Later this week we will be shipping the first Release Candidate build of Firefox 3.5, which is currently in the process of being evaluated by our exceptional QA team and testing community. This also means that we are now ready to finalize the design of the new Firefox icon.
I want to thank everyone who provided feedback on the icon during the design process. But more importantly I want to thank the new icon’s creator Anthony Piraino from the Iconfactory. He did a great job with the design work, he very quickly adapted iterations as we changed our direction and sent feedback, and he wasn’t the slightest bit fazed by a completely transparent process that designers often find to be a bit uncomfortable.
The updated Firefox icon is based on sketches and conceptual artwork by Jon Hicks and Stephen Horlander. It is also of course an evolution of the previous rendering of the Firefox icon which was created by Jon Hicks, based on a sketch by Stephen DesRoches and the creative direction of Daniel Burka and Steven Garrity. More information about the history of the Firefox icon is available in our creative brief. All of the designers on Mozilla’s original visual identity team provided feedback on this update, along with Mike Beltzner, Asa Dotzler, John Slater, Paul Kim, Tara Shahian, Alexander Limi, Jennifer Boriss, and the broader Mozilla community.
Files for the new Firefox icon are below, as well as on wiki.mozilla.org.
Download everything (2.9 MB)
Shadow
16×16
22×22
24×24
32×32
48×48
64×64
128×128
256×256
512×512
No Shadow
16×16
22×22
24×24
32×32
48×48
64×64
128×128
256×256
512×512
Icon Files
Windows ico
OS X icns
(Linux: just packages individual png files)
Favicon (to replace an ico)
Favicon (to replace a png)
PSD grid with all pixel polished resolutions
Word Marks
Logo + word mark vertical
Logo + word mark horizontal
Word mark
Vector Files
We will also be releasing vector files for the new Firefox icon (to help with crop circle planning, etc). However we need to finalize a license agreement to accompany them (please do not sell unauthorized physical copies of Firefox with nice box art). We should have those files ready soon.
More information about the project can be found in these earlier posts:
5/06/09 – Thinking about Refreshing the Firefox Icon
5/14/09 – Evolving a Product Brand
5/15/09 – Creative Brief for the New Firefox Icon
5/15/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 1
5/15/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 2
5/17/09 – New Firefox Icon: Concept Rendering by Stephen Horlander
5/20/09 – New Firefox Icon: Q&A
5/20/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 4 + Modified Creative Direction
5/20/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 5
5/21/09 – New Firefox Icon: Q&A, Mostly about Orange Juice
5/22/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 6
5/22/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 7
5/26/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iterations 8 and 9
5/28/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 10
5/30/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 10 in Context
6/02/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iterations 11 to 14
6/06/09 – New Firefox Icon: Iteration 14 in Context
6/17/09 – New Firefox Icon: Q&A
Tags: MCC
I love the new icon. Looks sharp and great contrast. Well done!
I like it except the 16×16. It looks out of place compared with my other icons- like it is from an old piece of software with 8 bit colour icons.
Is it possible to get big Firefox 1.0 logo somewhere (for comparison)?
Ok I feel dumb, updated.
I updated the post with a complete set of credits. If you read this post as the last one in a sequence of 19 posts (where Jon Hicks is mentioned repeatedly) the omission is less egregious. But a lot of people are now arriving from digg, and reading this post in isolation, so yeah, I should have had the full credits listed.
Comment was meant as a humorous example of the fastest path to losing control of our trademark. I switched to “unauthorized physical copies” (since Linux distributions do indeed sell Firefox in a box, and that is great), but I’m still waiting for more information on what the actual policy is.
So that’s 5 positive comments about the 16×16 icon and 20 critical ones. Also, the positive comments all directly reference OS X or Windows 7 (while the negative comments focus on XP and Vista).
We can look into trying a few more revisions on the 16×16 icon, but the main problem is that the release candidate is frozen, so for us to be able to land a new 16×16 icon there would need to be some other significant problem that forced the creation of a new release candidate.
hy
i’v beuty icon 64*64 IS THE best!!! GOOD LUCKY
I don’t like it. I prefer this one: http://webtrickz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/firefox01-03-thumb.png
@Joseph Godfrey – You have got to be kidding.
16×16 is dark and Ugly.
I really like the large images, but the contrast and roughness of the small icons is not an improvement over the Firefox 3.0 icons. FF icon makes for fashionable merchandise.
Alex, is there any chance that we will see these changes carry over into the unbranded globe icon usually used for nightly and unbranded builds?
I like 16×16: Fox has clear head shape (versus current icon, which is blurry), but on 22×22-32×32 tail (right bottom part) looks like circular saw…
I’m honestly the last person to ever comment on someone’s blog.
The 16×16 icon is driving me mad. I could probably use a resource editor to replace it, but I’d end up having to do that with every update of Firefox.
The guy with the OSX icon is right. It doesn’t look bad alongside his other icons. I’m guessing the designer made it on Apple.
On Windows it looks completely out of place. This is amplified by using the Windows Classic theme. Here’s a picture for reference:
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/7269/fficon.png
The old tray icon blends in as it should. The strong red outline is what’s killing the new one. There isn’t a single other icon on my system that has a non-grey outline. If you bump down on the contrast of the outline it looks much less foreign in XP. See my minor tweak on the right.
Please fix this or revert to the old icon before release.
Tanto rollo, practicamente está igual.
Inviertan el tiempo en otra cosa.
Well, from a design stand point: as an icon, it is WAY overworked.
Too much detail where less would be better.
The globe edges in the bottom right break up the design for no reason.
The 16x16px icon looks awful on vista, and XP (probably Windows & as well) – scaling the larger size icon down rarely ever works.
http://i41.tinypic.com/xomyck.jpg
The final version should keep the older icons for those with a decent grasp of design. Why mess with a classic.
16 x 16 icon was the first thing I noticed on the RC. Really don’t like it, though the new logo itself is fine. The head outline bugs me the most, plus it’s just too cartoony looking and over saturated. Much less professional than the old one.
I can’t look at it without instantly vomiting.
IMO, the new 16×16 looks much nicer than the old one. It even looks like a fox now. Impressive!
Please go back to the old 16×16 icon, the new one is way too intense. :(
The new 16×16 icon is oversaturated. It was orange, and now it is red. Just make it a bit softer, and add some yellow, please!
The earth? the land mass? why is it just one big land? and it looks like a figure of some sort… please explain.
Add another negative vote for the 16×16 icon, on both XP and Windows 7. Frankly, I would consider this important enough to justify another RC itself. The 16×16 is going to be seen by practically everyone on Windows – it NEEDS to be right.
Cool!! :D
Got my 3.5rc2 and I agree, 16×16 is way too dark
In 16×16 the new logo is uglier than the old one. But the larger ones are great!
The more I use Firefox 3.5, and the more I look at the new 16px icon in my quick launch tray next to the old 3.0 icon, the more I’m amazed at how great it looks. The old icon was pretty bad, but I figured that there was just too much detail to depict in that small of an icon. You guys did it though. Absolutely fantastic work, bravo!
The new Firefox icons fit in great with the new Windows 7 icon set – great job!
And for those of you who dislike the 16×16 (I personally think it makes a refreshing change) can just use something like ResHacker (http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/) to replace it with the one from Firefox 3.0.
I installed 3.5 yesterday and the icon on the XP taskbar and QuickLaunch bar just jumped at me.
I *love* it.
16*16 is very bad in XP.
and unfortunately it is at 3 places at the same time (quick launch, task bar, top of each window)
for god’s sake, please change it. I beg you.
Folks, stop flaming, because 16×16 icon was UPDATED recently, in Firefox 3.5 RC3 :)
The 16×16 icon in the new RC is much nicer… better than the old one too. Good job :)
I have combined all Firefox icon drafts iterations (and final icons as well) together for easy comparison. (Accurate image resizing took many hours!) Download:
http://sla80.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/firefox-icon-drafts-collection-combined/
XP users running in Classic mode complaining about the look of an icon? Are you fucking serious? Your whole OS looks like ass — that little 16px icon should be the least of your worries if you’re concerned with the look and feel of your work environment.
Absolutely stunning work by Anthony. Great attention to detail and color palette. I’d be careful if you’re thinking about changing the icon based on the whims of users who are still running a 10 year old OS. Not all advice is good advice — most of it isn’t.
I think I agree on the contrast/darkness issue. On Mac, firefox is way darker than everything else. Looks a bit out of place. As much as I like the bold look of the fur, it just doesn’t fit in. The new tail is refreshing though, now that I’m used to it.
Looks bright and beautiful on my Mac OS X dock and even better when command-tabbing between open applications.
The latter is where I noticed it after I upgraded today which along with a Google search resulted in my being led here.
I think it’s too shiny. Shinier than all the other icons on my mac. This disturbs me a bit.
Martin, how does it scare you?
Where can I get in 4096 high resolution? You should post larger pictures.
It looks pretty good. I’m used to the old one, shouldn’t take long to get used to this one. I see it has a lot more detail. Looks more lively.
~Midna
Gorgeous! :P
what was wrong with the previous one??
The specular highlight on the globe is _very_ distracting in the Mac dock, and just plain looks funny. Globes aren’t made of glass….
The 3.5 final release has been out awhile and every time I see the icon in my Dock it looks terrible. Its over-saturated and blown-out. It looks less professional and more like an amateur theme designers attempt to tweak it to match some half ass Audion theme from 1999. The super large sizes (128 and bigger) are so-so. But the smaller sizes are hideous.
like all the other people the smallest icon in the quicklanch looks weird. the dark outline in the head of the fox looks weird. otherwise its good at least when its larger.
I sent a link for a song to a person and I was horrified to see that every site most visited was included with password saved links that include very personal information. Firefox has a very serious security problem here. Beware! I have no idea how this happened in software that is supposed to be safe. I now need to change passwords that have been breached by what I consider to be a major security problem with Firefox.
I agree with some that it is a bit dark for XP and Vista but in Windows 7 It is so much clearer and it just looks better with everything else. Also, as with many things, the icon eventually needed a facelift and it got a pretty good one!
Wooooow. Awesome Work. I like it a lot!
Firefox Sucks!
Hi Chris, I would want to translate this article to the Russian language. Please tell me your email, simply reply to my mail. Thanks, Marcis Gasuns.
I’m a little stunned that everybody’s griping about how this looks at 16 x 16. What is this, the mid 90s? That small most icons are fine if you can recognize them.
This one is an improvement over the old, but has some optical problems for me at all sizes below 256. It appears to elongate vertically, and look less than round on top.
I suppose it’s easy enough for me to build my own personal version from the 512 x 512 and throw it into Icon Composer.
Your product has been, to me, mostly stable. I sure love Firefox over IE8. You guys and gals have done a remarkable job but could maybe try to combine some of the smaller updates before sending a package of updates.
I have no idea why my firefox ikon disappeared other than windows 7 and I want my globe on fire (64×640)
That will make me happy for a while. This process, with having to rekey the goofy print will only be tried by me once as my BS threshold is very low now.
Mike H
What happened to “gonna have the vector files released soon”? It’s been like two years, man. :I
Also, lol at everyone who thought the drab pre-3.5 logo was better.
powerful execution……i like it..
That is to say some things that inspire us. Never knew it could be that opinions varied. Thanks for all the enthusiasm to provide useful information, like here.