In 2009 Firefox decided to refresh its Firefox application icon in preparation for the release of the Firefox 3.5 version. The designers at Firefox decided to update and evolve the icon to reflect a browser that has undergone some significant changes. The brief for the new Firefox icon concentrated on developing certain areas of the icon such as the shape of the tail, the textures and the level of detail in the icon whilst sticking to the overall shape and layout based on the original conceptual sketches and renders by Jon Hicks. Anthony Piraino at the Iconfactory was the artist responsible for rendering the icon. The idea was to modernise and streamline the appearance of the icon and it took the development of 14 iterations to achieve the desired effect. The image above shows some examples of these iterations. The subtle differences in the iterations concern the visible continents on the planet Mozilla in addition to the appearance of its areas of glare and shadow and the lightness of the fox’s fur. The principle designer at Firefox created a blog to which he posted each newly evolved iteration as it was developed in order to gain feedback from the community. Therefore the community played an active role in the progression of the design process. The feedback received for each iteration formed a catalyst for the development of the next and so on until iteration 14 was complete and a new Firefox icon was born.
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