Okay, maybe they didn’t really say that, but judging by the new slew of icons that Adobe just unleashed, it looks like the entire branding and marketing team had an aneurism and the sales department had to come up with something.

Good application icon design is based upon a few simple ideas:

• The icon should reflect what the application will do without even opening it.
• The icon should be able to be identified without reading the name under it.
• If part of a suite of apps, the icon should be part of a coherent whole, but still retain its own identity.

The new icons fail on all parts. Granted, they all are squares, but they never differ in anything other than color.

Gee. I wonder if the blue square is the one I want. Maybe the yellow-green one? Which one does websites again? Wait…didn’t Adobe just acquire Macromedia? So does that mean it’s in here too? What color is that? What does this set of letters mean?

And then, it was if every designer in the universe cried out, and then was silenced.

Seriously. I can imagine reading in a newspaper not too long from now about someone dying at their computer from an aneurism. His friends will be quoted, saying “His eyes kept twitching. He kept clicking icons, thinking they would open the right program. It seems like only yesterday he was using CS2, getting things done, not having an aneurism.”

I can’t imagine what the whole A-crew was thinking, but even after letting it stew for a little while, it still leaves a terrible taste in my mouth.

I think it’s the taste of bad design. Or bad decisions.

[Or both.]

Afternoon, racefans!

If you couldn’t tell from the title, the web-home of graphic designer Ian Murray, “creativeguts“, is about to undergo some massive changes. The amount of and content on the pages should remain the same, but the site is getting an entirely new look.

A sleek black layout will greet newcomers to the site as part of cg’s new marketing and re-branding campaign. If you’re living in southern NH, you’re bound to see some flyers for the event. If you’d like to get a sneak peek at the new site, click on this link to head over and try it out. The site may still undergo some changes before it goes live, but expect this to be the general direction: clean, classy, and with a funky new logo.

So, dear readers, what do you think? Let us know in the comments!

[/shameless plug]

[Update: The new site is up! Go! Go! Go!]