Love the application, don’t love the application icon. Would love it to be something more cheerful instead of the black and white kung fu icon you currently have.
Hope it does at some point get changed, would give it such a positive look.
Thanks
brandon
I’m note quite sure why you would think there is anything negative about the application icon. It seems quite clear that the design is based around the chinese Taijitu (or Yin yang) which is the symbol for the relgion Taoism, but is also used in a more secular sense. While it is sometimes associated with various martial arts, like Kung Fu, it is also associated with chinese medicine, philosphy and even science.
Yin and yang is a concept in which opposite forces like fire and water, night and day, male and female and yes even good and evil are complimentary. I could go into all sorts of detail, but let’s just say it has a lot to do with finding balance and very little to do with two people bashing each others faces in.
The application icon will be getting an overhaul at some point, but I doubt we’ll move too far from the current icon. I like the fact that it is black and white and so stands out in the Dock. Also, I think it represents the application well: it is black and white with quotation marks, to indicate the business of writing; the “S” cuts through the Taijitu to stand for “Scrivener” (of course); and these disparate elements combine to form a square Taijitu, which is intended as to symbolise how Scrivener comprises disparate parts associated with different elements of writing that come together to form a whole.
It certainly needs a more modern look, and we’re currently struggling to work out a way of making it look modern and getting the “S” to look nice in a way that can be translated to variations for Mac, Windows and iOS (so any suggestions there would be more than welcome), but we still really like the core concept of the icon.
Hey, thanks for your response
I understand the yin yang philosophy of the symbol and like it, maybe shouldn’t have made the association with kung fu. Yes, if I think about the meaning when I see the icon then yes I get it and it makes sense, but that is not the first thing that comes to my mind when I look at it in my dock and go to open it.
Just visually the design is not appealing to me. It has a lot of contrast and I wish it was a little softer. The black and white is a little hard for my taste would like it to be more of a pastel.
But, my opinion and everyone is entitled to theirs.
brandonchampney,
In case you don’t know: the Mac OS let’s you customize the icon of an application yourself (without even messing with the resources of the app). Maybe you should do that.
For example, the icon for version 4 of Studio Artist was atrocious (I thought), and by now quite long in the tooth. So, I made an app icon for it that is in the style of Adobe’s current gen graphics app icons, and now I am happy again.
To customize an apps icon: Quit the app. Get a Copy of the image you want onto the Clipboard. Then in the Finder, select the app and Get Info (cmd-I). Then click on the small icon in the upper left of the Info window to select it. Then Paste. Close the Info window and voila!
To get an image of appropriate size for an app icon, you can in similar fashion use the get info window to Copy an icon from something – and use that as a template in your favorite graphics app to create an icon of your own.
–Greg
P.S. Some apps retake control of their dock icon while they are running (effectively reverting to default icon while running). Dragon Dictate is a case in point. Presumably, this is because these apps (can) show some kind of status via their dock icon. I doubt Scrivener is this way, however.
I’ve always assumed that the black and white also references Scrivener’s Kernow homeland.
[attachment=0]kernow.png[/attachment]
Fanciful?
Huh, I’ve been seeing that symbol on the back of cars ever since I moved here, and until now I’d assumed it was a thoughtful warning to other drivers that the car sporting it couldn’t go more than 20mph. 
Are you suggesting that my Cornish cousins have light right feet? 
You must really love it when the incoming caravaners try squeezing down those rivulet roads of Cornwall that are little wider than an unshorn sheep.
Everyone who has driven across Cornwall has seen an incident similar to this at some point…
I like the round Yosemite icons for Safari, iTunes, iBooks, App Store, Photos, etc. So, I’ve made a round icon for Scrivener. Not refined, but it is round.
[attachment=2]scrivener.png[/attachment]
[attachment=1]apps.png[/attachment]
[attachment=0]dock.png[/attachment]
Nice, but it loses the Yin-Yang aspect of the current icon, which I like, and which shouldn’t be difficult to replicate in a round icon.
That said, I’m not someone who gets het up about icons and icon changes … as long as they are individual and distinctive, and I trust Keith and Co. to come up with something that fits those criteria.
Mr X
I’m saying nothing. (And a lorry knocked down part of the wall of the house across the lane from us, they’re always getting stuck in our lane!)
I’m not really a fan of round icons, although a user did send us a very nice Yosemite-based round version of the existing icon. One problem with round icons is that they don’t translate well to iOS or Windows. I have an idea for a slightly different take on a future icon, losing the yin-yang aspect while retaining some Eastern influence and the black-and-white of pen and paper, but we’ll see how it looks in mockup. 
Coming up with an icon that looks fresh but not tacky is hard. Also, no matter what we come up with it, half our users will hate it and prefer the old one. (We received scores of complaints about Scrivener 1.0’s icon not being professional enough or being ugly, then when Scrivener 2.0 came out, we received scores of complaints from people who liked Scrivener 1.0’s icon - you can’t win!)
For some reason I think of Superman whenever I look at the icon. Indeed, Scrivener, the superhero. Ever the conquerer of words, the emperor of quotation… The black and white, the yin and yang represent the his eternal struggle against the forces of evil…
In trying to soothe a sore throat today, I have found myself seeing the Scrivener icon wherever I looked … 
[attachment=0]strepsils.png[/attachment]
“Soothing effective app for sore authors”