Just kidding. But apparently Adobe thinks so…
If you installed the Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta a few months ago, you probably thinks that it is a temporary icon…
No. This is it!!!
After you upgraded your computer from the 20th-century with Mac OS X or Windows Vista, both equipped with 128×128+ sized icons, all you can get from a creative software is a monolithic square.
This is not to say that I am against Minimalism. It is a noble attempt to integrate the two product lines with tens of products, from Adobe and the original Macromedia, under the same branding strategy.
Remember the older icons from Adobe? While the standard tools from the operating system would describe plainly what they do (e.g. Microsoft Paint is, apparently, a paint brush), the expensive tools are described with an abstract imagery to propose their superiority. For example, the icon of Adobe Photoshop 8 was a flying eye through a camera lens, and it described hardly what the tool does, though the branding designer would argue that the function of the tool is beyond your imagination, thus such imagery. A branded icon is ‘sentimental’: From the viewpoint of the company it describes their reach to the users, while from the viewpoint of the consumer it describes their pride in what they purchased.
Therefore, the design of the Adobe CS3 icons is so abstract that you cannot even imagine what the function of the tool is, or perhaps, Adobe thinks that it has become part of the human culture itself it will require no further explanation of what the tool does, thus flipping you a semantic two-letter combination. I would say that the ego of the company has grown beyond the level of software developer.
Minimalism is great if it is done like MUJI, which stands for “Good Products Without Branding” in Kanji. Here in the Adobe icons, Minimalism is employed in a totally opposite meaning: Maximum branding. While the minimal designs of MUJI products attempts to blend into your living room with coherent and simple materials, the minimal designs of the Adobe icons forms an uniform army on your desktop, screaming “You have been assimilated by Adobe so I want you to remember us all the time”. Both resulted in coherence and clarity, which is the essence of employing Minimalism in a design, but their purposes are completely different.
Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I have been working on the famous bug #837 for a while now. That’s why we have this icon talk right now. 
It too kinda baffles me that they did this, but then again, I have to admit that Adobe did make the icons look nice enough to be acceptable.
And about time you started working on #837
I definitely preferred the feather…
I don’t have a problem with the new icons they are straight to the point.
Makes more sense than a feather
I have to strongly disagree. The icons, while quite plain, are actually very easy to understand, and MUCH easier to understand than any of the older icons.
I’m sure if they were going after grandmas still using AOL that it would make sense for them to use a dumbed down icon of a giant paint brush, but alas, please name me how many Grandmas willing to shell out 700 bucks to crop their pictures?
This is actually a genius move on the part of Adobe because they’re catering to people who use their software day in, day out, and know that there is so much UI noise out there, with everyone trying to create icons that are essentially small illustrations.
They’ve targeted people who are going to be using either the product alone on a daily basis, or in the context of the suite.
The icons also scale down in size very well.
And while it may be anecdotal, I can attest to a recognition increase on my end when browsing my quick launch bar, or my task bar to view where PS is sitting.
The icons are a stroke of genius, because instead of following pointless trends of overly ambitious icons, they did their own unique thing, and still kept the icons attractive.
At first I was a bit nonplussed when I saw them, but now I recognize their true genius.
That’s my 2 cents
yes. u’re so right, dude!