Proposal for a New Finder Icon

Jun 14, 2025 • Extra Ordinary

I would like to present, in response to the widely criticized Finder icon in macOS Tahoe Developer Beta 1, the icon I created in literally fifteen minutes with Pixelmator Pro and Apple’s own Icon Composer. Apple could very easily keep the icon’s historical appearance without compromising the Liquid Glass aesthetic by just… flipping the color palette.

More thoughts, after being bothered by this all weekend

The frustrating thing is that Apple definitely prototyped this exact design. It was probably one of the first designs they tried.

But I’ve seen it happen before, especially in group settings — a perceived and self-imposed roadblock prevents you from doing the obvious thing. “Well, we obviously can’t do that, because…” [insert imaginary reason here]. It’s how a group boxes itself into making weird decisions.

Well, sometimes the obvious first thing you try is actually the best all along.

Reply by
Email • Mastodon

More from Extra Ordinary