Well, after a little over a month of development, I completed my first publicly released, application icon. This icon will be included in the 1.0 release of a very ambitious mail client called MailMate. This project has been very exciting for me as it ushers in the new evolution of my business model. User experience design is something I am very passionate about, and being brought in as the icon designer was great.

The Application

MailMate is one of those applications that is the next step in email management. No longer are the days of just having a static inbox littered with emails that overwhelm the user. Without any tools other than the search field to narrow or focus your results, you can waste much time trying to decode your communications. MailMate, with its humble, yet intellectually endowed developer Benny, is set to alleviate all your email communication woes.

Although it is still in beta (I have been informed that a 1.0 release is close), it is already showing signs of being an Apple Mail replacement on steroids. MailMate is ready to go out of the box. All one would need to do is import their IMAP accounts from Apple Mail, and it’s off and running, but if you are the user that likes going under the hood and configuring your own rules, smart boxes, stylesheets and layouts … then you are going to be pleasantly surprised about the amount and the power of its configurable settings.

Here are some unique features that MailMate offers:

• Powerful keyboard controls
  “Easily move messages to any other mailbox using only a few keystrokes”
  “Easily switch between mailboxes using only a few keystrokes … “
• Signatures
  “The choice of default signature is based on the main recipient of the email rather than the account/identity used.”
  “MailMate simply looks for the most recent email to the same recipient and reuses the choice of signature.”
• Alternative layouts for viewing multiple messages in unique and powerful ways
  Thread view
  Correspondence view
• Customizable stylesheet for message viewing
• Easily create smart mailboxes based on current searches
• Multiple dock and/or menu bar counters without the need for plugins

And, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Download it now for free to try it out and let Benny know what you think. He is very responsive and is passionate about his powerful new mail client.

The Icon

MailMate stands for power, configuration and efficiency, so its icon had to convey such a message. After going through many sketched concepts, Benny and I decided on the mail cart. The mail cart is symbolic of heavy, powerful mail management which was spot on for such an application. I then wanted the colors to be rich and inviting, the perspective to be intriguing and the cart to be sturdy and clean and the contents to be varied; all of this to symbolize the capability of MailMate.

The resulting icon is what you saw at the beginning of this article. I am very proud to be a part of this project and hope that MailMate makes its way into your dock soon.