The Iconfactory

The Iconfactory
Homepage of the Iconfactory.
Type of site
 Icon and GUI customization database
Owner Corey Marion, Talos Tsui, and Gedeon Maheux
Website Iconfactory.com
Alexa rank Negative increase 153,562 (April 2014)[1]
Commercial freeware icons, shareware software
Launched April 1996

The Iconfactory is a small software and graphic design company that specializes in creating icons and software for creating and using icons. The company was founded in April 1996 by Corey Marion, Talos Tsui, and Gedeon Maheux. Lead Engineer Craig Hockenberry joined the company in 1997 and Artist Dave Brasgalla joined in January 1999. The company incorporated in January 2000. The Iconfactory gained popularity through the creation of packages of free icons for download, but quickly grew to become one of the leading studios in commercial icon design. The Iconfactory also publishes software for creating, organizing and using icons as well as general GUI applications.

From 1997 until 2004, the Iconfactory held an annual icon design contest for the Macintosh icon community called Pixelpalooza. The competition was a chance for aspiring artists from all over the world to design and produce original icon creations for the chance of winning software and hardware prizes. Pixelpalooza was discontinued in 2005, although the company says it may make a return in the future.

The Iconfactory's most notable client project to date was creating over 100 icons for Microsoft to be included in the Windows XP[2] operating system as well as creating the base icons in Windows Vista's Aero interface.[3] They have also created over 100 icons for the Xbox 360 UI and website.[4]

Software

  • IconBuilder — Adobe Photoshop Plugin for creating icons.
  • CandyBar — Tool to organize and change system icons.
  • iPulse — Utility to visualize system activity.
  • Frenzic — Puzzle game that "takes minutes to learn and months to master".
  • Frenzic Mobile — iPhone and iPod Touch version of Frenzic.
  • xScope — Tool for measuring elements on screen.
  • Dine-O-Matic — Dashboard widget to help decide where to eat.
  • DownloadCheck — Simple utility inspired by the MP3Concept trojan horse
  • Twitterrific — Third-party client for the social networking site Twitter.
  • Twitterrific Mobile — iOS version of Twitterrific, which won an Apple Design Award in 2008.[5]
  • Ramp Champ — A new twist on classic boardwalk/carnival games such as Skee ball for the iPhone and iPod Touch, developed with DS Media Labs.
  • Take Five - Program that fades paused music back in after being forgotten after a distraction.
  • Flare - Photo editing program for adding effects to and editing pictures.

Discontinued:

  • Pixadex — Icon management tool similar to iPhoto. Replaced by CandyBar.
  • IconDropper — Icon management utility for System 7, Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9. Replaced by Pixadex.
  • iControl — Utility to change any system icon in Mac OS 8 & 9. Replaced by CandyBar.

CandyBar and Pixadex were maintained with Panic. xScope and Frenzic are maintained with ARTIS Software.

Sales

In 2010 the total sales for the Iconfactory was $US 370,000 [6]

Alleged patent infringement

On May 31, 2011, Lodsys asserted two of its four patents: U.S. Patent No. 7,620,565 ("the '565 patent") on a "customer-based design module" and U.S. Patent No. 7,222,078 ("the '078 patent") on "Methods and Systems for Gathering Information from Units of a Commodity Across a Network." against Iconfactory and 6 other developers for using Apple, Inc.'s API for In-app purchase.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Iconfactory.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  2. ↑ The Iconfactory. "Iconfactory : Design : Windows XP". Archived from the original on August 21, 2006. Retrieved 2006-01-18.
  3. ↑ Softpedia. "Windows Vista Icons - The Prototypes". Retrieved 2009-03-01.
  4. ↑ The Iconfactory. "Iconfactory : Design : XBOX 360". Archived from the original on January 15, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-19.
  5. ↑ "App icon Maker". Yahoo!. 2008-07-10. Archived from the original on April 21, 2013. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
  6. ↑ Hoovers profile for Iconfactory, last viewed 6/1/2011
  7. ↑ "Lodsys sues 7 app developers in Eastern Texas, disagrees with Apple; Android also targeted", FOSS Patents blog, May 31, 2011
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