of Scott Spensley

aka Dragon Tongue

Icons and Interfaces

osx icons

- Jewellery & Sunken Sphere OSX & iOS icons -

All icons and interfaces are hand-crafted completely within Photoshop by Dragon Tongue

click on a thumbnail to see the full-sized image.

Creating the Icons:

All my icons were created in Photoshop using multiple Layer Effects.

Some of my icon files have many hundred layers!
It's a good thing icons are so small... trying to do this on larger images would even bog down an Apple!

I quite enjoy making icons that have a 3Dness to them...

I like icons to look or feel real, but I still like to push boundaries...

which is why I created a number of icon series that instead of sitting on the desktop, sank into it.

I hadn't seen it done before... So I tried it and liked it.

I think I have just about got the sunken icons out of my system now. =)

Pounamu (greenstone) OSX icons

Pounamu & Paua OSX icons

SteamPunk v2 sunken sphere icons

SteamPunk v2 were designed
for the iOS interface

More SteamPunk v2 icons

Even more SteamPunk v2 icons

Glass coated,
pottery sunken spherical OSX icons

Glass coated,
chrome sunken spheres for OSX

Chrome spheres,
embedded into the OSX desktop

Glass coated, blue pottery, sunken spheres, with red paint reveals

Glass coated, blue pottery, sunken spheres, with flesh coloured overlays,
inspired by the Pukeko bird.

Glass sealed, blue pottery, sunken spheres, with chromium overlays

ios Leather Steampunk theme

Four more SteamPunk v2 icons designed for the iOS interface

- DT Leather Steampunk iOS theme -

The DT Leather SteamPunk
loading page

The DT Leather SteamPunk
v2 sunken sphere icons

The DT Leather SteamPunk
v1 square icons

The DT Leather SteamPunk
Battery charge symbol

The SteamPunk Battery full-charge symbol before being installed

The SteamPunk Battery mid-charge symbol before being installed

more osx icons

Creating the iOS Summerboard Themes:

SteamPunk: I had seen quite a few Leather themes, but none of them had quite the look I wanted, So I started off making a classy Leather with Brass... but over time I started leaning more towards the weathered SteamPunk ideas.

My DT Leather SteamPunk beta theme converts practically all the generic interface images that most Apps on the iphone and ipodtouch use. And it has two full sets of icons, a square and (of course) the sunken brass spheres, that seem to suit it so well, plus a set of folder icons. This theme however was designed for iOS3.x and has quite a few holes in it on iOS4. or later.

The SteamPunk Battery low-charge symbol before being installed

- More icons -

iOS SteamPunk v2 icons

Random tan icons,
cut into the desktop

Random coloured icons,
cut into the desktop

Various icons:

Some more random icon ideas.
Here I tried out an idea where instead of the icons sitting on top of the desktop, they are carved INTO the desktop.
I had previously tried this idea on a few kaleidoscope schemes.

Other random icons

Black Book icons

- The Little Black Book series of icons -

Little Black Book icons:

These full set, book-based icons come in Black, White, Red, Tan, and Blue. They may come with symbols of black, gold, blue, or silver.

Black Book icons with black glyphs

Black Book icons with gold glyphs

Black Book icons with blue glyphs

Black Book icons with silver glyphs

White Book icons with black glyphs

White Book icons with gold glyphs

White Book icons with blue glyphs

White Book icons with silver glyphs

Red Book icons with black glyphs

White Book icons with blue glyphs

White Book icons with silver glyphs

Red Book icons with black glyphs

White Book icons with blue glyphs

White Book icons with silver glyphs

Red Book icons with black glyphs

White Book icons with blue glyphs

White Book icons with silver glyphs

Spherical & Face icons

Other Spherical and Face icons

Shallow spherical buttons

in satin blue

Shallow spherical buttons
in brushed copper

Brass floating halfcut spheres

with various inserts

Shallow spherical satin blue buttons nestled in grey pockets

Shallow spherical buttons

with random finishes

Shallow spherical buttons

in satin grey

Buttons, Balls & Heads:

Buttons come with Pockets and Spikes, Faces come in families, and Brass Balls levitate in these collections of icons

Brother Head icons

Sister Head icons

OSX themes

OSX

- OSX Shapeshifter Themes -

DT X-Anon b3

The "DT Grippled Alloy smooth b3"
OSX Shapeshifter theme

The "DT X-Anon b3"
OSX Shapeshifter theme.
An OSX remake of the OS9 scheme

The "DT BrassPaper b3"
OSX Shapeshifter theme

DT X-Anon b2

These shows a larger image

Creating the Themes:

After the apparent flexibilty that Kaliedoscope Schemes gave OS9, It seemed a major step back to the Themes of OSX... Yes the graphic quality was better, and so much simpler to build, using png's with built in alpha channels was a dream but... there were so many limitations... at least... that's what I thought.

OS9 schemes

- Some earlier OS9 Kaliedoscope Schemes -

The "DT AnonA v2"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

The "DT XCopperwords Sandstone"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

The "DT XCopperwords Flute"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

The "DT Boxedwords Sandstone"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

The "DT Sharp-Words"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

The "Flat Steel Skin"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

"DT Grey Ghost - Pewter Pillow"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

The "DT Plate"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

The "CromeXium"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

"CromeXium - Twisted Down Left"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

"CromeXium - the Half Be"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

"CromeXium - Down Right Twisted"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

"Talmi Gold"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

The "Talmi Green"
(Older than Time)

"Blunt"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

click on a thumbnail to see the full-sized image.

"Denim"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

"Totally Purp"
OS9 Kaliedoscope scheme

Creating the Schemes:

Schemes at first seemed extremely difficult to create... but after chatting online with some of the best scheme creators in the world, I discovered it took them about 6 months to make a good scheme, and involved using somewhere between 8 and 12 different applications, shuffling files back and forth. It required artistic ability, and logistic ability (to work out the best order to do things for the desired result), and LOTS of repetition!

Thousands of images had to be created, then chopped up so that some bits stretch while other bits repeat, and others move... and that's without counting all the hundreds of icons each scheme requires. Every image has to be pixel perfect or it just doesn't work.

Since there was no manual, it also involved what might be called 'graphic reverse engineering' to work out which pixel from which image controlled the colours of various text shadows and highlights, etc.

Once I got the hang of the concept... and while continually asking endless dumb questions... and spending practically my every waking moment on it... I managed to make my first scheme.

It had taken me 3 months!

Immediately I got back onto my next scheme. With each new scheme I made, I tried to push boundaries... tried to make a scheme do something that I had never seen before, or what appeared to be impossible, and at the same time, tried to make them as practical, easy to use, and aesthetically pleasing as I could.

Using Photoshop scripts, I managed to streamline a lot of the processes... I got better and faster... and was always experimenting with what was possible. Towards the end of my scheme making, I was making up to 10 schemes a week, and noticed that many of the experts were asking me how to do certain things.

I had become the most prolific, fastest, experimental schemer, and arguably pushed more boundaries than any other scheme maker in the world.

I had become... THE Expert!

All it took was commitment and lots of time.

That was when Apple changed to OSX and kaleidoscope was shut down ... and I had to start all over again on an operating system that was designed not to be modified.