Is the Firefox icon a statement against global warning, or is Jon Hicks just colorblind?

12/05/2008 Jrnl/Design

I can't believe it took four years to realize the continents on the Firefox icon are blue. They look like they're submerged underwater. And there aren't any polar ice caps in the icon, so it's obvious there's some sort of political motivation here. No, wait - I'm kidding.

Of course I know Jon Hicks is colorblind. And of course I know that the Firefox icon has blue continents. I'm just surprised it took me four years to realize these two pieces of trivia might, in fact, be related.

A greener Firefox icon

Immediately, I had to know: What would the Firefox icon look like with green continents? Finding an SVG of the icon wasn't difficult. Finding green colors, however? That was trickier. As I always say: There are over 16 million colors to choose from, and the overwhelming majority are wrong.

Firefox icon with green continents instead of blue continents

Green can be green, or it can skew a little toward cyan, or it can skew a little toward yellow. All of these different variations - combined with different levels of lightness and saturation, interacted with the other colors in the icon in very different ways. Ultimately, I found that greens with a little more cyan blended with the cyan ocean, and contrasted against the oranges and reds in the fox better.

Is green better?

I wouldn't be surprised if an icon with green continents was pitched to the Mozilla Foundation, and they were vetoed in favor of the icon we all know now. I think the dark blue continents have better contrast against the fox's orange color, and still stand out nicely against the ocean.

Additionally, I've read that one of the goals of the icon was to keep it simple, and not call too much attention to itself. A good way to do this is to restrict the number of hues the icon uses. I think adding green hues might make the icon feel a little busier.

I don't think there is a real connection between the fact that the continents in the Firefox icon are blue, and the fact that Jon Hicks can't distinguish the color green from red. My guess is that it's just a coincidence. And I'm not trying to mock Jon Hicks here - he's a web designer I admire and respect. His noted love of cheese is part of what made me feel comfortable adding a food section to this design journal! But it was still fun to just stop for a moment and ask: "What if?"

Comment [7]

Evan

12/09/2008 User Comment

I read through the comments on that post and noticed that someone beat me to the punch w/ photoshop. My version is arguably better though.

Evan

12/09/2008 User Comment

Here is the color blindness simulator

Dan Hiester

12/10/2008 User Comment

Actually, thinking about this has made me curious: Psychologists have noted that certain hues have certain psychological effects on people, right?

Red, supposedly, makes you hungry. Green, they say, makes you angsty and jealous. Which makes it easy to understand why one hue dominates McDonald’s, and why the other hue dominates The Matrix.

But when you can’t differentiate between these two colors, what psychological effect does it have on you? Are you a very angsty person? Or a very hungry person? Or both?

Evan

12/12/2008 User Comment

Well, red is also considered an aggravating/passionate color. The other color used in McDonalds is yellow, which usually creates a feeling of happiness. Additionally, how much of your response to color is learned? What cultural significance does it have?

Dan Hiester

12/15/2008 User Comment

I’d have to do some research to consider the discussion further, because as I understood it, the psychological response to these colors is not learned at all, but is a little more subliminal.

Dennis

01/27/2009 User Comment

I would think it also worthwhile to analyze what effect knowing these effects has on the effects themselves.

I know that statement looks redundant, but it’s not.

Dan Hiester

01/31/2009 User Comment

As much as it sounds interesting, I don’t think you’re going to sell someone on the idea that someone is some sort of freaky military genius because their moods are affected differently by colors than the general populous…

Although, that does sound like a half-decent episode of House.