New Icon

[elipio]

I'm so happy you went off the red/paper background/handwriting symbol icon. Although I do recognize the right of the creators of an app to change it whichever way they please....
I love the new/old icon, personally don't think the "waves" background stand out too much...
And I can assure you, Michael, that Pleco icon stands out nicely on my iPad 3 front page;-))
Can't wait to see the update and all the new "toys"
Best
Pete

 

[Eddy]

I've just been comparing the initial icon design to the final icon design and I must say I like the final a lot.

Some points I like: it's simple and straightforward (not as busy as the first design), it builds upon earlier brand/icon awareness built up over the years (less radical departure than first design), blue is a more unique colour in my view than red for a Chinese language themed app, and the calligraphy actually comes out nicely. The wavy pattern in the background is a nice touch. I still have to warm somewhat to the metal though.

cheers

 

[mikelove]

Some points I like: it's simple and straightforward (not as busy as the first design), it builds upon earlier brand/icon awareness built up over the years (less radical departure than first design), blue is a more unique colour in my view than red for a Chinese language themed app, and the calligraphy actually comes out nicely. The wavy pattern in the background is a nice touch. I still have to warm somewhat to the metal though.

Thanks! The current design was actually intended to be metal too, that just didn't come through as clearly before - subtle texturing is a very big deal on iOS icons now, makes it clear that this is a high-end / professional app and helps you stand out in the search results.

 

[Vzzzbx]

The new app icon is great. Instantly recognisable as Pleco, and the background texture would look spectacular on retina screens.

 

[mikelove]

The new app icon is great. Instantly recognisable as Pleco, and the background texture would look spectacular on retina screens.

Thanks! (and it does, yes - that's part of the reason the "swirls" are so dramatic at this size, in App Store search results they use a scaled-down version of your big icon rather than a dedicated small one so you need them to be very prominent in the big icon in order to be visible at all when scaled down)

 

[Vzzzbx]

Yep, professional-looking in order to stand out from the crowd, as you said earlier. I imagine many of your paying customers have found Pleco via word-of-mouth, but even then, a top-notch icon will always make a huge first impression (not that the current icon is bad, of course).