Inspiration: Looney Tunes!

In 2001, iTunes was released and all was going great. That is until the latest update, when they decided to mistakenly redesign the application icon.

Released at the beginning of September, the decision to ditch the antique Compact Disc and focus the icon on the music note, has caused quite an uproar. The new version of the icon seems to be following the standard “more is more” approach of on screen design. It has it all: drop shadows, glows, bevels, even gradients?

Looking back on the previous five iTunes icons, one would have to admit, the latest is definitely the best so far, however, that isn’t exactly a compliment, either. One Apple enthusiast even decided to e-mail Steve Jobs stating how the new icon “really sucks.” In one of those rare replies to random emails, Mr Jobs simply replied "We disagree. Sent from my iPhone".

Well the online design community was having none of that and have, in turn, been responding with their own, “We Disagree” retorts. There’s been an outpouring of response on Twitter, a facebook page has been set up, but the best so far is from online screen grab sharing slash social networking site called Dribbble. The site is overflowing with designers trying to out-do the design mistakes of Apple with their own attempts.

Unfortunately these efforts seem to be creating a different type of ugly. These attempts are rife with bevels, glows, shadows and 3D effects. Almost every effort kept the same music note, circular container shape and fake metallic bezel. Below is a snapshot of just some of the efforts, ranging from the incremental tweaks, to the radical revisions and the outright ridiculous.

The new icon boasts tasteless blues with the contrast pushed to max. The real mistake though, is the rendering of the music note ... it's too cartoon like. Sharpening up some of the angles, losing the curve and slimming down the crossbar and rounds, might help. But in the end, given the company it will keep in the Mac dock, is it really all that bad? Google Chrome looks like a pokemon ball, for goodness sake!

Probably the most powerful argument against the new icon, is that most of Apple’s icons are almost photo-realistic representations of things. But given iTunes' current functionality, coming up with an object to represent everything it does is almost impossible. Amongst its Apple siblings, the cartoon-like clip art feel is certainly irritating, and the result is a really cheap look. It could almost pass as a childrens music learning program, and not the world’s pre-eminent entertainment content application.

These days, Apple is a very successful company, recently surpasing Microsoft’s market capitalisation to claim the throne of world’s largest technology company. The pace of change has also outrun the name iTunes. It’s this contradiction that hurts most of all. Indeed all this fuss about what the icon looks like, highlights that people get far more passionate about color, shadow, highlight and contrast than they do with the little detail like naming.

All in one package, iTunes activates, backs up and syncs your iPod, iPad and iPhone, it’s your interface for music clips, TV shows, movies, apps, games, podcasts, vodcasts, radio and ring tones, not forgetting music and also books! The name “iTunes” simply doesn’t cover all this in a convincing way. God help Apple when, and if, they choose to rename it!

What do you think?