I find these icons particularly bad, but I guess they met their goal:<p>"We finally landed on the forms you see below. These icons are bright and bold. We love this and pushed it as hard as we could. If you see just one or two, they stick out a bit, but when lined up chromatically (as so many of us like to do), they own the dock… or any other context."<p>Owning the dock shouldn't have been the goal. They should have a nice, non-distracting icon that tells me which program is which.
I can't quite tell if this is great, or if they're really over-thinking it.<p>That said, I do appreciate that Adobe hasn't fallen into the trap of making their apps blue circles like seemingly every other app.
"We know that every release requires change and that the change will make some people unhappy. In this regard, we consider our work for CS6 a success."<p>I don't know many designers who consider negative feedback a sign of success. We're not talking about controversial fine art, but rather a way to communicate the power and legacy associated with Adobe's creative software.<p>If Adobe's goal is uninspired product branding that unnerves the very profession their software is marketed to, then yes, I would consider their work a success as well.
I'm a little shocked at the negativity towards, of all things, an icon and a splash screen.<p>That said, I'm a little more shocked that people are reacting <i>more</i> negatively to the splashes that are a bit more expressive. The past couple CS releases have been, from that perspective, plain and boring.
I'll be the guy who actually likes it. The new splash screens make me really pleased. Nothing is very bland, and they certainly represent clean and elegant designs you can make with the products.
Could someone with graphic design background explain why colors that are equally spaced on the color wheel would look like "part of a family" any more than erratically spaced colors? I think the old colors were far more attractive.
The process is interesting but heading the wrong way IMHO.
CS6 branding lost the quality they tried to improve.
Far too rainbowy , eye-candy iconified. The color derivation gives a shallow neon glow appearance, the splash textures are distracting, I have to look to see what product it is.<p>To me CS3/CS4 theme is almost centered, future redesigns are diminishing returns guaranteed, unless a disrupting stroke.
I hate the splashes...they look like kids' costumes: busy and over-saturated. Icons are boring and unimaginative too. Pity because I think Aobe did a great job with what matters, the UIs (pretty challenging if you think of how many products CS6 has and how each one does things a little differently). The splashes IMO look really unprofessional compared to the pro and subdued look of the new UIs. I really hope Adobe changes the splashes (and the icons) for the next release. In fact, I'm thinking of writing to Adobe to provide an update to change at least the splashes even for this version...they're really an eyesore that I have to endure each time I start an app.
These are absolutely hideous and amateurish. Something a newbie 'designer' would come up with in terms of color schemes and shapes and feel damn proud of it just because of the shock value of its 'uniqueness'.
Even though I rely less and less on Adobe products as time goes on, I really like seeing their design process for coming up with these icons and splash screens.
I liked the older branding more. The greater variation in saturation essentially acted as a second dimension of information that made distinguishing the icons easier. And while I can understand why AfterEffects and Premiere have some similar colors, I think they got too subtle...
These icons will look stupid against a bright background.<p>But since most Adobe tools use a dark, custom interface that doesn't match the OS at all, I guess they won't feel any regret about ignoring those who prefer UIs with bright backgrounds.
Looks like a great failed art project :)<p>I don't care much for the splashes or dock icons, but the flat file icons look strange, they will look out of place in Finder. Gradients and shadows can help make sense of shapes, and make them more recognizable.
Since I really only want PS, AI and FW installed, the entire color wheel will not be appreciated here. I think the new icons look nice though, and I like the periodic table theme with dark grey base color and highlights.