Apple recently released iOS 14, the latest version of its iPhone operating system. Beyond adding helpful informational widgets to your phone’s primary screen, the update allows savvy and creative iPhone owners to customize their app icons more than ever.
One tech artist/guru, Thomas Reisenegger, decided to take an old-school approach to his home screen design. He reached way back to Microsoft Paint to replicate his applications’ shortcuts.
Of course, you don’t undertake a creative endeavor such as this without sharing your masterpiece. Reisenegger posted the results of his redesign on Twitter.
The result? Let’s just say the final product definitely looks a little less sleek than when it sports the normal digital icons.
“iOS 14 lets you re-do app icons so naturally remade them all much worse in MS paint style,” he posted.
iOS 14 let’s you re-do app icons so naturally remade them all much worse in MS paint style
Sorry to all app icon designers that spent years making them nice pic.twitter.com/bsa0E5VvSy
— Thomas Reisenegger.gif (@Olima) September 20, 2020
He even apologized to “all app icon designers that spent years making them nice.”
You might think that this guy left himself out there to get totally slammed on social media. But, in true viral age form, his work has been liked by more than 70,000 fellow Twitter users.
Some people, such as Tim Jarrell at @TimmyBuddy, commented that this feature is nothing new for Android users. His personalized versions of the usual app icons mostly modifies and enlarges their shapes:
I've been doing this on Android since 2012 pic.twitter.com/rjg9LZtLIu
— Tim Jarrell of PWUnlimited (@TimmyBuddy) September 21, 2020
Even if the technology isn’t exactly new, the hand-drawn icons are getting a lot of attention and lots of laughs. Even the financial app Monzo got in on the joke and called out Reisenegger on Twitter as it searched for people who may have redesigned their app icon with the updated iOS options.
If you've made your own custom icon for Monzo, we'd love to see it. (Unless it looks like this). https://t.co/TLIe6ltL06
— Monzo (@monzo) September 22, 2020
Reisenegger used the new Shortcuts app, under Settings, to create the redesigned look. He told Mashable it took him around 40-50 minutes to do it, and that included the time he used to connect his Apple pencil and figure out how to make custom icons.
He also said he had a good time doing the little project and that it resonated so well with others.
“I thought it was quite funny and I’m very glad people seem to appreciate and honor the ancient legacy of MS paint,” he said. “Also, I’m of course very glad to see that it made people smile.”
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Check out Simplemost for additional stories.
