Adam Betts on the Adium Icon's Past, Present & Future
I've worked with artist Adam Betts in the past, namely on MacThemes, and he is pretty much one of the top icon artists out there. One of his creations, of course, is the now pretty iconic Adium duck, and he was happy to sit down for a bit and chat about its history, and its future. Thanks again to Adam, and enjoy!
What got you involved with Adium? Did Adam Iser contact you for a new icon, or vice versa?
I did the icon on my own after being inspired by original Adium icon (blue aqua duck made by Adam Iser.) I loved the posture and felt that I can give it a much needed soul and feathers. I don't remember exactly how Adam Iser reacted, but I do remember that he disliked it at first but it grew on him later.
I got involved with Adium at its earliest release (way before iChat even existed) and there was only one other competitor (Fire.app.) I've always believed in Adium and its community and felt that I should contribute in any way possible. I consider early Adium to be one of the first true Mac apps in term of usability and presentation.
It absolutely was, it was the first OS X app that amazed me. And Fire wasn't a strong competitor then, and still isn't now. Anyway, it's clear from the current icon that you sought to rather massively update Adium's previous icon while maintaining the now rather iconic duck. Were there ever any thoughts on doing something radically different?
Not really radically different but I have thought for a long time of doing photorealistic Adium duck to be more inline along with Apple icon guidelines. I got to experiment with that recently but the result didn't come out as I expected for several reasons which I'll explain below.
The very key element of the duck is his eyes. It gives icon a message of "Why me worry?". His primary job is to transport your messages to your friends/families, he do not care for your attention. Turning him into photorealistic graphic destroyed that message by being in your face with a three-dimensional head. The original Adium soul you know and love would not exist anymore. Another thing that did not work is real feathers. While it looks cool and realistic at large size, it resized very poorly at small size. I have also attempted turning the icon into a more "typical" OS X icon (ex: documents lying on desk, speech bubble, etc.) but these belong to a sea of mediocrity so I chose not to go on that path.
I have also pondered about creating a completely new brand for Adium. I have several ideas in mind but honestly the real question is, why should I change something that had a strong hand in developing the strong Adium community? Not to mention the countless hours of effort put in by fans customizing the duck with costumes. I want to preserve other artists' custom costumes so they can easily update their art in photoshop by removing the original icon layer and insert new one. The shape of refreshed Adium icon will be nearly identical to current one so there won't be much changes needed.
Well, there has always been a subset requesting a more "professional" alternative icon. Maybe that could be an option in the future?
I'm not sure what people is expecting for in a more professional alternative icon but it is not an area I will pursue for Adium. I strongly believe that chatting experience should be lively, not monotone like you're talking to a robot on the other side. Icons play an important role for that. Besides, there's always the Adium Xtras site for people looking for different icons.
So for now, you're working on a refreshed icon, which we'll be featuring this coming Tuesday in a "Pimp your App" for Adium. What should Adium users expect?
Adium users will be disappointed to hear that Adiumy the Duck still couldn't find a girlfriend but with his upcoming refreshed look, he may as well start his own MyDuckSpace profile.
I plan to include the usual 5 fur colors for Adium and fan artists should be glad to hear that refreshed icon is being carefully designed to allow for infinite color choice without any odd artifacts or color mismatches found in current icon. You want a nice looking black or hot pink version? Not a problem.
What about the preference icons? Jasper Hauser and I worked on them years ago, but they are outdated now, and some of the new ones are in a different style, losing consistency. Any thoughts on them?
He did a good job on most of the toolbar icons, but like you said consistency is no longer there with newer icons from different artists and I plan to fix that with new preference icons for next week's feature as well. Adium is all about customizability and most people see the preference window daily to change the overall Adium appearance and settings, so preference icons should be pleasant-looking, not hacked together.
Anything else?
After this Tuesday, I will begin the work on new Adium T-Shirts. I will post more details later.
Sounds great! Thanks for the interview, and I look forward to seeing your icons next week.
Comments
Up until this point, there have been 30 responses to “Adam Betts on the Adium Icon's Past, Present & Future”:
Great interview Phill, way to flex your connections!
That is SO not the original Adium Duck!
The orignal icon is cool, but the 'Bibah' icon set is much better. its just cuter and more modern. it catches everyone's eye when they look at my Mac.
Great interview, and it will be very useful for a post about Aidumy that I'm working on for our blog.
The Adium duck icon is so idiotic and annoying. It's the first thing my friends and I all replace when we install Adium on a Mac, along with the stupid quacking sounds. For a popular Mac app, it's surprising to see such a gigantic aesthetic flaw that everyone immediately replaces. It makes the app seem goofy and amateur.
The Adium duck looks _very_ similar to Orville the Duck: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orville_the_Duck
Tha t duck is the stupidest damn icon ever. I don't know anyone who likes it. This is a wierd article.
The blue bird looks really confused. The green duck, OTHO, projects sheer panic.
The adium duck is probably the least attractive icon in my dock, I'm kind of suprised there are a lot of people who like it... I mean no offense to the artist, I probably couldn't do better myself.
I love the Adium duck! It's the mascot and adds so much personality to this project. It's always been a part of Adium. Also noteworthy, AIM + DUCK = ADIUM. The name doesn't make sense without the duck!
The metaphor behind the adium duck is that he is delivering your messages like a messenger bird. I love the fact that he flaps his wings when you get a message. I think the icon could be improved upon but I really like the concept and idea behind the duck. It certainly gives brand identity which is very important in an application icon. Other "chat bubble" icons really dont say much about the application you are using. I can't wait to see the new ones Adam 
"The name doesn’t make sense without the duck!"
Is it not named after the developer + AIM?
Phill Ryu
Nope, it's duck + adium. AdIuM. The dev's name is Adam Iser.
It used to be Cocaim, then Adium CK, then Adium, now it's Adium X.
And the duck rocks. We're not changing it.
hahaa.... i never use that adium duck! i think the style quite not match on Mac.
anyway. here's a nice blog.
i will keep checking
Yup. That duck is childish and unprofessional, and in saying that I really dig Adam Betts other works. Good thing adiumxtras exist.
FWIW when I read this article I was one of those going "people like that duck? Seriously?!"
Cuz I've installed adium for many people and constantly replace/apologize for the duck. I think the quacking sound was replaced thank god on the adium beta that just cameou
Nice perspective from Adam especially regarding his thoughts on making a typical OSX icon. I love the duck and its nice to have an icon which can differentiate itself from all the other apps. The fun and comical feel of the duck also encourages one to customize Adium with other icons and skins. Dress him up, make him go quack, and whatever else you feel like. I think the Duck and Moof would definitely get along.
I think it's amazing that something so universally hated is accepted because the software itself is so damn good. I guess that's some kinda mark of quality.
But Cocaim ... that is a helluva name for an AIM app.
Quite cool. The logo is ok.. nothing too special though.
hey!
many people love the duck
it's a nice icon, and IT fits in aqua. the color are vibrand , the duck has a good perspective . and it has personnality. very useful in the dock to have personnality.
many people use the duck , you can see many interpretations of adiumy on the community website.
sometimes I wonder if some people hate fun. it's fine fun here.
Wow, I'm surprised by the many claims that the Adium icon is a poor choice for an icon. I think it's great and really does achieve it's purpose of "thinking different", which is a foundation aspect of the Mac itself. Way to go, Adium team! Keep up the great work.
This was a good read.. Thanks for this... Something I never really thought of until now.
I am also surprised at the number of negative feedback posts on the Adium duck. To each their own, though. I always thought the duck had so much personality. I feel that there are way too many icons without substanance out there.
Some people just need a sense of humor.
I find the duck quite amusing.
It's nice to have some "fun-ness" in your apps.
I'm glad to see Adium and it's community continue to prosper. Out of all the OS X applications I use on a daily basis, Adium is one of my favorites.
I really like the Adiumy duck icon, but what I really like is that it's so easy to change that icon to whatever you want. And with the huge assortment of Adium xtras, there are plenty of options to choose from.
Personally, I'm a PowerBook Duck icon user.
http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=xtras&xtra_id=1100
It's a perfect compliment to my MacBook Pro.
I understood that the original icon was not, in fact, a duck at all, but a pigeon. As Brian said earlier, it was a homing pigeon delivering instant messages, but the original artist wasn't very good and it wound up being a nondescript bird.
History aside, I prefer just about any other icon to the duck.
The Red Barron that's currently over at http://homepage.mac.com/wunderwood/adiumicons/ was originally made for me and my icon has never been anything else
I just noticed that the adium smilies are done... I used to check the site every week in anticipation of them!
[...] As promised, today brings a new addition of “Pimp your App”. The target? The beloved multi-protocol chat application, Adium. I can’t think of any other app that really encourages customization as much as Adium, so while I’ll be recommending various modifications available on the Adium Xtras site, I knew this Pimp your App had to include something else special. So of course, as many of you readers know, in an interview earlier in the week, Adium icon artist Adam Betts promised to release an updated application icon along with other goodies today. And I think you’ll agree that he delivered in spades once you see what he came up with. [...]
Lorhkan
July 06th, 2006 at 2:56pmCan't wait for this new icon !
And by the way, I bookmarked your blog (so "Apple" !), and did a post about it on mine !
Keep up the good work !