Jony Ive Reportedly Tapped Apple's Marketing Team For iOS 7 Icon Redesign
June 13, 2013
Since Apple took the wraps off iOS 7, the new version of the company's popular mobile operating system has proved to be rather divisive as far as its new design is concerned. This is undoubtedly on account of its being a radical departure not only from its past versions of iOS but also from Apple's long-established design language in general. And according to The Next Web, this radical departure comes as a result of Apple design chief Jony Ive's approach of having a new team provide the initial impetus to make it happen.
"Apple needed a stylistic and psychological break with the design language of its past," writes The Next Web's Matthew Panzarino, "and Ive used 'new' blood to create that break."
Apparently, Ive had Apple's print and Web marketing team design the new look and feel of the stock app icons in iOS 7. The app design teams then worked on the "interiors" based on the palettes created by the marketing team.
"We’ve also been hearing that there wasn’t a whole lot of communication between the various teams behind say, Mail and Safari," The Next Web adds. "And that there were multiple teams inside each group that were competing with various designs, leading to what some see as inconsistencies in icon design."
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Indeed, many have singled out the new Safari icon as being uncharacteristically — how do you say it? — ugly for something designed by Apple. And as pointed out earlier by our very own Jamie, "Apple seems to be unsure which way the fade should go on the App Store and Mail icons in particular."
Given such inconsistencies and oversights, including the misleading proximity of the Control Center up arrow to the "slide to unlock" text in the revamped lock screen, it's no surprise that iOS 7 is said to be "firmly a 'work in progress.'"
We can then expect to see even more significant changes, hopefully for the better, in iOS 7 in the run-up to its official release this fall.
To see more of and learn more about iOS 7 as it stands now, check out our series of hands-on videos here on AppAdvice.
