The icons are quite polarising - see them for yourself

[nihil0]

Some of them have too much shadow or emboss effect (Facetime, Messages, App Store), some of them look nice and fresh. I really hope that they will continue to improve those ugly ones during betas (QuickTime I am looking at you).

Apart from QuickTime the one which stands out most for me is Preview. It seems very out of place among all those minimalistic icons.

 

[jdliebs52711]

The new icons seem to be quite polarising. So I've created a folders and pasted over the top of the folder, all the application, utility and Finder icons.

These can be downloaded here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApTe0QWToWmMgRI40XLv View attachment 926797 1lK2eW49?e=HDLmXP

You'll need a Mac to see them

did you delete them? the link doesn't work when I click on it...

 

[Taz Mangus]

I really like the fresh new look to MacOS. It will take some getting use to for some people but none the less it has arrived.

 

[potatis]

I like the new mail icon but they forgot to make the trashcan into a squircle...

 

[ValSalva]

Taste is subjective. But wow, not only are the icons terrible, the OS seems designed for grade-schoolers. Remember Steve Jobs said that Microsoft lacked taste? What has happened at Apple?

Obviously stability and the ability to get work done is most important but using a system that has a solid and professional look and feel is also important. Big Sur's updated look does not instill confidence and is therefore uncomfortable to use. I hope it grows on me.

 

[iMac-iPad]

i really love the new UI apple made in macOS 11 including icons applying the Neumorphism as the minimal realistic look, more bright intuitive and touch-friendly...some fine adjustments would come over time hopefully

 

[Harvey Zoltan]

Gee Photo Booth is a crime against humanity.

 

[Dhock_Holiday]

The new icons have been growing on me, can't wait for touchscreen support.

 

[vaugha]

I'm very happy that they removed the drop-down shadow from the menu bar in light mode. It was absolutely driving me insane and the reason why I refused to use light mode in catalina. The best part is the new menu bar blends in w/ the wallpaper and it looks seamless which I love. Best looking os I've seen so far.

There are fine tuning required in other areas - bezels on the title bars, tool bars are inconsistent throughout. In the main system preferences panel, there is no bezel but in each subsequent panels there is. I don't know why they have to keep those bezels. Why don't they just remove the bezels and make them look clean? I love the clean look w/o the thick bezels.

I've noticed the colours of the title bar and the main windows in light mode match which gives a seamless look and looks very clean. In dark mode, the colours are different and I wish they would match it just like light mode and give it a clean, coherent look.

 

[Falhófnir]

Some of them have too much shadow or emboss effect (Facetime, Messages, App Store), some of them look nice and fresh. I really hope that they will continue to improve those ugly ones during betas (QuickTime I am looking at you).

Apart from QuickTime the one which stands out most for me is Preview. It seems very out of place among all those minimalistic icons.

I'd quite like them to add the rocket back for Launchpad, other than that I'm happy with the direction they've gone in, perhaps a few more tweaks to make them look more homogenous and we'll have a nice freshened interface 🙂

 

[kissmo]

I also like the throwback to skeuomorphic design.
I don’t like the vibrancy though. I wish they would add an option to reduce saturation. They really hurt my eyes.

 

[eflx]

Also the System Preferences icon ... look closely at the gears. Spikes? Terrible ... clearly the designer has never seen a gear in their lifetime haha they shouldn't kept the existing icon design

 

[Takuro]

They really need to balance out the drop shadow effects. The App Store, FaceTime, and Messages all have super deep shadows. Calculator, Home, and Mail have much tighter shadows. The rest have no shadows.

Some say this is called "neomorphic" design where you're supposed to realistically model how light passes through a shape, but the inconsistency here is undeniable. For things that use glyphs floating on a solid background, why is Books flat but the App Store is floating and casting a huge shadow? There's no consistency in the perspective.

Hopefully, they are just experimenting with a mix of shadow depths and will make it consistent in a future version. I vote for shallow or no shadows.

 

[n-evo]

The icons are polarizing?

 

[honcho]

The shadows on Messages and FaceTime don’t look right. The QuickTime icon is fugly. Then there are icons like Image Capture, Preview and Photo Booth with different outlines because of some arbitrary object placed in the lower-right quadrant. Chess, Calculator and Text Edit look like they were pasted over from OS X Panther. There’s no consistency. Why is the perspective different on FontBook and Dictionary? Both are book. I am not desperately impressed.

 

[Takuro]

Some people are experimenting with redesigning the Big Sur icons already. I think Apple should hire the person who made this and have them remake all the icons.

Credit: https://dribbble.com/shots/12238938-The-App-Store-Icon-macOS-Big-Sur

 

[SketchyClown]

It's official. Scott Forstall is back at Apple ?!?!?!?
[automerge]1592979465[/automerge]
I use Image2Icon (BTW NOT AFFILILATED AT ALL) to make my own icons or to take icons are modify them. That along with Pixelmator gets the job done. Some of my icons come from deviant art collections.

View attachment 927035

View attachment 927036

This looks very nice, and like it took some work for sure. So you are able to update these on Big Sur? I actually used to change my icons back a few OS versions ago, but I thought that with the new separate System being mounted read only that customizations like this would not be possible?

 

[Taz Mangus]

This looks very nice, and like it took some work for sure. So you are able to update these on Big Sur? I actually used to change my icons back a few OS versions ago, but I thought that with the new separate System being mounted read only that customizations like this would not be possible?

It is possible to make changes to the system volume but it requires more work on Big Sur.

Big Sur’s Signed System Volume: added security protection

From SIP to a protected read-only System volume, macOS 11 takes system protection a big step further with cryptographic verification.

eclecticlight.co

 

[roland.g]

This looks very nice, and like it took some work for sure. So you are able to update these on Big Sur? I actually used to change my icons back a few OS versions ago, but I thought that with the new separate System being mounted read only that customizations like this would not be possible?

They took a little work. Some I had from sets I downloaded. Some I made from downloaded by cropping a little to get rid of the border ring. Others I made entirely. But I have them all saved because sometimes updates revert the icon and I have to reset it which is easy.

As for Big Sur, I have not tried the beta so I’m not sure. But there are quite a few ways to usually get around things the system doesn’t want you to do.

 

[kmj2318]

I mostly like them. But we all know eventually macOS and iOS icons will be identical right? Seems like they did it just so they feel Mac-like, but can slowly flatten them over time.

 

[tomtad]

Some people are experimenting with redesigning the Big Sur icons already. I think Apple should hire the person who made this and have them remake all the icons.

View attachment 931452

Credit: https://dribbble.com/shots/12238938-The-App-Store-Icon-macOS-Big-Sur

This is the one that annoys me. The icon is three sticks which overlap and on the iOS flat version on the shadows where they overlap they are cut. Makes sense as this is essentially a glyph of a 3D object.

On Big Sur, the icon has depth and shading however the sticks are still cut. The version above makes much more sense.

 

[MisterSavage]

I love most of them. I think they look great.

 

[ErikGrim]

Monterey Icon Theme (Big Sur + iOS 14)

A macOS Big Sur + iOS 14 icon theme including core macOS apps and select third party apps. ImportantApple has significantly changed the method of replacing system icons for Big Sur. These icons have been tested and work on Big Sur developer beta 1 and 2, but I can not guarantee that they will...

www.gnelsondesign.com

Includes a script to install them on Big Sur

 

[retta283]

In my opinion the whole thing looks ghastly. It's quite similar to the mockups made of what flat OS X was going to look like when iOS 7 was out. It's bad.

 

[pioneer9k]

While I love the rich and detailed unique icons of past macOS, I am coming around to these and appreciate the consistency. some could be adjusted a bit or made to match of the other ones better. I specifically like the ones that are the regular squircle icon with a 3d touch, like preview or Xcode.