More app icons

[antos07]

There is a GNOME extension that implements the same idea as your themes: https://github.com/taiwbi/gnome-accent-directories. It seems to be abandoned now.

The cool thing is that it provides recolored icons for more apps than your themes: https://github.com/taiwbi/gnome-accent-directories/tree/main/icons/Adwaita-Purple/scalable/apps. What do you think about adding those here as well?

[dpejoh]

Thank you for the suggestion and for sharing that extension. I’m aware of it, but there’s an important reason why I didn’t take the same approach.

When you recolor icons of apps like Discord, Visual Studio Code, browsers, etc., this breaks their visual identity and branding. Those apps rely heavily on their original color schemes to remain recognizable among other applications. Changing their colors makes them harder to identify and removes the meaning behind the chosen brand colors.

In Adwaita-colors I intentionally recolored only certain GNOME core application icons, so they can integrate smoothly with the chosen accent color while still preserving a clean and elegant GNOME desktop experience. You’ll notice that I didn’t recolor every icon, exactly because many apps (like GNOME Browser) have their own established brand identity that shouldn’t be altered.

So this isn’t just a matter of personal taste, it’s about keeping the GNOME desktop consistent, elegant, and professional without breaking the branding and recognizability of third-party apps.

[antos07]

Thanks for the answer! I get your point about the identity of third-party apps. That extension indeed takes it a bit too far.

I'd still suggest considering some apps that are more or less part of the GNOME ecosystem, though not being part of the core apps. There are some that clearly follow the same design patterns as the core apps that you recolored. Dconf Editor and Extension Manager for example, are some of those.

Also, there are some core apps that could benefit from recoloring without any damage to their brand (e.g., Contacts).

Anyway, thanks for your work and these awesome themes!