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It puzzles me how the author of this article came to the conclusion that Apple borrrowed/stole its cloud icon from Pictos. Apple's MobileMe was announced on Ju

It puzzles me how the author of this article came to the conclusion that Apple borrrowed/stole its cloud icon from Pictos. Apple's MobileMe was announced on June 6, 2008. From the start, it used the same cloud icon. [1] According to the Pictos web site (and the Wayback Machine), the Pictos collection came into being in 2010. [2] [1] http://web.archive.org/web/20080720090522/http://www.apple.com/mobileme/ http://web.archive.org/web/20080720090522/http://www.apple.c... [2] http://wayback.archive.org/web/20100701000000*/http://pictos.drewwilson.com/ http://wayback.archive.org/web/20100701000000*/http://pictos... Edit: I thought of one possible explanation. The author, a designer at Microsoft, explains his reason for writing the article is because people accused him of copying Apple's cloud icon for use on ASP.net's website. This made him search for earlier examples than Apple's, to somehow justify using the same cloud shape that so many lazy designers do now.

bruceboughton 15y ago
He's a developer at Microsoft, not a designer. Quite a well known one.
- Samuel_Michon 15y ago
  My bad. From his article, it seemed as if he had something to do with choosing or making the icon: "we used an icon from the Pictos collection. I have an email from March of 2010 where we selected that icon, in fact." "we updated the old site's cloud icon" "the icon isn't from Apple, it's straight from Pictos 1. I know, because we bought it from them for our site." "it seems there is only one cloud icon in the universe and it's four circles with a flat base. I like it." Nevertheless, though the author talks about the Pictos 1 icon set being around for years, he offers no proof for that. The Pictos website was made in 2010, years after Apple's MobileMe.
flyosity 15y ago
Not to mention that although the Pictos cloud glyph and the iCloud version share the same 4-cloud structure with similar shape proportions, they are definitely not the same icon. The Apple version's 2nd cloud on the left (the small one) has a decidedly flatter curve to it than the same cloud in Pictos which sticks out further. If you overlay these two icons (which should have been the first thing the author did in his entry, but chose not to) this difference and other very small differences would have been made obvious. Having the same general shape and layout is one thing but being exactly, pixel-precise the same is quite another.
Raphael 15y ago
Damn lazy Apple designers.

bruceboughton 15y ago

He's a developer at Microsoft, not a designer. Quite a well known one.

Samuel_Michon 15y ago
My bad. From his article, it seemed as if he had something to do with choosing or making the icon: "we used an icon from the Pictos collection. I have an email from March of 2010 where we selected that icon, in fact." "we updated the old site's cloud icon" "the icon isn't from Apple, it's straight from Pictos 1. I know, because we bought it from them for our site." "it seems there is only one cloud icon in the universe and it's four circles with a flat base. I like it." Nevertheless, though the author talks about the Pictos 1 icon set being around for years, he offers no proof for that. The Pictos website was made in 2010, years after Apple's MobileMe.

flyosity 15y ago

Not to mention that although the Pictos cloud glyph and the iCloud version share the same 4-cloud structure with similar shape proportions, they are definitely not the same icon. The Apple version's 2nd cloud on the left (the small one) has a decidedly flatter curve to it than the same cloud in Pictos which sticks out further. If you overlay these two icons (which should have been the first thing the author did in his entry, but chose not to) this difference and other very small differences would have been made obvious. Having the same general shape and layout is one thing but being exactly, pixel-precise the same is quite another.

Raphael 15y ago

Damn lazy Apple designers.