PRAEFLAIPS

[pasithea]

Praeflaips (n): slang Tasteless Icons. Specifically in reference to the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Propduction Premium box set.

So... I bought new software to upgrade my system. I hadn't bought a new set of adobe software in nearly a decade. Half my apps still ran in OS-9 mode. o_O In some ways, I'm surprised by how little they've changed. My OS-9 apps were of course slow on my dual 1Ghz tower and wouldn't run on my intel mac at all. My other apps were running in rosetta on my Intel Mac and I'm disappointed I didn't see a big performance increase by getting the now universal-binary versions. *sigh*

It's nice to have Premiere and After Effects back. I've missed them.. But these icons. These ugly fucking icons. My doc now has a series of blocks that reads PrAeFlAiPs across it. Ugh. They clash with every other app on my system (except marginally the current Maya Icon and that's only because Autodesk bought it and they've never had taste either)

Blah.

Regrettably, I haven't really got to test out the new software yet because I'm doing a big video rendering process and it's taking forever and a day. *sigh* Ohwell. Anyhow... PRAEFLAIPS is your word for the day. Use it where-ever you see ugly icons.

Comments

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

This is why every software company should hire at least one social sciences major. Or, failing that, a ten-year-old child. Or somebody else who could take one look at a piece of blatant snarkbait like that and say "What the FUCK are you people thinking?!"

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

"Fetch me a child of five."

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

You know, out of context like that, you almost make it sound Shakespearean. :)

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Sounds like whoever designed the icons is a chemistry nut and wanted them to look like the Periodic Table.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Totally - google around a bit and you'll find the Periodic Table of Adobe Software. Oddly enough Acrobat got to retain its distinctive swirly-triangle-A; I guess they have more political power than everyone else.

IIRC this redesign was headed by design folks who got absorbed when Adobe bought Macromedia; if you look at Macromedia's old branding (circles with a letter or two in an interesting custom font) you can see the relationship.

Me, I pulled the icons off of the last pre-CS versions of the Adobe tools I use when the ugly CS redesign came along.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

According to this blog post, the new icons also use a custom font. Too bad it couldn't be more interesting than just looking like Trebuchet. (I thought it *was* Trebuchet until I read that.)