That’s a pretty impressive portfolio you’ve racked up very quickly, and I think it reflects the recent movement of developers finally realizing the impact that good icons can have for an app (and sales). Have you noticed anything like that when talking to your clients?

Michael Gonzalez: Yes, quality icons and graphically pleasing interfaces, along with straight-forward usability, are key elements that will make or break an application. Every year more and more developers, and individuals, are finding that this is true and are taking advantage of what we have to offer.

Josh Pyles: As it stands, I am really glad that developers are noticing this. Especially on Mac, the GUI, icons, and visual perfection really make (or break) an application. I think now that there are several choices of which application to use for a certain function that users migrate toward the application that looks the best. GUI designs and icons are a very serious selling point, and can really enhance the end user’s experience. Developers, especially lately are noticing that and we are out there to help them.

Edward Scherf: Like I stated previously, it’s great to see developers putting in the time and effort it takes to springboard their software and/or product to the next level. It’s important that your product not only functions properly, but look good while its doing it. A potential or current customer isn’t going to want to use your product, or application, if it isn’t eye catching and user friendly.

Recent shareware sensations like Delicious Library and AppZapper have shown that visual flair can go a long way when taken beyond their icons. I noticed you have a "GUI design" service option. How’s that been going?

Josh Pyles: Well, since icon design is our speciality, that is our prime product at the moment - but yes, we do offer GUI design and we have had requests for it and have done a few projects in the past. The GUI work that we have done has been mostly menu designs, splash screens, and basic program layouts. I think a proper GUI is just as important as the icons that sit in it, so personally, I would love to see more requests for GUI designs.

You know, you guys should consider maybe even a full package option. UI, icons, website - the works. Something like that could be pretty attractive for a smaller shareware developer with a great product in their hands.

Michael Gonzalez: Because we are a “custom design studio,� we try to create packages for our clients in which are in the highest demand. As it stands, Icon design, Web design, and Identity design are in higher demand over UI Design. Another reason we have decided not to provide a package such as described above, is because our audience is so broad it would be a challenge to provide GUI Design that works well with mobile devices, "Web 2.0" control panels, mac apps, java apps, windows apps etc.

Your favorite OS X app icons?

Josh Pyles: This is a very hard question for me because nearly every OS X app icon done by a professional designer I like. If I really had to choose a favorite though it would be either RapidWeaver, Transmit, or CSSEdit. Like I said, there are so many that it is nearly impossibly for me to choose just one, or even a couple, that I like the best.

Philipp Antoni: I think Apple did a marvellous job on their Pro app’s icons. I love iDVD’s and Final Cut’s icon that much, that I’ve got them applied to the iLife suite. Other nice icons are Safari and Transmit because of the artists’ attention to details. And the IconFactory’s Frenzic deserves to be mentioned as well.

Jonas Rask: Transmit and iTunes. They do exactly what app icons are supposed to do. They convey the products features and functions, they are instantly recognizable, and they just look fabulous.

Edward Scherf: There are a lot of great application icons out there, but I think the ones that really get me the most are the ones from Apple. They are just so simple, yet stylish. Perfect in almost every aspect really. But aside from the OS X default app icons. I would have to say a few of my favorites would be; CandyBar, Transmit, AppZapper, Adium, Toast, Disco, RapidWeaver, and Chat Transcript Manager.
There is just an endless list of great app icons. Simply too many to list!

What if we broaden that a bit. Best GUI’s.

Josh Pyles: I really like the GUI for Delicious Library a lot, and Apple’s Front Row. Both of those take aqua to the next level.

Philipp Antoni: I found iTunes 6 to be rather nice until Apple ruined it with version 7. Other than that, the iLife apps are really nice to look at and well done.

Jonas Rask: As far as apps go, Delicious Library is the GUI king. For widgets the newly ADA winner iClip Lite is a beautiful example on how things should be done.

Edward Scherf: Again, I have to say that a lot of Apple’s own software is done very well. One perfect example of this being GarageBand. As extensive as that application is, the Apple design team did a great job of making it very user friendly without skimping out on the features that even a high end audio editor needs.

Aside from most Apple applications, I think my favorite UIs would probably be…

Delicious Library and iSale:
For the amount of eye candy they brings to the table, while still offering up a TON of features and information.

Acquisition:
Even though I’m not a big P2P user, this is a beautiful app!

AppZapper:
For it’s simplicity and elegance.

Transmit:
For it’s simplicity and functionality that OS X needed in an FTP client.

RapidWeaver:
For its simple and user friendly approach to a, most often, not so simple task to someone that doesn’t know much about running and/or creating their own site.

Just to name a few. There are some really great applications out there. It’s good to see developers going that extra mile.

Is it just me or are little Cocoa apps with nice unified windows and pretty icons getting, well, boring? Think more extensive custom UI elements are the wave of the future? I remember at the Apple Design Awards, Apple OS X User Experience Evangelist John Geleynse gave ADA winner iSale kudos for its tasteful use of custom UI features.

Josh Pyles: I definitely agree. I believe the borderless windows style along with aqua is the base, and to truly have an aqua-styled app one should incorporate new and exciting elements. In the case of iSale for example, it uses the iTunes style toolbar rather than the default aqua one. In addition to that it also uses the bulletin board styled auction panel in conjunction with many other aqua extensions. Aqua leaves a lot of room to expand and it’s great to see that some companies are going beyond the call of duty and reaching true Aqua perfection. Applications should leave their users’ thinking “Wow! This program looks great!�

Philipp Antoni: As a themer I hope that custom UIs won’t be the future, but Apple’s current direction looks like I’ll be out of luck. The new unified style they’ve developed is nice and I’d love to see it used heavily, but I wish they’d finally make it available to all developers via Interface Builder. Maybe we’ll see some big changes in Leopard? Still, some apps just wouldn’t "feel right" with the standard Aqua UI (iClip comes to my mind), the apps I’m criticizing are mainly those which try to imitate Aqua and fail, and Apple’s own (which lack any consistency nowadays) - for example iTunes and the iLife suite.

Thank you for your time and good luck on your future projects.