Alex Faaborg

When will the new Firefox icon be in a public build (eg Nightly)?

Is it just me or do icons always look better in OS X?

Also, is this icon publicly available (eg FF build, artwork)?

I like it! Did you take inspiration from Foxes in their natural habitat? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8xJtH6UcQY

Whoah! Looks excellent! Very nice, yet suttle improvement.

Hey I think that it looks good, no doubt, but the head looks like crap.
There are all of these bright and varying colors within smoothly blended gradients on highly detailed elements with a smudged blotch of red on the fox’s head. It just doesn’t cut it or make sense at all.

Besides, how can the top of the icon and the tail be reflecting so much light but the head be absorbing it except for around the red smudge? Darker fur? Or a skin rash?
I’d prefer to see Miro’s red pixellation scheme on the fox’s head. It has more character. And to me it looks like the fox just came out from under a car or something and has a long red grease mark down its head and back.

Sorry, that’s just how I see it and have seen it since i2 or so.

Perhaps my comments aren’t as kind as I thought that they were, but they’re not meant to be unkind, just honest and frank.

The top glow on the “Planet” doesn’t look good (especially in Windows XP).

Gooood I can’t wait to see it on my desktop!

Is it possible to have a side by side comparison with the current icon now? I think it’s important to see what changes as a user upgrades. Is it noticeable? How recognisable is it? Will it look like an updated icon or will they think that the upgrade has broken their Firefox icon because it looks strange?

After managing to move my eyes from the overly white top of the globe, I have to agree with Ken Saunders that (compared to the detailed texture on the rest of the icon) the head looks a bit out of place. Too soft and fuzzy and not enough texture, especially at smaller resolutions.

The top of the planet is indeed way to bright, especially on a white background when scaled down as much as on windows xp. Somehow it looks better on vista and OS X. But it’s on the edge there also.

I think it looks the best on OSX.

It’s so shiny etc.

Every system should have a bit different Firefox icon.

This icon completely doesn’t fit on XP. Quite good fits it on Vista, the best looks on OSX…

What about some Linux previews?

Linux is always second-class OS for Mozilla UI team?

Linux preview in Docky, please!

The attention to detail really shows in coverflow. Great effort!

Too bright at the top, as usual.

@David Madden: it’s just you.

Everything looks great except the 16×16 which is a bit cramped but most icons at that size are and I don’t think it would be possible to make it look any better without a complete change in design for that size only.

Where is the Ubuntu / Linux Preview?!

Can we have some gnome and/or kde previews here? Mozilla relies on the open source community, and gnome/kde are a very large part of that.

Why no GNOME and KDE previews?

Good work, i like it.
Why not make some screenshots of the integration in some Linux environnements like Gnome or KDE 4.

The XP icon is horrible. The tail looks like a feather! The rest is ok, except for the brightness.

Wow! This looks so much better in Vista (and Windows 7) than the current icon. Good work! And please pay special attention to the 32px and 16px icons (for the Windows 7 and Vista/XP taskbars).

I guess there will be more tweaks for small icons, but the smaller they are the less refined they look at this point.

I agree with previous comments about the icon on Windows: the top highlight of the earth grabs the whole stage, and is really distracting.

And now that “C” has mentioned it, I can’t help to see an orange feather instead of a flaming tail. The tips of the flames are too regularly pointing left and right…

16px looks like the fox got a hole in the head…
also, on dark backgrounds the globe looks deformed, because of that shadow on the top… at least you cold make a thin backlight highlight!

I’m officially in love.

I think that the texture of a big icon is good.
However, a small icon is a dark impression, and the impression is not good.
A small icon looks better a current icon.
For me, ‘New Firefox Icon: Concept Rendering by Stephen Horlander 200905115 ‘ is the most favorite design.
I’m sorry for complaining.

——————–
MacBook_Pro 15″ 2.4GHz(Mid 2007) ; Mac OS X 10.5.7

I also agree that the globe’s too bright. Otherwise, I’m really looking forward to it.

I’d say it works well at higher resolutions, but I think it’s too detailed and highlighted/bright at 32×32 and 16×16, which is more common on Windows. Please fix this. Please please please.

I’m pretty much with Ken Saunders, here. When the icon is scaled down, the subtle ‘fur’ of the fox becomes too indistinct and fuzzy. Everything else in the icon is hard-edged, so the blurry fox kinda sticks out. Keep the sharpness consistent throughout the image.

I also think the fox is a shade or two too dark. Others have noted that the white on top of the globe is too bright, but I suspect it wouldn’t be so jarring if the contrast with the fox’s head weren’t so stark.

At 32×32 and below, the fox is too dark and the globe is too bright.

Sorry for the sarcasm earlier.

I only see the globe as being too bright in comparison to the rest of the icon. If the lightness was balanced out overall across the icon, then it would still be bright but I don’t think TOO bright.

Against lighter colored backgrounds the top stroke prevents the top of the globe from looking washed out but the icon as a whole really pops when it’s against darker colors and the top light and bottom shadow looks fantastic, realistic, and makes sense.

All in all, I think that a 3 dimensional looks has definitely been achieved.

All that I see that needs to be done is to add some lighter colored, smoothly blended gradients to the head and then you can send me the first t-shirt.

I agree with Ken Saunders that the varying colors on the head look strange. It feels very discontinuous because of that.

And the top of the glob definitely looks bad! Distracting to the extreme – especially on XP

I’d also love to see a side-by-side comparison between the old and new icons. Preferably at several icon sizes.

The dropshadow seems to be cropped on top in the OS X previews, I assume that’s just a mockup glitch?

The 16×16 icon looks odd to me. The tail is too smooth and arc-like, and the head seems slightly too small. Ends up looking more like a ferret, and seems like it’s tilted to the left. I think the tip of the nose is getting lost in the icecap/shine.

The larger sizes are looking fantastic!

On a side note, the IE gold swoosh makes for an interesting effect… It’s 16×16, but it makes the icon look bigger. Probably the brain is thinking the FF icon and “e” are the same size, thus the gold swoosh must be larger.

Whoever cleared the dark, flat, blurred out, lifeless, furless head side of the fox was severely mistaken. Unfortunate too as the tail has really been perfected now through so many iterations, but the head seemingly untouched.

Looks ‘almost’ incredibly beautiful in Vista and OS X. Most of the negative comments were based on what it looked like on XP. But then I really don’t give two hoots what it looks like in XP and any changes to the icon should not be influenced by Windows XP.
The other gaps can pass as plausible, but the way in which the flame/hair wraps around at 4pm looks too forced and unnatural to me. Thats it really. I have no problems with the rest of the design. It could do with some tweaking, but nothing drastic. The reason I feel there needs to be tweeking is that the flaws are much more prominent, the larger the image is, and this will be printed on t-shirts, so needs to be near perfect as humanly possible.
For Firefox 4, I’d like to see something done in 3D and perhaps created using Blender. My nephew is just 4 years old, but surfs the net a lot…I’m sure this is a trend! How about a Firefox mini cartoon like Big Buck Bunny? How about a Firefox soft toy?

Looks great!

It’s significant enough that it does indeed look like it has entered the era of Vista/Leopard, while still maintaining the basic brand identity of the browser.

I don’t like how the globe shows through the gaps of the tail at small icon size (look the the right edge of the tail).

Another weird thing about it is how the tail emphasizes the spherical shape of the globe (by hugging it and curling behind it), while the _shading_ of the globe creates a more flat impression. The two don’t fit well together.

These were my first impressions after looking at the small and mid size icons.

That said, I _do_ consider this icon a good one (just like the old icon).

The fox looks practically perfect imo. It’s lovely!

The globe’s absolutely terrible though. On the smaller Windows icons, the smooth gradient light source is amateurish and eyesore. I don’t know if it’s just too bright, or if the spotlight needs to be more distinctly shaped/outlined, instead of subtly like it is now.

My biggest problem with it is the globe brightness at the top. Good work so far.

The new icon looks better on OS X and Vista, definitely, where larger, glossier icons are the norm, but it looks a bit out of place on XP. I think especially the 16×16 icon will need some touchups before it can be used like that. At least with Windows 7 the taskbar icons are larger so it’s less of an issue. But quicklaunch/16×16 icons in general kind of suck, I wouldn’t really mind if it was just an orange and blue blob as long as I could recognize it as Firefox.

I too think, that the shine of the globe is way too bright and distracting. And the 16×16 version is a bit too small compared to the IE6 icon.

Otherwise I really like the new logo/icon.

The globe’s too bright. It looks like the shine off a bald man’s head. And it’s too bright on every platform, it’s just that the OSX screenshots don’t have any small icons.

I think it might look good otherwise, but it’s hard to tell with the too-shiny globe.

I forgot to mention.. I second the head thing. Bald, boring head compared to the rest of the fox.
Please add some tufts or something.

At keast for XP, the new icons look too “cold” compared to other system icons. The current Fx icon is must warmer in colors, and does not have so many darkened parts and deep shadows.
Also (as I expected), in 16×16 px icons, the shadows behind the tail look like pixel garbage. This is OK for black backgrounds; for other background colors, the icon countour looks like old-school transparent GIF image without proper blending.

Also, the top of the globe is too bright.

The shadow is also wrong on XP, the light source should come from top left. I thought I read the shadow would be changed to fit each platform?

I feel whiskers looks noisy in the icon size and previous icon with clear edge looks better for me (as for the whiskers of the fox).
I think we should simplify or deform a little not only shrinking the image.

I really don’t know what all this fuss over brightness is about. Looks fine to me (especially on Vista and OS-X). It has a nice crystal-ball feel to it. If the globe was to go back to being darker, there won’t be much left that’s different from the original FF3 icon.

I say tweak the present design, and offer some slight variations, then put up some kind of poll so people can vote.

What about linux??

The tail seems to be wrapping a little too high on the 16×16 icon, and it’s not as yellow as the others. Also, is there any way to make the head a little more defined at that size? Maybe not. To be honest though, it’s still a lot better than previous 16×16 icons, those were just a mess.

Has ANYONE asked that the head be left shiny and bald? Why do I see no response from the artist or the design team AT ALL when there have been SO many requests for just a few simple tufts of hair up there? WHY? I feel like this whole process has been really broken and unresponsive to the suggestions/demands of the community. It’s sad and unfortunate and slightly frustrating.

I think this image looks good as an image but not so good as an icon. Seems to look out of place in all contexts. Too shiny for XP, too detailed for OS X. Looks better on Vista but still the contrast in the two materials really jars me.

@Marcus
Perhaps the reason why it looks as if the icon is too detailed for OS X, is because, in the above images, it is placed next to icons which are not so detailed (i.e Miro, Photoshop etc). In reality, OS X icons are usually highly detailed.

I do feel, however, that there is not too much of a difference between this icon and the current FF3 icon. Judging by the early conceptual drawings, briefs and comments, this is probably not what they originally intended.

I guess at this point I’d say the icon is perfect enough for me.
The only concern I have is this particular rendering of the 16×16 version of the icon. I’d like to see some alternatives presented. The proposed one here tries to bring in too many colors that don’t seem to work without the detail of the larger versions. The 16×16 fox is much too thin for the heavy contrast/shadows in this version. Same with the globe highlight…the white completely masks the blue of the globe making it look like a crystal ball…if I didn’t know already I wouldn’t even be able to recognize it as a globe. I think the tail wrapping should be ditched at this resolution, since it ends up being only 1 or 2 pixels wide and is not discernible as anything but a scrappy pixelized junk layer weighing down one side of the icon. Lastly the tail rises much higher in the 16×16 than in the other sizes. I think this should be changed unless there is very good reasoning behind it.

Think that ‘d be difficult notice a “real difference” from previous.