I am delighted to announce that my article about creating 512x512 icons for Mac OS X Leopard has been published at Smashing Magazine!

Smashing Magazine delivers useful, inspirational and innovative information for designers and web-developers and it's a great pleasure for me to contribute to such a creative designer environment!

“In 2000 Apple released the visual theme Aqua, a stunning leap forward in graphical user interface design. At the same time Apple published the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), a tool for developers and designers that gives a detailed breakdown of the design philosophy behind Aqua. Apple recently updated their Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), to include the way the visual theme Aqua has evolved in Apple's latest operating system, OS X 10.5 Leopard. This is the first update since 2006.”

Aqua: "Gorgeous, artistic icons are an important part of the Mac OS X user experience. Users expect beautiful icons that tell an application’s story in a clear and memorable way". Well, how do icon designers go about creating beautiful icons in 512x512 glory? Leopard and the Updated HIG: A Designer's Guide to Icons examines Aqua's interface. Realism, symbols, silhouettes, transparency, light source and perspective. We take a look at the Dock, Leopard's file browser Cover Flow and the icon sizes. Finally you will find some practical tips on how to scale your art work so that the smaller versions become crisp and clear.

Tags: Apple, Mac OS X, Leopard, interface, design, usability, gui, guide, tutorial, realism

Sick of that boring, impersonal, generic computer desktop but not quite sure how to change it and make it yours? The Help Desk is open! Here you you can find out how to use icons to make your desktop personal and productive.

Step-by-step tutorials guide you through how to save desktop art to your computer with ease and change the desktop icons on Mac OSX or customize the icons on Windows, how to use system replacement icons as well as how to customise your desktop picture / wallpaper with just a few clicks. Tutorials both for Windows and Mac.

There is no need to worry about which operating system you are using! These simple steps work in both Windows Vista, Windows XP as well as the classic, older Windows operating systems. Mac users can use these tutorials both to customise Mac OSX Leopard, the previous verisons of Mac OSX and the classic older versions of Mac operating systems.

There is also a printable PDF version that provides a way for you to keep an offline copy or print a copy for later use. Sometimes it can be handy to have a printed version on one's desk, whilst going through the different steps.

It's fun and easy to beautify your desktop! To make your digital working and leisure environment personal, functional, practical, gorgeous, to give it the look and visual cues you want it to have!

Tags: tutorial, gui, guide, how-to, faq, customise, customisation, productivity, desktop, Mac, Mac OS X, Leopard, Windows, Vista