🧿

From Rhombus to Circle: the History of PowerPoint Icon

The PowerPoint icon has evolved from a monochrome 16×16 pixels thumbnail to a full-colour three-dimensional illustration. Observing its changes, you notice how technology has evolved and what was relevant in graphic design over the years.

Table of Contents

1987–1990: From Scratch 1993–1998: The Nineties 1999–2011: Icons You Want to Lick 2013–2015: Ugly but Uniform 2016–2022: Fluent Design System Summary

1987–1990: From Scratch

The first versions of PowerPoint helped make analogue slides, so the icon shows a hand that’s about to draw something. The second version already changed the abstract square to a 4:3 aspect ratio slide. ⌘↑
1993–1998: The Nineties Microsoft Office 95 (1995–1998). © Microsoft. Attempts to add depth, as far as the software of those years allowed. The typical clean colours of the nineties: blue (#0000FF), fuchsia (#FF00FF), blue (#00FFFE), red (#FF0000). The 1993 version has the company name written directly on the icon, while the 1998 version has a red three-dimensional pie chart on a blue background. Freedom and naivety with limited resources. ⌘↑
1999–2011: Icons You Want to Lick
… it’s liquid, one of the design goals was when you saw it you wanted to lick it Steve Jobs
PowerPoint 2007 for macOS. © Microsoft. With the new millennium, the Mac and PC versions are begun to differ. On the Mac, Aqua style rules: highlights, shadows, volume, transparency. In other words, skeuomorphism. Note the 2007 icons—mind-blowing Web 2.0 shadows, glitter, and outlines. Microsoft Office 2011 for macOS (on the top) and Microsoft Office 2010 for Windows. © Microsoft. It’s brutal minimalism on PC, but since 2003 icons cast a shadow and also hope to be licked. In 2007–2011, Microsoft designers discover rounded corners. One corner. A good move: the asymmetry looks nice and fits nicely into the interface. Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 and Windows 7. Source: Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar College. ⌘↑
2013–2015: Ugly but Uniform Microsoft Office 2016 for macOS (on the top) and Windows. © Microsoft. The first attempt to unify the appearance. In 2013, there were versions for Android and iOS, and in 2015 Office for Mac came out, rewritten from scratch and almost the same as on PC. Obviously, it was necessary to bring everything to uniformity: they used a technique with the opening door, but the mac is still skeuomorphic, and the PC is flat. ⌘↑

2016–2022: Fluent Design System

© 2018 Microsoft Corporation. “Say hello to Microsoft’s new Office icons.” Microsoft News Europe, published 29 November 2018. All rights reserved. The second, this time full-fledged, unification for all systems. The icons are now abstract in content—geometric shapes resembling diagrams, tables, and sheets. But they are realistic: calm colours, unobtrusive shadows. And all this is part of the Fluent Design System, a design system from Microsoft with an emphasis on materials and physics of the real world. © 2018 Microsoft Corporation. “Meet the new icons for Office 365.” YouTube, uploaded 29 November 2018. Microsoft 365. All rights reserved. ⌘↑

Summary

The closer to modernity, the more abstract the logo’s content, but the more realistic its execution. And vice versa. This is a general trend in graphic design. The Evolution of PowerPoint Icon by Vlad Bugaev (pptxman). As well as Existence determines consciousness, technology determines aesthetics. It’s hard to stretch with just one colour and 16 pixels, but with today’s computing power, an icon is a three-dimensional object that exists in an elaborate design system. There’s less freedom, more uniformity. Nowadays, only start-ups and graphic design students are fooling around with logos. ⌘↑
Instead of P.s. Microsoft 365 Liquid Glass Icon Set by Vlad Bugaev (pptxman). I designed my own version of Microsoft 365 icons — with a transparent part. You can download it from Gumroad.Macintosh Repository: A Platinum Sanctuary for Old Software of the Classic Mac OS Era Macworld San Francisco 2000 — The Mac OS X Introduction (Pt.1) Microsoft Fluent Design System Microsoft Office in Wikipedia Mini vMac: A miniature early Macintosh Emulator SheepShaver: An Open Source PowerMac Emulator Tech Flashback: Microsoft PowerPoint Version 3.0 (1992) & 4.0a (1994) ～ #medium #powerpoint #2k22