Thanks for the bug report, Reda. I fear this falls down in the personal preference pit though.

> I think it's time to decide on a consistent and yet unique style for the GNOME
> project and fix it in a HIG to help people make their icons work in GNOME.
> Because honestly, if I'm doing an icon for a project I'd have no idea where to
> start.

Start here -- http://tango.freedesktop.org/(In reply to comment #0)

The perspective chosen depends on how good of a silhouette the object creates. I come from the camp where the variation and the distict shapes is what what works FOR the style rather than against. You might be a fan of the square iOS pills as they form a perfect grid, but they come at a price. Marking as wontfix, unless you'd like to point out specific issues like the lack of color.
 
> I'd also suggest you come up with a better color-scheme, the current one is too
> life-less and the gray is really over-used especially when combined with
> Adwaita. Just take a look at the Dash in a default GNOME install it's just
> white in gray.***  But that's for another report I guess. :)

There might be a little too much neutral colors, as much as there is blue. I'm changing the bug summary to focus on that particular issue.

I was very careful not to mention any squari-fy-ing anywhere. :) But yes, I do prefer the same-shape-style icons(not necessarily square). I'm not suggesting it here though.

What I was really after is demonstrated in the two images I linked at the bottom of the report. By freely(or when seems necessary) changing the perspective we have lost the connection between icons that are supposed to be put together in the same space.
 
The Tango guidelines specify the flat perspective for toolbars and 'on the table' commonly for apps, but looking at the gcc window, one could see that the flat style and _three_ additional 'on the table' angles are used at the same time.

I think, for me, that the silhouette-style is good as long as it occupies roughly  the same space, the best example I can think of from the FOSS world is the ROSA iconset: https://plus.google.com/photos/101681698460010159459/albums/5752515332649439393     
the styles are varied between square, flat, perspective... but you don't see the "holes" you see when you compare the 'mouse' and 'keyboard' or the 'notifications' and 'privacy' icons in gcc for example.

One bad example, on the other hand, is Android(5th point): http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/09/18/ux-things-i-hate-about-android/

Finally, yes, there is a color problem. But this also needs some serious consideration. Icons need to look consistent if they are going to be put next to each other.

Symmetry of filling up roughly the same amount of space is a wrong metric in the same way measuring number of clicks is for good UI. While some shape distortion is required for thin objects, it's not a key aspect of the rendering.

When I look at the provided screenshot, I see a well executed icon set that has a major problem — it is close to impossible to distinguish the items from one another. The key attribute of a good icon (apart from a clear metaphor) is to quickly tell it apart from the others. And while on topic of color, almost each an every icon shares the exact same palette. Prime example of consistency working against the theme usability here. 

The variation in the silhouette is a conscious design decision.

> it is close to impossible to distinguish the items from one
another.

I have come across this argument before, and to be honest, I have never been able to notice any difference between using this type of icons and the square/silhouette-less ones. I'm the odd one /me thinks. :)

It's, indeed, looking like a matter of taste now. Anyways, let's focus on the color issue. I'll stop bothering you...for now. :P

Please note that there are lots of people who dislike the too grey icons. For example http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/gnome-38-to-ship-with-reworked-folder.html wrote a news item about it.

I also have personally experience as I "upgraded" my wife's Ubuntu Netbook Edition into Gnome Shell vanilla, she immediately bursted out that this looks ugly and she want's Ubuntu back. The default icon set in Ubuntu is quite nice, or at least not that ugly grey.

Also if you look at Gnome-look.org you can notice that the Faenza icon theme and derivates are the most rated and downloaded items there.

I just want to add that it's a little unfair to blame GNOME's grayness(or "ugliness") on the icons. They do have a problem, but the main issue in my opinion is Adwaita.

Try using Ambiance(Ubuntu's theme) from 13.04 in the latest GNOME, you'll notice the fine lines and the good details and contrast the theme has. That's what I noticed some days ago when I tested Ubuntu and that's what I think your wife was referring to.

I have reported a bug about parts of this before and I was asked to discuss the "taste" matters with the designers over IRC. There is nothing more frightening than discussing taste issues with another designer. :D


As a bonus demonstration, compare the mockup(left) I made some time ago and the real screenshot. I used the default icons and they absolutely look fine to me:

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/176/2/0/20d8b2e98ea4d79c6c7c608a959ab734-d54t4zg.png

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DYxSJFZhp70/UT5LEtZ0-SI/AAAAAAAAOiE/ACvyyWYY0Ts/s1600/nautilus-gnome-folder-icons.png


Lastly, this comment obviously doesn't belong here. :P

(In reply to comment #1)
> 
> There might be a little too much neutral colors, as much as there is blue. I'm
> changing the bug summary to focus on that particular issue.

Based on this I think a good starting point is to look at the set of icons for the default applications list, as those are the first icons a user will ever see in GNOME. Currently it's a little too white+blue, so below are some suggestions on how they could be livened up a little.

The default apps are web, evolution, empathy, rhythmbox, shotwell, libreoffice-writer, nautilus, gnome-documents.

From Michael, on jimmac's blog comment page:

"- Epiphany: the land masses really look frozen, just add a bit more green and brown, just like realy “earth from space” shots (or earlier versions of the icon I think).
- Rhythmbox: just make it brown or black, white speakers are not very common."

Some other suggestions:
- Evolution uses a white sheet on a white envelope. Perhaps some red+blue could be added to the envelope as in [1], and the sheet could be made more distinctive as seen for example in [2].

1. http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/jannoon028/jannoon0281206/jannoon028120600221/14178764-envelope-stamp-set-and-postcard.jpg
2. http://www.clker.com/cliparts/5/1/7/6/11971542601675001438kuba_Envelope_2.svg.med.png

- Empathy's icon is a blue smiley face on a white chat bubble. Perhaps the smiley could be yellow as it often is, but that would either stand out too much or not enough depending on how it's done. I think this is a hard one.

- Nautilus could probably use a different color for the cabinet. I think it would be really cool to use a very similar color to the one used in the folder icons as to create an automatic association for the user.

- Documents icon is predominantly white and that's ok. It fits well and looks great.

- Shotwell I suppose will be replaced by Photos, which has a very nice and fitting icon already. Libreoffice's icons don't really look good in GNOME but that's a separate project.

I'm not a designer so obviously these are just suggestions. I think the GNOME icon set looks great and significantly better than some of the alternatives people brought up in this bug, but of course improvements are always welcomed so I hope this post is useful. :)

I hate being the one to spoil the fun but just compare

old: http://worldofgnome.org/uploads/2013/03/icons-1.png
new: http://worldofgnome.org/uploads/2013/03/icons-2.png

While the new color looks a bit more "alive" it also feels a bit out of place IMHO and it really makes the special icon shapes harder to read.

The newly colored icons are quite horrible... The old ones had a green tint which I hated, it didn't fit into the theme at all, a blueish tint would have been better but I liked the overall theme of GNOME. It's modern and cool. Just like the Desktop itself with the new layout. A lot can be done with shades of gray as well. I think the combination of shades of gray + blue tones was a good choice, this new red is a step in the wrong direction unless the rest of the theme will follow (toolbar area needs to assume the color of the icons + the selection color too)

I also believe this bug should be renamed. If something is to be done about the look of GNOME, all areas have to be affected at once, not just the icons...

(In reply to comment #10)
> I also believe this bug should be renamed. If something is to be done about the
> look of GNOME, all areas have to be affected at once, not just the icons...

Actually bugs are supposed to be for specific issues and not a bikeshedding platform.

Good luck solving a design issue with that mentality.

I liked the old ones, don't like the new ones. ;)  I think the new ones stand out too much, like they jump out the screen and stab you in the eye.  They look fine alone, but they just stand out too much from the Adwaita colors.  Just my two cents.

Also I think the emblems are harder to make out in the new icons.  For example the Pictures folder, it's hard to see that it's a camera.

I discovered that the icons look different from the screenshots linked above in Fedora 19.  I really like what I see in Fedora 19; it's better than both the 'old' and 'new' screenshots above.  Great work!

Resetting assignee to default to avoid cookie-licking (see bug 744024).

Jimmac: If you actively and realistically plan to work on this, please set yourself as assignee again so this ticket will be shown on top of your user page at https://bugzilla.gnome.org/page.cgi?id=describeuser.html

Thanks!

Doesn't feel like keeping this one open will help us reach any sort of target.