If we're going to go with something very brightly colored (with the rainbow palette, like many entries have been showing), we definitely like yours a lot.
I especially like the concept behind entry #91 -- you're really getting to the heart of what our application does (something most entries have been missing so far). The trick with it is that we've got a bit, crumpled space in the center. It's a little odd somehow... but I definitely love the direction it's headed. Can you please with a more contemporary frame, and maybe something else inside it? (Or perhaps the color moves to the framed paper, rather than the background?) Not sure what exactly to do this with, but I'd love to see what you come up with!
Similarly #79 is in that same right direction... though I don't think there's much benefit to focusing on the "PF" -- the initials aren't particularly important for us. I know you're using them as an additional graphical element, but maybe we can find something else?
Thanks for your patience while we got through a very busy couple of days! :)
We've bumped #95 to the top of the list. We have two concerns with it, though:
1 -- The push pin gets lost with the torn paper behind it. Can you make the pin just a tiny bit more prominent? (Maybe move the paper over a little? Or move the pin down a little?)
2 -- When scaled down, I'm concerned it will be just a little bit too cluttered. One solution might be to create an alternate version (perhaps without the people on it), when we need a much smaller icon? Would you be amenable to providing us either a couple of versions and/or providing the final files that would allow us to make edits (like hiding the "people" from the paper)? ... Or do you have any other suggestions on how we can make this work?
Also -- Can you experiment with a different color option on "FINISH"? We're not sure yet if we really like the pink... For what it's worth, though, we would definitely choose the green/pink combo over the blue/pink combo.
(By the way, we also enjoyed the colon : in #125, but it presents a logistical problem because the app store treats "photo:finish" as "photofinish" and not "photo finish"--which will become an issue for search... and we want to be consistent with the naming in every instance...)
Finally, we prefer the font choice in #85 over #125.
Thanks for those new variations. We think it's a lot cleaner without the "people" icons -- especially when scaled down...
The bigger push-pin looks good -- though the top is still a bit difficult to make out because of the tear in the paper. I like the tear--so please keep it--but they do overlap a bit. I wonder if rotating the paper would help? Or maybe just moving it over? It doesn't need to be a big adjustment, just a little something to keep the edge of the pin and the edge of the paper from conflicting.
Still working on the right color for the font. I need to discuss with my biz partner...but at least that's easy to change. :)
Oh -- one other thing. Could you please try a variation the name with lower case instead of all caps? (either initial caps, or all lower case?). Not sure if we want to go that route, but it would be nice to see what you'll do with it. Definitely stick with a clean, san-serif font, though!
Just spent awhile talking through the variations with my biz partner, Bryan. Just a few more very minor things to figure out.
1. After seeing the new font variations (thanks), we like the original all-caps the most. We're still struggling with color, though. I like the green/pink or green/yellow combo. Bryan likes the green/white combo, and does not like the pink at all (he feels strongly on this). My feeling on the green/white is that the white makes "FINISH" too overpowering when compared to the "PHOTO" -- the difference is just too strong, since it's both (1) white and (2) very bold. Can you please take a stab at finding a happy medium somehow? Maybe that means making "PHOTO" more prominent? Or "FINISH" less bold? Not sure -- since the difference in the lettering weight is very good otherwise. Sorry if that's vague -- but I hope you can take that and try a few things towards that end. Perhaps the solution is really simple: Maybe we just tone down the white a little bit? (making it a very light gray? Or a little shading of some kind?)
2. On the icon, I just realized that it may be a bit too top-heavy. The only reason I'm concerned is because Apple puts that "gloss highlighting" effect on it-- which will impact how the icon looks, of course. I wonder if it's worth sliding the pin/paper down a little bit? What do you think?
Woohoo! I think we've narrowed it down. How about the icon for #169 (yellow push pin), and the lettering from #166 (green/white, all thin). (Basically, we like #166, but want the yellow push pin--it reads better than the green one when it's small).
I just showed the current icon to a few friends, and they were all a bit confused about what the paper/pushpin "means." From the way I described what we're going for--and with the app being about phtoography--they seemed to miss the point. This obviously is cause for concern.
What do you think about losing the pushpin, and replacing the piece of paper with something more photographic? I know we rejected the "polaroid" idea earlier (don't remember if that was with you or with other designers), but we need to revisit it. Maybe just a polaroid over the colored background. Or some other visual that looks like a printed photo.
I don't want to vary from the current style--we really like it...But we need to communicate "photography" and "printed photographs" somehow.
Thanks for getting #182 up so quickly. I totally agree that #174 was looking like a nice icon, and we definitely want to keep that aesthetic going.
The polaroid is just too cliche still... The trick is that the silhouettes--in color--don't really convey what our app does (and are too colorful in conjunction with the background)...but if we do them in gray, then it becomes a bit boring. (The torn triangular piece is a bit too much in the foreground, too).
We still really like the look of the torn paper, so how about we try this:
Can we take #95 and replace the abstract people/figures with silhouettes more like those in #182 ? The idea is to make the torn/crumpled piece of paper (that we already have), look like it was a printed photograph of thouse four people that has since been crumpled up and re-flattened.
If we do use those four silhouettes, we'd probably prefer them to be gray instead of colorful. Maybe they can be four slightly different shades of gray (so they are distinguishable). There's plenty of color from the background. :)
#184 is great! I think this solves all of our requirements--while still making for a cool icon. I think it's better without the pin--keeps it cleaner, and it's not really necessary for what we're trying to say.
The only minor adjustment I'd like to see is to reducing the rotation of the paper just a little bit. Maybe rotate it just a few degrees clockwise? not sure if you'd want to play with the left/right positioning at all? (Though I think it's pretty good--but if there's anything you want to try please feel free).
Like the new rotation in #194 and #195 -- but we lost a little bit of the "off-center" feeling in #184, which I liked. It helped to reveal a little more color in the background.
Can you take the paper in #194 and move it, ever so slightly, down and to the right? Then I think we'll be done! :-)