March 6th, 2007
Litho System is a set of system replacement icons for Mac OS X. The initial concept was an attempt to create a set of icons that appeared to be old, photocopied images. Unfortunately, the initial black and white concepts looked pretty boring. However, adding a bit of color and some more intensive distressing to the icons made them much more eye-catching.
I’m often asked how I acheived the weathered look. Some custom Photoshop brushes created by Keith Bowman were indispensible, and made the task much easier than it would have otherwise been. Unfortunately, the brushes are no longer available directly online, though it looks as though you can sign up here to receive them. For more inspiration in this area, be sure to check out Cameron Moll’s “That Wicked, Worn Look” series of tutorials.
Currently the icon suite consists of the original system replacement set, five volumes of apps and add-ons, and a few specialty icons here and there. Here are links to all the sets at the Iconfactory:
Litho System - The original set
Litho Extras Volume 1
Litho Extras Volume 2
Litho Extras Volume 3
Litho Extras Volume 4
Litho Extras Volume 5
Tiger Extras - Add-ons for Tiger from several system replacement sets
Litho Halloween
