Appreciation of Adobe CS3 Series Icons
As a company specializing in creative software, Adobe naturally pays great attention to the graphic design of its own software. Recently, Adobe released the beta version of their latest Photoshop CS3, and many people were surprised to find that the previously exquisite icons had been completely changed. Instead, an extremely minimalist style was adopted, with only the software name's abbreviation letters on a square color block.
Opinions on such changes may vary. Some say Adobe's designers have become lazy, while others argue that simplicity is beauty. People also speculated about a possibility: that the next generation of Adobe's CS3 series of creative software products would all adopt this style of icon. Indeed, this idea was verified. Recently, an image released online explained Adobe's intention. In fact, this is the most common color palette in the printing industry, and all of Adobe's software is distributed on this color palette, with its position representing the color of its icon. Creativity + simplicity is absolutely a form of beauty.
Today, the Adobe blog showcased the full set of CS3 icon design plans. From the appearance, it leans more towards the style of Macromedia Studio. However, from various comments, it seems that the general opinion isn't very favorable. Although simplicity is beauty, most designers believe it's too simplistic. After all, designers are a group of people who strongly demand beauty, especially some Apple computer users. Personally, I feel that this letter-style icon is more conducive to spreading (for example, "PS images" has become a kind of culture, and the abbreviation AI has also taken root in people's hearts), but in terms of appearance, it is not as gorgeous as Adobe's original style, nor as delicate as the MM Studio series icons. If the letters were transformed or reviewed further based on this, it would be even better.