Inside CS2: MetaDesign Shares Its Secrets
Source: CreativePro
Written By Terri Stone, creativepro.com editor in chief
Creative Director Brett Wickens reveals the process behind the packaging for Adobe Creative Suite 2. While we might not all have the resources to x-ray a bus, we can all benefit from this case study in brand evolution.
When the first Creative Suite came out, the buzz was as much about the new application icons as it was about the apps themselves. The Photoshop eye: gone. The Illustrator Venus: gone. Changes to the GoLive and InDesign icons were less dramatic, but those programs weren’t long-time mainstays on a designer’s desktop.
MetaDesign was the firm responsible for these radical departures. In a recent interview, MetaDesign vice president and creative director Brett Wickens told me that this “seismic shift in imagery” grew out of a clear strategy: “The advent of the Creative Suite was a tipping point, with Adobe moving into a new, exciting space. We were tasked to create packaging that connected emotionally with the creative professional audience.”
“Any motif that lives long enough becomes familiar, and familiarity breeds lack of interest,” Wickens continues. “It was time to revamp the creative professional line to indicate that the suite was a new concept, with a lot of new features.”
The new icons were meant to convey precision, beauty, and inspiration. “A nature theme satisfied all those attributes,” says Wickens. Thus Photoshop was represented by a feather (an early drawing tool, after all) and Illustrator by a flower. GoLive stayed with a celestial theme (a star) and InDesign’s butterfly merely became more abstract.
Editor’s note: this is an interesting look inside the development and creation of CS2 design for iconic art and the packaging. Now we know what the FEATHERS are supposed to mean!