branding firefox / journal / hicksdesign

08/02/04

branding firefox

screenshot of the new about window

Shortly before Christmas, I had an email from a chap called Steven Garrity, who works for Silverorange, and runs a blog called ‘Acts of Volition’, in which he publishes a radio show on regular basis. (really worth a listen BTW). He asked if I would like to join a recently created Mozilla branding team, with the immediate aim of producing a new logo identity for the Firebird browser, soon to be renamed firefox (Ben Goodger has written up the reasons and process for the name change). The branding team came into being after Steven wrote an article recommending changes to Mozilla’s existing branding. I jumped at the chance, and today Firefox 0.8 is finally released, and the work is no longer confidential.

Over Christmas (thanks Steven!) ideas and concepts were put forward. The timescales were tight (the design would chosen 2nd January), and the concept difficult to illustrate. A firefox is actually a cute red panda, but it didn’t really conjure up the right imagery. The only concept I had done that I felt happy with was this, inspired by seeing a Japanese brush painting of a fox:

first idea for the firefox logo

The final chosen design was a concept from Daniel Burka and sketched by Stephen Desroches, which I then rendered using Fireworks MX. I’ve been using Fireworks over Illustrator or Photoshop for icon design as I love the way I can work in vectors and see the result in pixels, rather than smooth vectors. The updated gradient tools in MX make this possible too.

the original concept sketch and the final logo

As with all icons, the smaller the resolution, the harder it is to create a legible icon. OS X icons start at 128×128 pixels, Windows XP uses 48×48 whereas 95-2000 only has a maximum size of 32×32. Starting with the 128×128 version in all its detail, I scaled this down to the various sizes, and began removing excess and simplifying the shapes.

The different pixel resolutions of the firefox icon

As you can see, once you get down to 16×16, which is used in areas like the windows taskbar and OS X list views, its nearly impossible. I still have some work to do on this and other Mozilla branding, so the project continues.

0.8 is also the first milestone release to have the gorgeous new OS X aqua theme. If you’ve not seen this yet, Kevin Gerich has posted screenshots of all the different screens so that you have proof of all its lickability. Better still, download the 0.8 release and try it out.

Update: Forgot to mention that there is a page of promo graphics on the Mozilla Site – get linking! You can also read more about the project from Steven Garrity

Technorati Tags Tags: design, firefox, logos, mozilla

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Comments are now closed, but you can still have a jolly time reading what others have left:

ste said 1826 days ago:

Love the icon, very nice job. :) It's definitely much better than the strange grey orb that was the icon (at least in OS X). I liked your design, too - actually, that one would probably have looked better than the other at smaller resolutions.

Can't wait to download the newest version. The OS X Aqua theme does indeed look amazing. Unfortunately, the download page keeps timing out for me. ;)

Lars said 1826 days ago:

Fantastic work Jon!

I guess it was worth the wait over the weekend after all :)

Will they be using the frontal view as well? I really love those colors. I think it complements the logo very well, especially as you get to the see the face of the, uh, panda? And it looks great too, of course.

Wow.

Steven Garrity said 1826 days ago:

We're lucky to have you on the team Jon. Amazing work.

This is the first step in making the Mozilla apps have a better look and feel than any closed-source alternatives.

Thanks for your great work

Reinier said 1826 days ago:

It looks great, and it runs like a charm !

Shaun Inman said 1826 days ago:

I think your original, frontal fox is the more successful logo. The selected logo is a little too impersonal--but well-crafted none-the-less.

PS: Illustrator has pixel preview too--Apple+option+Y

Jon Hicks said 1826 days ago:

Well slap me sideways! So it has! How long has that been there?

Shaun Inman said 1826 days ago:

I think since version 9, maybe? I always thought it was useless feature since vector==print--or at least it did back then.

Houser said 1826 days ago:

Stunning logo. Congratulations on being included on that team. Hopefully it will lead to more in-roads to Mozilla branding for you.

Lars said 1826 days ago:

I would consider combining the two into a third version, where you get to see the face of the foxy panda as she embraces the world.

#10

Jinketsu said 1826 days ago:

That's a very eye-catching icon. I hope Camino gets a promo page as well when 0.8 rolls around.

#11

Matthew Welle said 1826 days ago:

I like it...nice job everyone. The new build is sweeeet too. I very much appreciate all the hard work. Thanks.

#12

Todd said 1826 days ago:

That is an excellent logo Jon! Congratulations on a great design.

#13

Graham said 1826 days ago:

I absolutely *love* the new logo! Great work!

#14

Wilson said 1826 days ago:

completely off-topic, but the one thing i've been missing doing pixel-preview comps in illustrator is the ability to specify anti-aliasing (or lack thereof) on specific objects. i'm tired of fuzzy 3-pixel lines. you've inspired me to download the fireworks trial and give it another go

#15

Jafe Mourner said 1826 days ago:

This is just awesome work! Keep it up :-)

That fox is soooooooooo cute lolol

#16

Hari said 1826 days ago:

Congratulations on an excellent design. :)

#17

Ryan Schroeder said 1826 days ago:

Curious as to why the fox is facing away, seems a little impersonal to me.

#18

Daniel said 1826 days ago:

One real advantage to the fox facing away is that it significantly reduces the amount of complexity in the shape. No eyes, no mouth, and most importantly no facial expression to cpature. Drawing a 16x16 pixel icon is hard enough the way it is (fantastic work Jon) let alone with more complexity added. It also adds the nice connotation of the fox looking at the globe which symbolizes the Web as if it is examining the Web.

#19

Jason said 1826 days ago:

The logo came out great, though I agree with the earlier comment that the original of the fox head is more successful, not only because it is simpler and would surely reduce to a much more recognizable image where it will be used (like the Windows task bar). With the one chosen, the only way you have of knowing it is even a fox once you get smaller than 48 pixels is by the browser's name.

#20

pb said 1826 days ago:

I don't know about this one. It's rather gaudy, difficult to identify, not representative at all of what the product does, etc. Certainbly better than the red blob.

#21

Alex H. said 1826 days ago:

Nice work. It's certainly more appealing than the red flame, and even the globe.

Off-topic: You may wanna check your RSS feeds, Jon. They aren't working for me...

#22

Jeff Croft said 1826 days ago:

Jon-

It couldn't possibly be any better. You, and the whole Firebox Branding Team, did a brilliant job. Keep it up!

Jeff

#23

Clint Ecker said 1826 days ago:

I'm very interested in a more detailed explanation of the process you went through to create this fabulous icon in Fireworks. I've been trying to wean myself off the Adobe cartel for a while and I'd love to see how creative people like yourself create such awesome things with apps like Fireworks!

#24

Veerle Pieters said 1826 days ago:

Wow Jon, you did a great job here! First time that the program looks really professional in my opinion. Did you also design the icons and the new theme? I'm definitely gonna use this browser more now, because looks counts.

#25

em said 1826 days ago:

as much as i love the new icon, i actually think i prefer your original icon inspired by the japanese brush painting, it's firm yet friendly. either way, thank you for your part on the new icon, it's beautiful!

#26

Steven Garrity said 1826 days ago:

Re: pb's comment, "not representative at all of what the product does":

pb, we did struggle quite a bit with this, but we concluded that a globe, however vague and diluted a metaphor, was the best concept to represent web browsing visually.

#27

Jason said 1826 days ago:

Even if the globe is only recognizable at the largest sizes? The greater goal would be clarity on all fronts. The chosen icon is a lovely piece of artwork, but the original still stands as a stronger silhouette.

#28

ste said 1826 days ago:

Just out of curiousity, why not use a simpler logo for smaller versions of the icon? (like the Windows 16x16 default on the quicklaunch bar) At that size, it becomes for all practical purposes an orange U over a blue circle. Perhaps the other logo (your design) could have been used in that instance to maintain a better visual tie to the brand name. Other than that, I'm very pleased with the new look, brand, and icon. :D

#29

Bill Curnow said 1826 days ago:

Very nice design. Reminds me of the custom icons Jairo Boudewyn did for Firebird back in October (http://xp.xicons.com/details/906.html)

#30

Fazal Majid said 1826 days ago:

I love the new icon (and I also liked the old Firebird phoenix icon). The tip of the fox's nose and the graceful embrace of its arm are what make the logo work for me.

#31

waylman said 1826 days ago:

Just went to check out the promo graphics. Very nice. As some seem to dislike the logo as a small (16x16) icon I was wondering: Why not use the top half of the logo only, as in a few of the promo graphics? I realy like the effect.
-Just a though.

Btw, I don't see a problem. You sould see the Gimp logo at 16x16. Yuck! An obscurely shaped gray blob. At least yours has enough contrast that anyone familiar with the logo should be able to recognize it at a glance (or two).

Hey, looks like my copy of Firefox just finished downloading. Time to check it out.

#32

ethan zimmerman said 1826 days ago:

This Firefox logo/icon is quite possibly the best piece of computer artwork I have ever seen. It is simply beautiful. Have you ever thought about making a GNOME icon theme? :-)

#33

Firefox said 1826 days ago:

Wow!
You are amazing!

#34

Ben Goodger said 1826 days ago:

Just adding my voice to the rest of the praise. Jon is a delight to work with and his talent speaks for itself.

#35

Mathieu 'P01' HENRI said 1826 days ago:

The new logo is gorgeous. It would be great to see its color scheme and style on the FireFox page.

Now, I can't help thinking that ThunderBird should be renamed ThunderFox to increase the branding around Mozilla's suite.

Contgratulations. ^_^

#36

David Tenser said 1826 days ago:

The icon is just amazing. Truly a masterpiece.

#37

Ian said 1826 days ago:

Very nice, I love how both the cool and warm are fighting for attention yet to the eye they seem so calm together.
Is it possible some inspiration came from Weboso's version of firebird?

#38

Zelnox said 1826 days ago:

This icon is too cool. Reminds me of Nine Tails from Pokemon.

Is there a wallpaper? Come on, you have to make one. Please!

#39

Jayme said 1826 days ago:

Jon, exquisite work. The success of your design is best appreciated by noting the detail of the icon. The core brilliance of it is in it's luminosity in comparison with other icons in the dock. The Firefox icon makes most other dock icons look washed out. This unique vibrancy and clarity truly makes it special work. Well done. The Mozilla team is lucky to have you around. Keep it up. Polish counts.

#40

Rick Yribe said 1826 days ago:

I just wanted to post and say that I am absolutely in love with your icon. It's awesome. :)

#41

Jayme said 1826 days ago:

Bill (post 29), I took a look at Jairo's icon design as you mentioned. The overall concepts look quite similar. There are some obvious differences and tweaks that make Jon's unique, but I would say it is pretty clear Jon and Jairo's icon design are of the same brain. Who conceptualized it first, I would be interested to know.

#42

sembazuru said 1826 days ago:

Thunderfox... Now that would be an interesting icon.

#43

Josh Jarmin said 1826 days ago:

"Thunderfox… Now that would be an interesting icon."

Thunderfox sounds like a new Power Ranger. I guess that they will contact you about making that new logo as well? Great work by the way, I wrote about it in my blog today. Keep it up man!

#44

John Serris said 1825 days ago:

Awesome work Jon!! I love the icon (actually I like your original one better). I'm not crazy about the name "Firefox" though. We'll see if it grows on me. Did you consider simplifying the 16x16 icon. I mean it doesn't need to be the same as the larger versions does it? Have you tried scaling down your original icon to see how it looks?

#45

Michael Heilemann said 1825 days ago:

I'm lovin' it! (About damn time as well!)

#46

Bjørn said 1825 days ago:

Just wanted to pitch in as well: I absolutely love the new icon. While I think your original suggestion would work better as a small icon, I am very impressed with how well you managed to create a logo that works both Mac, XP and Linux.

I do not think your original suggestion would have worked as well on a Mac, simply because all other icons on that platform are very detailed.

In short: Love the work ... and the new name too (Firefox)

#47

Jon Hicks said 1825 days ago:

Thanks for all the kind comments! Mozilla users are a passionate bunch, and what with the name change too, I wasn't expecting as positive a reaction.

Just to clarify - I wasn't aware of Jairo’s icons when I did the logo, and I'm not sure whether Daniel or Stephen (who drew the original concept) did either. Thats just my drawing style - I don't know any other way!

#48

Andrew Clover said 1825 days ago:

Very nice-looking icon, though I'm sad to lose the lovely visual pun of the F-wing in the Firebird 0.7+ releases; it would have been easy to to a T-wing version for Thunderbird too.

Is anyone working on a new Thunderbird icon? It would be nice if you could wrap a blue/silver bird around an envelope in a similar style to complement the Firefox icon.

Also, we could use a Windows-style HTML document icon - something like the blue-globe in an XP-style gradient-filled page icon, with a Firefox brand in the bottom-right - as the rounded application icon is unsuitable for documents. Presumably one for XML too, if Firefox continues to grab this filetype, which I'm not 100% sure it should. (At least it no longer takes over the image filetypes, this was a very rude behaviour.) Anyone been drawing such icons? Should I bother?

#49

Jon Hicks said 1825 days ago:

These are all being worked on as we speak. The doc icons should be very soon, and I'm working on the new Thunderbird icon (may be a wee while yet).

#50

Adam Hauner said 1825 days ago:

Why logo looks like fox and not like red panda?

#51

Twyst said 1825 days ago:

Excellent job on the icon - I certainly look forward to the rest of the icons.

One reason that they shouldn't rename Thunderbird to ThunderFox: There's at least 2 or 3 arcade shooter games out there with that name. (grin) What can I say, I'm a shooter fan!

#52

Andrew Smith said 1825 days ago:

I was reading Bart Decram's forum post on the trademark issues around this new artwork and wondered if you've considered donating your original concept icon as a replacement for the old flame icon? This way, unofficial Firefox builds can have a nice friendly icon that ties more directly to the new brand (and looks more professional!) without infringing the Mozilla trademarks.

#53

Paul Robertson said 1825 days ago:

Jon fantastic icon - at a stroke all the other non Apple icons look even crapper!!

Now can you just work your magic on the icons for the following apps.

Netnewswire
Poisoned
Sbook
Steam

#54

Scott Boms said 1825 days ago:

Excellent work Jon. You've crafted what is definitely my fave new icon for 2004, and definitely a huge improvement over the old icon and even better than the replacement Firebird icons I found over at xicons.com.

Someone needs to do some work and come up with a new icon for EditCSS - it sure looks out of place with the new Pinstripe theme.

#55

Phil Baines said 1825 days ago:

Great work! well done to all the open source dudes and dudets that did this. I only wish I was good enough, and that I knew more so that I could help also.

Wow! looky Vdown thereV when you type. theres a preview! nice idea.

#56

Mike Czepiel said 1825 days ago:

Any way we can get our hands on the vector? (assuming not due to trademark issues) I just want this beautiful icon poster size, I've got just enough room for another poster up on the wall and this would be amazing.

Anyway, this is by far the best browser branding effort yet. With all the polish on Firebird it's hard not think of it as 1.0 already. Can't wait to see the doc icons.

#57

Ken said 1825 days ago:

You can work in vectors and see the result in pixels in Illustrator. I can with Illustrator 10 (obsolete already!), and I don't think it was new in 10. I've used it for icons and all sorts of screen images that need to be pixel-perfect.

I'm not saying Illustrator is perfect -- it has some really lousy flaws (or 10 did, anyway), but don't dismiss it out of hand for a reason which doens't exist.

Nice icon!

#58

Greg K Nicholson said 1825 days ago:

Excellent logo. It's very reminiscent of Jairo Boudewyn's orb icon for Firebird; was it inspired by that?
The shape of the fox also resembles the tadpole-type icon that (I gather) seamonkey used to use - a great allusion to continuity (whether intentional or not).

Looking forward to Thunder____'s new branding. :)

#59

Andrew said 1825 days ago:

You're a stud hicks... great logo!

#60

Riccardo said 1825 days ago:

Really an awesome work, your icon is beautiful and effective. ^_^
I also think that 16x16 version is good enough as is.

About the "snout orientation" issue, I agree to the opinion expressed above (it brings the right connotation): if the globe is the web, and the cute animal is the browser, well the fox has to look forward to the globe, like it's just running ahead to bring back the information you requested :-)

#61

Fredrik said 1825 days ago:

Fantastic design, I particularly like the sharp colors. Good work.

#62

Jacbo said 1825 days ago:

Thanks for the amazing icon, can't wait to see the thunderbird one.
I like how the fox is watching over the world, very cute.
My only question, is it possible to get an SVG version of this icon?

#63

Richard Tallent said 1824 days ago:

- Icon looks gorgeous
- Fox looking at globe is appropriate
- Bright color zones make it easy to pick out

One minor gripe: the resize to 32x32 (at least what I'm seeing on XP) is chopped on the top of the globe and rough on the black border around the bottom. Sadly, since this is the size I use in my QuickLaunch bar.

For email: how about Mozilla Blue Fire Balls? Ah, nevermind.

#64

Chilliwilli said 1824 days ago:

Wow! Will the same team be branding other products, i.e. Thunderbird... how about some work on the icon set of the standard theme.

#65

victor said 1824 days ago:

The icon is great, it alone makes the upgrade worth.
It strikes me, though, as if the right arm of the fox is protruding from its chest instead of being at the side. I think the layer with the arm should be over the right-side layer, if you know what I mean.
(BTW, what happened with the comment favicons?)

#66

Chris Hester said 1824 days ago:

Great work on the logo. But please don't change the smallest version! It looks just right on my Windows XP toolbar. (Any chance of getting Mozilla to use the red dragon head again instead of that stupid ship wheel? It's far too similar to the Netscape 4 icon, so I keep clicking on the wrong browser tab when I have both running.)

#67

vlad said 1824 days ago:

very nice job on the icon design. phoenix/firebird/firefox was in need of such an atractive icon from the start. They found the right person to do it.

#68

Alex Melhuish said 1824 days ago:

When I first set eyes on this new logo my jaw dropped and I was like 'WOW!'. I haven't seen anything like this on any other computer package. Some people have said it doesn't reflect what the program does - nor do most other icons! How does Internet Explorer's 'e' represent the internet?

The design is excellent and captures the phrase 'Firefox' perfectly. It doesn't look like a red panda because most people are unlikely to have heard of the red panda Firefox.

I would love to get hold of the source file. When I saw it I wanted a desktop background with it much bigger than 128x128. Also, the Windows theme has been neglected for a while - the throbber is in need of an updated logo. I had the idea of the fox circling the globe (so the globe is stationary).

Great work Jon - I'm going to get hold of Fireworks a.s.a.p. I love to work in vectors and Photoshop just isn't good enough.

#69

Adam said 1824 days ago:

I just installed Firefox, and it's working great so far. I do have one question though. I'm using windows 98, so browser windows get the default window icons (upper left corner of the window). I see a tip of how to customize those (in fact, I did that with Firebird), but I can't find the new icon files. Are the available so I can do this customization and have the new Firefox icon? I'm probably just missing it somewhere.

Thanks, and great work on the icon, I love it.

#70

Phillip Harrington said 1824 days ago:

"...different screens so that you have proof of all its lickability."

Lickability? Or likeability? :-)

#71

Lars said 1824 days ago:

Lickability! Please let it be lickability!

#72

Marko said 1824 days ago:

Just to congratulate! It's so logical, yet so suprising! Thanks for the impression! Sorry for English : p

#73

Jeff Walden said 1824 days ago:

Sorry to interrupt the stream of praise, but it feels more like a Mac OS X icon than a Windows icon. If I had my druthers I wish it were less Mac-ish. Then again, my druthers are perfection, and realistically there's simply no such thing as perfection. Look at the uproar the name change/logo issue has caused in the MZ forums! Just my thoughts...

In reality, though (away from that elusive land of perfection where indefinite integrals have exact values and infinity is reachable) this is way, way (way, way,) better than anything else I've seen, and Mac-ishness isn't really a totally bad thing, now is it? We'll either get Windozy icons or Mac-ish icons, so someone won't be happy either way, so this works fine. (Yes, this is praise, even if my first paragraph didn't completely sound it! Great, great job!)

One last: I heard a request on the MZ forums for some alpha-transparent PNGs to go on different-colored websites. The current batch all have white backgrounds, if I recall correctly. Any speculation on when alpha-transparent PNGs for any background will appear?

#74

Phillip Harrington said 1823 days ago:

What exactly makes an Icon "Mac-ish" anyway? I guess I don't understand how an Icon can look like it's from one OS or another. What would make it more "Windows-ish?" This is a cross platform browser. Weird. Not a flame, just saying weird.

#75

GRZA said 1823 days ago:

Well, part of it might be the flood of mac icons involving spheres, preferably of the glossy sort.

But, uh, I like the icon a lot. Then again, I use a mac.

#76

Jon Hicks said 1823 days ago:

Blimey, theres a lot to respond to here. Apologies if I miss your query.

First of all - logo requests. This is currently being sorted out, but the decision isn't being made by me. I'm just an art minion. See this thread on Mozillazine for more information. Bother Bart with this one.

Yes, I think the logo is quite Mac OS X-y. Thats probably because I mainly use OS X, but mainly because thats my drawing style. I don't know any other way really. Mac icons tend to be more illustrated, whereas windows are more cartoony. Besides I think looking mac-like is a good thing! ;o)

A few more people asked about Jairos icons - see my reply in comment 47.

It was lickability! Likeability isn't strong enough to describe my emotions about the new OS X theme. Kevin Gerich and Stephen Horlander are gods in my house.

The 16x16 won't change per se, it just needs refining and making clearer. I was always amazed by the f + globe 16x16 icon, it was wonderfully sharp and clear. Thats what I'm aiming for.

Victor - I removed the comment favicons as rebuilding files took too long and occasionally hung.

Whoever it was that suggested wallpaper. Hmmm, I might just look into that...

#77

Chris Hester said 1823 days ago:

The 16x16 won’t change per se, it just needs refining and making clearer.

Don't spoil it... looks great to me as it is. But then I'm not used to the previous icon, having only downloaded Firebird days before.

I will miss the large phoenix in the About screen now. But I've kept Firebird installed. Of course the new About screen is much better, even though the logo is cut off. That fox is cute. It's the shape of the arm...

#78

Chris Hester said 1823 days ago:

Jon - using the < q > tag shows speech marks in the live preview below the comments form, but when posted the style is removed. So the first line of my post above should have been a quote.

#79

Chris Hester said 1823 days ago:

Agh! I put spaces between chevrons to indicate the HTML quote tag which were also removed! Makes the live preview not accurate.

My post above should have read "Jon - using the Q tag".

#80

Kevin Davis said 1823 days ago:

Hi Jon,

I just wanted to wish you my congradulations on the project! I recently upgraded to the browser and find the icon to be a big improvement over previous attempts. At 16x16, the Icon is still legible in my opinion, since you did a very good job at optimizing the vectors for such a pixel size.

Hopefully this project may open the door to new opportunities! Very good work! :)

#81

Adam said 1823 days ago:

I just thought I'd FYI you on your navigation sidebars. They don't look quite right in Firefox 0.8, but render fine in IE 6. For comparison pics of how it looks on my system see http://www.adammessinger.com/images/hicksdesign/. I've been having weird problems with the way the Firefox toolbar renders on this computer, so there's a chance it might be some kind of isolated CSS problem that only exists for me (?).

P.S. How'd you do the live comment preview?

#82

Jon Hicks said 1823 days ago:

Adam, Thanks for the heads up. I'm seeing the nav fine using 0.8 on XP - are you on a different OS?

Live Comment previews:
http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/archives/000317.php

#83

Adam said 1823 days ago:

Okay, never mind about the live preview. I found the post about it. :-)

#84

Mathieu 'P01' HENRI said 1823 days ago:

Adam: Hint about the "Live Comment preview", Display > View Source ;)

Jon: BTW, the live preview is really enjoyable.

#85

Cowa Bunga said 1823 days ago:

"Adam Hauner:

Why logo looks like fox and not like red panda?"

Oh yeah, I hope new icons will look more like a red panda than a fox. Red pandas are so cuter :)

#86

Toni Treichel said 1822 days ago:

Downlaod a nice firefox wallpaper for you desktop here .
It was created by Alois Treichel.

#87

Matt said 1822 days ago:

Nice wallpaper, there was someone faster then Jon ;-)

#88

Adam said 1822 days ago:

Jon: I'm using XP as well, and it looks fine on my home PC using Firebird 0.7. I'm guessing something must be munged about my installation. If CSS is used to lay out both your nav bar and the Firefox/bird toolbar and pref panel, that would explain the image overlaps I'm seeing in both. I've taken screenshots of the problem (here and here) and will submit it to bugzilla. Hopefully someone in the developer community can help me get this straightened out.

Mathieu: Doh!

#89

chris said 1822 days ago:

why does the icon only go up to 48x48? I display my icons at 64x64, and a lot of people like 128x128 especially for docks.

#90

Steven said 1821 days ago:

Jon

Ur like famous now huh? I love firefox, b4 i had ff i had fb and i didn't really like the flames for a logo.

After d/l firefox i read a couple dayz later that you had made the logo for it. As a fan of your work i was very delighted and pleased to see my favourite designer; designing the brand for my favourite browser.

good workk :)

#91

Jon Hicks said 1821 days ago:

Chris - what do you mean? On OS X the icons got up to a maximum of 128x128, and on XP its 48x48. The Firefox icon has all these...

#92

Jon Hicks said 1821 days ago:

Adam - as I understand it, Firefox does indeed use CSS to lay out the interface (thats all part of XUL). I certainly use CSS for my nav...

#93

Mike Riley said 1821 days ago:

WHy do all these design blogs suffer fom lick lick syndrome.
Yes the firefox work is VERY NICE (lick Lick) but lets not do that lets concntrate on business .Feedback good / comments worthless if they fail to engender discussions as comments seem to,

#94

Steven said 1821 days ago:

yea well maybe u should stop posting comments Mike.

#95

Mathieu 'P01' HENRI said 1821 days ago:

Jon: just a precision on Windows ( at least on 2K ), the size of the icons can be set pixel by pixel from 16x16 up to 72x72.

Mike: what kind of discussion do you want to initiate on the "branding firefox" topic ? I personnaly think it'd be great to go on these branding efforts and work on ThunderBird ( eventually renaming it ThunderFox for branding & naming consistency ). Jon certainly have some infos about the next steps in Mozilla's plans but he also surely have a sort of NDA.

#96

bobby eddy usmady said 1820 days ago:

nice logo!! i've been trying to make new logo now.. and i'm veri inspired by you!!!

#97

Jon Hicks said 1820 days ago:

Mike - don't complain about the lack of discussion without offering a discussion point. Thatn kind of makes your own comment worthless. Besides aren't the Mozillazine forums a more appropriate place for discussion?

#98

Jonathas Scott said 1820 days ago:

First time on your site and here i go..

Awesome design work on the logo, and awesome work on the browser..
on its version 0.8 is better and efficient than the 6.0´s around.

And by the way.. How do you do the preview coment stuff ?!

#99

Riccardo said 1820 days ago:

Jonathas > the author gives out detailted info here:

http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/archives/000317.php

;-)

#100

timeless said 1819 days ago:

Windows 2000 and earlier support 48x48 icons, they're just not on by default.

in w98 and w2k: start>settings>control panel>display>effects>[x] Use large icons
Apply

And for kicks, you can make your icons even larger:
start>settings>control panel>display>appearance
item: icon
size: 72
Apply

Some icons actually look ok at that size, try it :).

#101

Adam said 1819 days ago:

I failed to mention in my earlier post how much I like the new icon. The 0.8 release also seems to have a better "fit and finish" than previous iterations as well. Kudos to the branding and UI folks for pulling together an awesome release that really matures the Firefox browser.

Sorry if my previous comments were a bit curt. Such is the danger of blogsurfing on the sly from work, I suppose. Speaking of which, I think I hear that Big Project calling to me now...

#102

Jeffrey said 1819 days ago:

Nice job on the branding. The new icon is a lot better than the older ones and overall Firefox has replaced all other browsers as the default on my systems.