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                       BasicAppleGuy's macOS Icon History

   Adam Engst

   [1]BasicAppleGuy writes:

     With macOS 26, Apple has announced a dramatically new look to their
     UI: Liquid Glass. Solid material icon elements give way to softer,
     shinier, glassier icons. The rounded rectangle became slightly more
     rounded, and Apple eliminated the ability for icon elements to
     extend beyond the icon rectangle (as seen in the current icons for
     GarageBand, Photo Booth, Dictionary, etc.).

     With this release being one of the most dramatic visual overhauls of
     macOS's design, I wanted to begin a collection chronicling the
     evolution of the system icons over the years. I've been rolling
     these out on social media over the past week and will continue to
     add to and update this collection slowly over the summer. Enjoy!

   BasicAppleGuy's fascinating collection traces the evolution of Apple's
   system icon design from 2001 to the present, offering a revealing look
   at how the new Liquid Glass icons in macOS 26 Tahoe compare to their
   predecessors. The visual history makes it clear that 'different'
   doesn't always mean 'better.'

   Of them, I think only the new Stickies icon has improved (though I
   still prefer the 2000'2020 version), but many other app icons are
   notably worse.

   In particular, Dictionary continues its tumble down the Cliffs of
   Meaninglessness, devolving from a clear representation of a book into a
   red blob branded only with a mixed case Aa. Joining Dictionary at the
   cliff base in Tahoe are Disk Utility and Migration Assistant, thanks to
   Apple removing their recognizable drive and arrow imagery in favor of
   meaningless geometric shapes.

   And why is Apple putting any effort into redesigning the icons for
   [2]DVD Player and [3]AirPort Utility?

   [4]Read original article

References

   1. https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/macos-icon-history
   2. https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/macos-icon-history#:~:text=Address%20Book%2FContacts-,dvd%20player,-AirPort%20Utility
   3. https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/macos-icon-history#:~:text=DVD%20Player-,airport%20utility,-Keychain%20Access
   4. https://basicappleguy.com/basicappleblog/macos-icon-history

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