The Jopin icon is going to change soon. The one we have now is something I put together quickly, not knowing if the project would interest someone, so I didn’t want to spend too much time on it. Now that the project is more mature, it makes sense to start improving the visuals - first the icon, then the logo font, the website and finally the app UI (although these have already been improved little by little over the past year).
Before picking an icon, I’d be interested to hear about your feedback and whether you have a preference among those below. They all share the same idea - which is something that looks like a note, and that contains a “J” too.
Feedback is welcome! And if you have a preference please put your top 2 or 3 icons in your post and we’ll do a tally in a few days.
I’m sorry but I have to be very blunt because I think that you’re making a big mistake. The new icons are horrible. The idea to combine “J” and note doesn’t work at all, the “J” is barely recognizable and the “curly note” doesn’t look good. Some of the icons have bad color choices and other design problems that will be more evident when the icons are smaller.
I don’t understand why you have to change the current icon, it’s perfect! It’s simple and cool, and it’s very recognizable as it is now! E.g. it looks very good and cool on Android, and in Windows too (in small and larger size)! Same with the logo and its text/font, it’s very nice.
My vote is: CURRENT ICON AND LOGO. No need to change anything… and no change for the sake of change, please! Thank you for listening.
I disagree with @Anon on the new icons, while I feel there isn’t a pressing need to update the icon, those presented here are very nice and now is as good a time as any to change.
Personally I prefer options A and B. I find B more aesthetically pleasing, but A is more unique and seems to fit better with Joplin in my mind. For both I agree with @Anon that the colours could use some tweaking.
Thanks for the early feedback. I can understand it’s not everyone’s cup of tea to change the icon - the current one does the job in terms of functionality - you know what it is, it’s visible among other icons, and you’re used to it. However it’s really just a “J” from some font on a blue background.
As the project evolves it makes sense to review the visuals and in particular the icon. A good quality icon puts the project and our work under a better light. While existing users don’t mind too much, new ones might be put off by what looks like an amateurish icon.
In any case it’s tricky to change an icon - there are hundreds of different options, and each option has hundreds of different variants. An the fact that we’re used to the current one makes it difficult. But we need to change it, so both positive and negative feedback are welcome, especially comments I can act on.
And it's great! The background also has gradient that makes it look nice. There are many icons that have only the first letter of the app/program/company in it.. even simpler than the current Joplin one, for example MEGA app on Android, it's just "M" with red background (without gradient) and it looks really good and is distinct.
Why the need of something fancy that might not even scale very well? For example, you should have posted most used size variants of every new design so people could make true assessment of them. For example, I have disabled big icons from Windows taskbar, which means that the icons for the opened/pinned programs are only 16px in size (big icons are 32px). Have you tried your new icons in different sizes, especially smaller sizes? I could have made a picture with different sizes of them by scaling the new ones, but it would be much better if you'd do that in your vector graphics program to make them scale "cleanly".
I don't like the light blue color on many of the icons, also the "outer color area, then whiter inner color area" design isn't very good IMHO, it also makes the actual "descriptive" note icon very small. All but one of the proposed icons have this design.
Why? Because you think the current one is amateurish? It is really not. The new ones are amateurish. They look so bland and uninspired. Look at some of the big companies out there... G is for Google... J is for Joplin, why dilute that in the new icons? I'm sorry for criticizing so vehemently but I honestly think that you're making a mistake. And I don't think that my resistance is due to me being "used to the current one" because I have barely just started using Joplin (which is great btw!).
If made to choose I would go for F or G, basically because they are quite high contrast and do not drift too far from the current colour scheme. However I would possibly invert them so the icon background is blue and the logo white (like the current icon). I say this as I feel that at smaller sizes a bright white background can overpower the the logo element it surrounds.
At the taskbar icon size of 16x16 the colours of D or the lower contrast of B and H could be a problem. Also at smaller sizes the design starts to look like a printer icon rather than a J shaped note.
The new style does not work so well with the logo / logotype used on the web-site and forum as the fact that the “curled note” is also a J can be missed.
Personally I’m not going to get upset by any icon change but, like @anon says, there really isn’t anything wrong with the icon you have. To me it looks clean and distinctive on desktop, tablet and mobile. It may have been put together quickly but that doesn’t make it bad!
To answer a few questions: yes the icon is meant to be resized and recognisable at 16x16 pixels. I've done the previous icon so I know what's required
A letter on its own is fine if it looks good.
Note how this design has both the letter and the picture. Good design. Yes.
The note/letter mix doesn't have to be in your face. If people don't notice it's also a "J" it's fine. Most people don't notice the arrow on the Fedex logo either but that doesn't mean it's a bad logo.
I would guess that laurent's comment about the note / letter mix may have been directed more towards my post than your (very) humourous suggestion, even though he quotes your post.
You also mention that it isn’t necessary to ape Evernote’s elephant theme.
But what about...?
I'll shut up about this now as I will be happy with whatever laurent picks. An icon will not stop me using and supporting Joplin.
I thought you meant a logo made of a J and a note is not necessarily a good one, which would be a fair point. No I didn't assume you wanted a logo made of toilet rolls
I really like all of the EXCEPT A. I won’t go as far as the toilet paper, but don’t see either a not or a J and not that someone mentioned toilet paper, I can’t get it out of my mind when I see it.
FWIW, none of the proposed icons give me an association with the letter J. It’s a curled document, really nice, some resemblance (CEFG) with a music note.
I'm sorry for criticizing so vehemently but I honestly think that you're making a mistake. And I don't think that my resistance is due to me being "used to the current one" because I have barely just started using Joplin (which is great btw!).
