Icon Design

[JohnCoates]

@HeyItsShuga has contributed a good start for an icon I've put the PSD on Invision https://invis.io/a/TEAQZT07RDGNY for anyone who wants to convert it to Sketch or to improve on this. As for moving forward with this I'd say do a solid color instead of a gradient and I'd like to see a version without the circle.

Sketch is the state of the art for UI design so I'd prefer to see assets made with that.

[Shugabuga]

Since I am stuck with a hotspot with a data cap, I'll provide some assets in PNG form before I convert it in Sketch (which should be easy).

No Gradient + No Circle:

This one, as with the one below, remind me of Windows Metro UI,

No Gradient + Circle:

Gradient + No Circle:

The gradient could be more subtle.

Gradient + Circle:

"The Original." Kinda designed it to look like the other store icons (Cydia, App Store, etc.).

I also had a black+gray one in the works, as with a red one. And the flower-loop one, but that subtracts from the infinity sign a bit. Here's that one anyways:

[JohnCoates]

I get why you say it looks like the metro UI. I think they use a similar green. Could we get a mockup of what it would look like on a home screen?

[Shugabuga]

@JohnCoates I finally got Sketch and redid the icon a bit (greens more bright, but that's it). Here's a mockup:

[Shugabuga]

And the new icon in its largest size:

[JohnCoates]

I'm seeing now that it's very similar to the App Store icon, that's intentional right? While it feels at home in context of Apple's stock icons, I feel that we should go a little more future-forward, and embrace that Limitless isn't a part of the traditional ecosystem.

I'm thinking thinner lines to really evoke that future feel. I really like the infinity symbol for the logo, but I feel we need an edgier representation of it. Green feels friendly and playful, but I want to evoke the feeling that Tesla, SpaceX, and Uber evoke. That feeling of stepping into the future.

Check out this page http://www.spacex.com/crew-dragon That. is. awesome. Maybe play around with some different colors. Blue. Gray. Those feel like they evoke that feeling of the future.

I was trying my hand at a header for the Github header, and I found an infinity glyph that I feel fits better. I really like the gaps in the glyph, I feel those give that futuristic feel as well. The source for my header is here if you want to use the glyph https://invis.io/a/4KARBLIV3BF69

[Shugabuga]

This is something I whipped up quickly. I don't know if I like the shade of blue I used. I think dark blue is fine, but the shade I used is too dark, and I don't want to make it too light either.

Thoughts?

[Shugabuga]

[Download ZIP]

Here are the icons and the SKETCH files for others to collaborate on.

[Sticktron]

Have you considered keeping the well-known "package" glyph and adding the infinity symbol to that? Would make more sense I think :)

[Shugabuga]

Never thought of that, but that may present some issues:

1) Is the Cydia icon under the same license as Cydia itself, so we can just "borrow" that glyph?

2) @JohnCoates wants the project to be a modernized Cydia-of-sorts, so I don't know what he feels about a icon sharing parts of the original Cydia icon.

3) Depending on the placement/size of the infinity sign on the glyph, it could get confusing if you have Cydia and Limitless installed.

[Sticktron]

re: #1 It's a pretty standard glyph, I don't think Saurik has any claim to the glyph itself. Certainly having the brown background AND the exact same glyph would be iffy, but an alternate bg colour and free glyph PLUS a differentiator (like the inifinity symbol) should be OK.

re: #2/3 I don't know John's thoughts on this yet it's just an idea; I'll try to make a few samples to see if it even looks good and different enough while being familiar :)

[Sticktron]

I just wanted to add that the package glyph doesn't have to be exactly the same, just familiar enough.

[JohnCoates]

Definitely open to seeing the concept! Every part of the project is completely open for debate. Looking forward to your samples.

[Shugabuga]

re @Sticktron: Yeah, if we used a black background, that should be fine (because of the futuristic ideology). I would use a similar glyph to Cydia. Maybe the infinity sign either inside the box (where the boxes were in the Cydia icon) or on the side of the box?

[Kfeavel]

This is a really rough sketch, but you could do something like this. Personally I'd remove the circle around the box icon, but I didn't make the resources and only spend 5 minutes or so coming up with the idea.

[Sticktron]

Crappy sketches, but you get the gist.

[Sticktron]

Re @Kfeavel That's interesting! I like the colour scheme too.

[Sticktron]

another goofy idea

[Kfeavel]

@Sticktron Thanks! I love your icon! I'd vote for that to be the final design or something close to it.

[pr1son3r]

really like the one @Sticktron made nice

[Shugabuga]

These are all really good @Sticktron! These are my favorites (in no specific order):

Also removed circle around the last one by the way.

[Sticktron]

Thanks guys! If there is interest from John I can make a proper quality version in PSD or Sketch format. Then we can play with colours and stuff.

And please feel free to riff off my ideas :)

[Shugabuga]

Yeah, a Sketch file would be nice, especially if we want to collaborate on the icons a bit (i.e. change colors and stuff) like you said.

Thank you for submitting us some nice-looking icons, though! 😉

[JohnCoates]

@Sticktron Sketch file would be great.

If everyone wants to post their designs, with a Sketch source or as an SVG if you don't have Sketch that would be great. Everyone can feel free to remix others' designs and post those too. Then we can hold a community vote when we have our next beta release.

[bootsM]

Hi all! I have a mockup courtesy of Paul Devlin/Paulebhoy.. think it really invokes the spacex Tesla style

[RKO1195]

This is the design to go with.. Paul knocked it out of the park as always hope you take this up John

Thanks RKO1195

[JohnCoates]

@bootsM wow, that looks amazing! Definitely evokes that feeling of being on the edge of the future. Would be interested in a flat version too. Maybe where the planet is a solid white and the trails could be negative space. Could we get the Sketch file or SVG posted for remixing?

@RKO1195 I'm going to try and leave it up to a community vote.

[Kfeavel]

@JohnCoates Personally I'm a fan of the one in the image. I'm an advocate for more detail in iOS design and less white / negative space, but that's just personal opinion.

[ThatGuyCoe]

Loving that Design Paul, not sure I've seen an icon that nice for a while now :)

[Shugabuga]

@JohnCoates I was playing around in Photoshop to quickly make a mockup of the icon with the trails being in negative space, and idk how I feel about it. While I do feel like the proposed icon is well made despite being non-flat (I also prefer iOS 7's flat styling), I think fully flattening it would ruin what makes the icon great: its detail.

Anyways, just a rough idea on what it would look like with the trails in negative space (since I don't have the source file):

[neaah44]

Redesigned the green icon a bit.

[Kfeavel]

I recreated the SpaceX style icons in Sketch and exported them here. I may have forgotten to make them exactly 512 and 1024, so if we want it to be in the app, just stretch it using Preview until we get the real copies.

I can host the sketch file on my website if people want.

[uroboro]

I've applied some of the icons previously posted to personal projects to see how they look on a device:

I really wish support for older devices/iOS versions weren't dropped but what can I do. As you can see, besides the glossy overlay, the SpaceX-like icon has a lower color contrast that hinders appreciating its design. Similarly on the rightmost one the package is barely visible. The two on the left are the best looking in these conditions, while ignoring the white border due to the image being smaller than required.

[Kfeavel]

@uroboro I thought the point of Limitless was to design the app with iOS 7+ in mind? That would mean that the glossy effect does not apply...

[bootsM]

Also keep in mind too that most people who are jbn will not be running stock icons and so will not have that gloss overlay

[uroboro]

@Kfeavel designing for a newer iOS version isn't mutually exclusive with actively removing support for older ones. It would require code branching and pragmas but it would still work for some features.

[Shugabuga]

@K3yB0ardC4t I think we scrapped the green icon because it was not futuristic enough, and the green color doesn't really invoke the feelings that we are going for.

@bootsM In fact, iOS 7 and above removed the glossy overlay, and Limitless won't support <iOS 7 for sure. The gloss is not even in the picture.

@Kfeavel I'd compress it as a ZIP and upload it in this issue via drag and drop. This way, you don't have to deal with bandwidth and uptime.

[kirb]

It's nice to support everything, but supporting everything is what this project is against because it constrains what's possible. Hence the name, and hence why the target is 9.0. (Sorry uro)

[Sticktron]

What specifically needs >= iOS 7 that can't be done in a way that supports older versions? I agree with @uroboro that it seems hasty to exclude older OS's right from the get go.

If this is meant as a replacement for Cydia or to be incorporated into Cydia itself it should work back as far as possible no? Otherwise it's definitely a separate entity that will co-exist, and then what's the point of using the Cydia code base in the first place?

[Kfeavel]

Here's the replica icon zip file for the curious: LimitlessSketch.zip

My website is hosted with GitHub so there's no need to worry about bandwidth or whatever. So if for whatever reason this file doesn't work or goes away or whatever, you can download it at http://kfeavel.com/downloads/LimitlessSketch.zip

[uroboro]

@kirb I don't mean to make everything new be supported backwards. What I mean is that if something works, leave it; if there's a newer API, branch the code; if something that doesn't exist is added, make it so it doesn't cause crashes on older versions. In other words, old devices don't get new features but don't cut support because of them.

Examples are UITableViewRowAction and UIApplicationShortcutItems which would require weaklinking the classes for them to work on old iOS versions.

[Shugabuga]

@uroboro I'm pretty sure backporting is one of the goals of Limitless, but with the all version-supporting version being Cydia, but with some features backported.

[JohnCoates]

here's another version paul e bhoy made

[Sticktron]

I drew some proper high-res icons based on my earlier ideas. You can get the PSD / sample pngs from my repo: limitless-icon

Philosophy: the most memorable logos can be drawn in the sand with a stick. This is Cydia's package "box of packages" logo, but instead of a few packages we are limitless!

Another take

Example of a themed version of the limitless glyph.

[Sticktron]

PS the PSD template makes it easy to test different bgs, sizes, etc. Please feel free to improvise if you have any ideas.

[neaah44]

A version of the star trails that looks more like a stock iOS icon (The off-center is real, jeez)

[Shugabuga]

Do you have a SVG, SKETCH, or PSD file? I want to mess around with it (fix centering, make trails more faint, etc).

[neaah44]

Extracted the PSD from Pixelmator, not sure if it works correctly in Photoshop. Limitless.zip

[RKO1195]

No offense to others but I would suggest just using one good icon and let that person make it and go with it! If you want something changed on it tell him and he will make it the way you want it. Clearly Paul e boys is the best out of any of them

John C

[Shugabuga]

@RKO1195 Fair point, and PaulE's is the best candidate so far.

@K3yB0ardC4t I was just going to play with the opacity of the star trails as it seems too opaque to me. Maybe 40%?

[shamair28]

Something I quickly made up in Adobe XD.

Unaltered Icon.

What it looks like on iOS.