[TxMt] TextMate Icon proposal - Anime icon

[M Spreij]

Ryan Schmidt wrote:
> Hello, folks. Pardon the length of this email, but I wanted to throw my 
> hat into this ring.
> 
> I've just downloaded TextMate, and it has taken much restraint to 
> suppress the constant urge to toss that ugly icon into the Trash. I'll 
> make no apologies for the fact that I find it hideous, and if it were up 
> to me, I'd start over from scratch with a completely new design. Alas, I 
> am not a designer, so I cannot give you a mockup. But I would like to 
> get a description of my idea out into the open, so that someone with 
> artistic skills could give it a go.
> 
> A Mac OS X application icon is supposed to show the type of document the 
> program works with, and a tool that one might use to work with that kind 
> of document. See TextEdit, AppleWorks, and Preview. However since there 
> are many apps that do not exactly follow this guideline -- I'm thinking 
> of iTunes, Safari, Mail, and Address Book -- I think we have a little 
> room for interpretation. But I am still in favor of keeping the same 
> visual style and perspective used in the Apple icons.
> 
> I envision the finished icon as mostly white. The "document" part of my 
> icon idea is two sheets of white unlined paper, at the familiar angle 
> (see TextEdit), which look like they could be homework assignments or 
> test papers. I envision that text is hand-written on the papers -- but 
> it should be made clear from the indentation and varying line length and 
> such that it is programming code, not paragraphs of text. There should 
> be red markings on it, indicating where corrections have been made, and 
> possibly a red hand-written and circled A at the top of the page, 
> indicating the grade this assignment has theoretically received, or just 
> a checkmark or some other indication that the document is now A-OK, 
> thanks to TextMate.
> 
> The "tool" part is where I think we can depart from the recommendations 
> a bit, given the state of other Apple icons. I can't get along with the 
> current robot, so I suggest a happy anime cartoon boy. In anime, as in 
> other cartoons, characters often have superpowers or hidden abilities, 
> and this guy's power therefore is sprucing up your document quickly and 
> efficiently without getting in your way. He's standing proudly to the 
> right side of the papers, legs slightly apart, arms folded in front of 
> him, a red marker clearly visible in his hand, and with a stereotypical 
> spiky outrageously-colored anime hairstyle, possibly partially hidden by 
> a backwards-turned baseball cap. I see him wearing long white pants and 
> a white shirt or sweatshirt (and if only MacroMates had a logo, it could 
> be printed on the sweatshirt). I see the hair as being the icon's 
> primary source of color, but this could prove to be too little color, so 
> the shirt and/or pants may have to get some color too. The color of the 
> SubEthaEdit icon changed from blue to green with the 2.0 release, and 
> iTunes' icon has changed color with every major version as well; the 
> hair and/or clothing colors of this icon could also be changed across 
> TextMate versions if desired.

Darn.. what size screen do you have? My icons stop at 128 pixels :-D

Otherwise, excellent ideas. Now if we could get Kineticons ported we 
should start thinking about the 3D animated version!

Regards,

     Martin