A celebration of app icon design on the desktop

The macOS App Icon Book is a beautiful artbook dedicated to preserving the craft of app icon design. It's a vibrant journey through the art of desktop app iconography for macOS. The book features hundreds of icons created by designers and developers from around the world over the course of more than a decade.

The icons in the book showcase conceptual and executional excellence in icon design and create a tapestry that tells the story of visual design on one of the most influential platforms of our time. It is both a source of inspiration and a historical archive, inspiring new work and preserving old icons for future generations.

A beautiful artbook

The hundreds of works of art in this book have been carefully curated, obtained from the teams that produced them and arranged into beautiful spreads that explore a wide range of themes and styles.

Some icons are showcased with multiple versions to show their evolution over the years.   

A look behind the craft

The book also features artist spotlights, a series of interviews with the humans behind the pixels sharing the secrets behind their craft. Learn how they got into app icon design, and read about their processes and tools.

As much as I wanted to feature the art produced, I also wanted to tell stories from around the world of the people that made the art.   

Why make this book?

After the overwhelming success of The iOS App Icon Book it was clear that I hadn't wasted 4 years hallucinating that this would be a worthwhile endeavour. This art form, which had been a guiding pillar in my career, was luckily something that a lot of other people also had a passion for.

The first book took more than 4 years from inception to Kickstarter (and another 4 months to deliver) and so it was with some hesitation that I started making another one. But a book about icons for the platform most of us use to produce our work was important and so preparations got underway right after The iOS App Icon Book had been delivered to backers.

I started making desktop icons long before the smartphone was introduced and in many ways the history of icons on macOS is a much longer one, with fewer constraints and more experimentation. 

The Macintosh popularised the graphical user interface and laid the foundations for how we still use computers to this day. Most of the icons produced for this platform through its winding history are long lost to time. Since those tiny pixels appeared on our computer screens, icons have grown into multi-platform branding elements. Icon design on the Mac has experienced a similar golden age as iOS icon design and we need to preserve this art before it too disappears.

By collecting this work in a hardcover book, we are turning what was once only digital into something tangible. Something ephemeral into something you can hold. I have found that this process not only elevates the art to its rightful importance but also creates a preservable timecapsule that tells the story of visual design. This has never been more clear to me than after shipping the first book, and these books are more important than ever.   

A labor of love

This book joins its predecessor, The iOS App Icon Book, in featuring the often underappreciated art form of icon design. It has been written and put together by Michael Flarup, a Danish designer with a deep passion for app icons. ‘Just making things that make me happy’ is usually how Michael explains his multidisciplinary career. His signature visual style is best described as vibrant and playful. Today you’ll find him running his game studio Northplay, freelancing as a graphic designer or speaking at conferences around the world while getting involved in as many side projects he can manage while being a dad. He is not super comfortable writing about himself in the third person, but his editor insisted.

Anders Bothmann is a Danish designer with a background in print. He has been the architect behind the layout, preparing templates, and patiently helping Michael fumble his way through InDesign (again). He also coordinated the actual production of the book with our Danish printer.

Jim Nielsen runs and curates a range of icon gallery websites (e.g. macosicongallery.com). He was instrumental in the creation of the first book and has also advised on and helped Michael with this book.

Marc Edwards is a legendary designer and pixel connoisseur. He joined as an advisor early on and has been a great sounding board for the book.

Oliver Lindberg is an independent editor, content consultant and conference curator. He is editing this book and whipping it into a consistent reading experience.   

What's next?

After working on the book for more than a year, we're finally at the Kickstarter stage again. Here's what's still missing, along with the expected timelines.

Finalising

The content for the book is 80% done and so is the layout. I'm keeping the door open for any last minute icon submissions and I also want to set aside some time to tweak the structure of the book and go over everything with my editor. I expect to finalise the book in October.

Production

We're again partnering with Narayana Press, a small printer in the countryside of Jutland with a long history of fantastic craftsmanship in artbooks. They have production capabilities ready for us in November.

Shipping

We expect to start shipping in January. Right now we're set up to handle shipping ourselves, but that will depend on the volume of the first production run.   

Book specs

The book will be very similar to The iOS App Icon Book at around 150 pages. It’ll be printed on 170g heavyweight coated silk paper. The whole thing is wrapped in a cover printed on 150g heavyweight coated paper with holographic diffraction sliver embos. Complete with textile binding, headbanding, and separate endpaper. The finished book will be approximately 200mm x 250mm.

Credits

Apart from the core team, many other people have helped make this book: 

The artists in the spotlights who have graciously shared their stories and insights.

The countless contributors who have submitted artwork and have jumped through legal hoops to sign agreements and make the highest quality printable versions of their icons available to us.

A special thank you to Thibaut Crepelle who graciously let me use parts of his cool 1984 Macintosh animation for the Kickstarter video.

Also a special thanks to A For Ox, who produced the beautiful 3D renders used to portray the book in this campaign.

People have again had an enormous portion of goodwill towards the project in general, and I’m thankful for all the help and encouraging words we’ve received along the way. I hope to make a product that each and every one of you will be proud to have taken a part in.