The macOS App Icon Book Kickstarter is LIVE!
9 months ago
– Tue, Sep 05, 2023 at 03:04:52 AM
I just clicked the big green 'Launch Campaign' button on the Kickstarter for The macOS App Icon Book— The sequel to The iOS App Icon Book. It's with the usual mix of excitement and dread. Can we fund another book?
Go check out the campaign → https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flarup/the-macos-app-icon-book or watch the video directly on youtube here:
I have poured a lot of love into this project this past year. It has been a much smoother experience getting to this point the second time around, partly because of the systems we've set up for collecting and getting work signed at http://submit.appiconbook.com but also just from the fact that we've done all of this before. The path seems a little clearer and all the little decisions that make up something like this is made with more confidence.
The first book took 4 years, while this one, if all goes according to plan, will come in at around 1.5 years— despite it being just as brimming with new art.
One thing I can't say with confidence though, is if people would want to buy another book. I guess I'm about to find out...
I'm obviously biased, but I think there's a ton of good reasons why we should produce a second volume: The Mac is a fascinating platform with a much more diverse and experimental history of icon design and it is just as much in need of preservation (if not more) than the icon history on iOS. Even if you're not designing icons for the mac, a lot of design language starts and ends with the desktop.
Also from having worked on it for a long time, I can tell you that it's just going to be a gorgeous book that'll make an excellent companion to your existing one.
I don't take the support that you've shown me on this campaign lightly. Your support is the reason why I'm even attempting to do this a second time. I hope you want to help put this one into the world too.
Michael
A new App Icon Book is launching next week!
9 months ago
– Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 05:04:29 AM
Is this thing still on?
It feels pretty surreal to be writing this, but I wanted you to be the first to know: I have been working on a new App Icon Book! If you've been following me on Twitter/X this probably doesn't come as much of a surprise. However, here's a surprise:
The Kickstarter for the new book launches next week!
That's right. After working on this for more than a year, I'm finally (almost) ready to click the big 'Launch Campaign' button. I'm planning on that happening on 🗓️ Tuesday the 5th of September at 12:00 CET.
I won't spill all of the details just yet (you'll have to wait till Tuesday to see everything we've worked on) but as you can probably tell, this is going to be a sequel celebrating the art and craft of app icon design on the desktop.
I made this book for you, me and everyone else who love the art of visual design. I think it's going to be an absolutely incredible piece of art history and a perfect companion to The iOS App Icon Book.
I hope you're ready for another adventure?
See you Tuesday.
🎄 iOS App Icon Books under the tree
over 1 year ago
– Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 12:05:04 AM
Seasons greetings everyone 👋
The Last Shipment of the Year
We're about to make the last shipment of App Icon Books of the year. We've seen an uptick of orders these past few weeks as people are buying books as Christmas presents— It's an excellent and unique gift for anyone interested in graphic design.
Artwork submissions have been going great and we've cleared 260 approved app icons in the macOS category. We need around 1000 in the pool before we go into layout so we're about 1/4th of the way there!
The Future
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Oct 05, 2022 at 06:10:48 AM
Hi everyone,
The second print run has arrived and we're now fully stocked and ready to serve up app icon books for the foreseable future. The book has also launched in Japan this week and I feel like we're now truly on the other side of having self-published this project. It's in a good place and I think it's time to take a look at the future.
I'd like to make more books.
I'm not announcing anything just yet, but I have been making plans that will facilitate this. So today I'm...
Opening up for app icon submissions!
It all starts with opening up again for app icon submissions. The iOS App Icon Book, and future books, all relies on capturing and featuring as much of the wonderful art that's being produced in this space. A good reason for why this first book took 4 years to produce, was the herculean effort it took to get all of the icons collected and legally signed for. I don't want this next book to take 4 years, so we have been working on a submission tool that greatly helps the process. Introducing submit.appiconbook.com. ✨
I'd like to invite everyone to submit your icons (or suggest that your favorite developers do it). Notice how you can now both submit iOS AND macOS app icons. You're welcome to submit anything you can legally sign for (released or unreleased work), but we're particularly interested in seeing your macOS icons 👀 *hint hint*.
Also, do let us know if you find any bugs or issues. We're still tweaking the machinery before a wider public announcement soon.
TLDR
I'd like to make more books and now there's a new way for everyone to submit their artwork for possible inclusions in those future books through submit.appiconbook.com.
I'll leave you with a picture of the second edition print run that was delivered to our new warehouse the other day. The total produced books is now at 4000 hardcovers and 8000 Japanese softcovers. Let's make some more!
