I’m an computer customization junkie. I love tweaking the look and feel of my desktop. It’s part and parcel of being a geek, I suppose.
The two major resources for finding Mac OS X icons are IconFactory and InterfaceLIFT, but their collections (while good) haven’t updated in quite some time. So my search for quality, high resolution icons started…
After hours and hours of digging around and some Google-fu, I came upon these fantastic sites. (You can thank me later) ;)
Minium2 – futuristic Mac OS X icon and dock replacement.
Stunning replacement Mac OS X docks.
Kremalicious – neat custom icons, docks and even wallpaper.
Studio28 – slick icons here, including a really sweet retro Apple symbol.
cgink’s Deviant Art icon collection, including a very nice brush metal hard drive replacement set.
Artcore icons – stylish, cartoony icons
hard drive replacement icons by bogo-d
Slick drives by Thvg (The icons you see up above.)
50 unusually awesome Mac OS X replacement icons courtesy of AppStorm.
I visit a few Flickr groups for inspiration. Some of the desktops on these links are jaw-dropping beautiful. These Flickr groups focus on desktop customization:
Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell: a huge collection of Mac, Windows, and Linux tricked out desktops.
TUAW Desktops: Mac tricked out desktops
Desktop Show and Tell: What the subject says.
For what it’s worth, I use CandyBar, from Panic, to organize and customize my icons and dock. If you’re serious about customizing icons on your Mac, CandyBar is well-worth the $30 price. Got any other high quality Mac icon sites to recommend?
Share your favorites in the comments below.
-Krishna
To be honest, I gave up customizing my computer desktops long ago. I never did it much, since for years I was running lots of betas of operating systems and getting frequent (as much as weekly, during the Windows 95 beta) install CDs and reinstalling…
With Windows I still pick a color scheme that looks a bit like OS/2 versions 2 & 3, though (which is sort of a tease as Windows Explorer has never, ever been nearly as nice as Workplace Shell…). But that’s pretty minimal customization. And it did get to be a pain when I used to take screen shots for customer oriented documentation, having to switch back to default schemes to customers don’t get confused when they see a different color.
Throughout the first decade of the 2000′s I was using Stardock’s software on my office Windows computers to customize things, but eventually I got tired of looking for new, interesting things, got tired of them being not fully compatible with FileMaker Pro and Visual Studio (the main development tools I was working with day to day) and tired of the computer running noticeably slower with them (not that the company I worked for at the time would’ve given a properly powered computer to other than the managers…)
Even my Macs run fairly close to default.
I do have something that looks pretty close to CandyBar on my jailbroken, first generation iPhone for managing icons in folders. It’s just got blue on the icon instead of red, but the same half unwrapped, half eaten candy bar with a C.
Krishna,
Thank you for this very informative article. I love make changes to my Mac to make it look different. I am shocked some developer has not made a killing with a Themes type application. I know there are some old ones, but none of them ever really worked very well.
Now, on to surfing the links you posted. Could I contact you for help with an older post? I am trying to find the wallpaper and icon set for a particular Desktop. I have a screenshot I could email. Please let me know.
Thank you.
Sure thing! You can email me at pcweenies@gmail.com
BTW, I have accumulated quite a collection of icons, wallpapers, docks, etc. if you are looking for something, please do not hesitate to send me a message.