? I just don’t see any reason at all to change the land masses.
The fox’s body looks, smudged and dirty. The transition between the body and tale is good though.

The tail has been greatly improved overall but still needs work. There is a huge gap in it making it look like a piece is missing. Bringing the top left of the tail in a bit to make it thinner and appear to come to an end point, making the tip of the tail just a hair taller, and making the bottom right of the flames a little wider where the gap is would help greatly. The wrapping is good and 3 dimensional looking and apparent at the very bottom because the shading is darker. It gives it depth but not so much for the right center and very top pieces of the flames. Those too should be shaded and darker like the bottom piece.

Overall, what you have going on is a highly detailed somewhat 3 dimensional tail graphic against and next to 2 dimensional elements (the body and globe) and that makes the tail the main focal point and draw plus the brightness and colors of it contributes to that.
The globe itself would make the whole logo more 3D like if it had a drop shadow under it. It wouldn’t show at smaller sizes but it would give the whole logo shape and depth.
But, more importantly is that balance needs to be made by adding brighter individual colors and shades and more and/or sharper details to the fox’s body’s inner hair tufts. That is why the current logo blends so well. Use some of that flame design for hair tufts and proper contrasting gradients and it should balance things out.
I think that the outer hair tufts are fine.
Oh, almost forgot. The right of the body and the left of the flames needs inner drop shadows to provide depth. It currently looks as if the fox and flames are part of the globe and not on it, and the right flames are the only part that looks 3 dimensional and not actually part of the globe but more around it.

Balance and smooth visual transitioning is what will make this work especially when there are so many different elements to the logo unlike the red O for Opera, the E with a swoosh, or the Milton Bradley “Simon” logo for Chrome (I like the Safari logo).

It took me longer to study the logos and write this than it will for you to read it. I did so because a one or two sentence comment is not sufficient enough for this matter. It is nothing personal against the skills of the designer at all. I’m sure that the final icon will be great. It’s about the icon that represents the product that I and hundreds of millions of people world wide care about passionately, and the tens of thousands of us who dedicates our time to it that makes it essential that the final logo is perfect and that it properly and proudly represents Firefox.

I like this alot, better than draft.1 imo

I love this one… Maybe the tail is better in the last concept, but this has very very beautiful colors and I see an amazing 3D effect in comparison to other images !

this tail is better with that taily flames

I don’t even see a difference to the current 3.x icon. Is there a direct comparison some place?

- The tail is IMHO better in this then in 1 iteration. It’s flufy and volumized
- Red and Yellow are far much better in this one. I like this Red-Yelow-Blue crisp contrast.
- Earth glossy and blue color – BAD! I think that earth (1 iteration) with that shiny look and light blue color is better than this one.

Please keep it clean, simple and viewable. It’s eye-con.

First iteration is better for me. I agree that the flames are too sharp.

The orb/glob could use some more glass effect. And perhaps make some small effects to the globe – that it’s heated / on-fire