Back in June, Apple launched iOS7 at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2013. Many jaws dropped when Apple revealed the first images of iOS7, but not necessarily from excitement. The international graphic and app design community was divided. Satirical tumblrs like Jony Ives Designs Things and iOS7 Redesigns reflected the mixed designer community reaction to the new icon designs.

Design Community Reaction to iOS7 design

Source: Design Taxi

iOS7's 'flat design' aesthetic including the much-lampooned "neon gradient wonderland" were applied to other pop culture categories including movie poster design. Wired Magazine showcased the best parodies from the Jony Ives tumblr including Star Wars poster gone 'flat'.

Source: Jony Ives Designs Things / Wired Magazine

While it’s more than just redesigned icons on the homescreen - Ives designed the the OS level user experience and Apple's marketing team created the app icons - many felt the new look was letting its incredible new operating system and features down.

DesignCrowd Launched iOS7 App Re-Design Competition

For fun, we decided to crowdsource alternative iOS7 designs from our 130,000-strong designer community and launched the $1,000 iOS7 App Design Contest. Designers were asked to create serious ('you can produce work you think Apple would consider using') or funny / satirical (' take the fluro / gradient style too the extreme') new icon designs for the iPhone homescreen.

Winner is Tap Studio from the UK!

	Tap Studio (Manchester, United Kingdom) $500 1st Place (Photo, maps, calendar and calculator icons haven't been redesigned)

2nd Place ... Gregory's Workshop!
	Gregory's Workshop (Budapest, Hungary) $200 2nd Place

Best of the Rest!
	Lolli (South Africa)

	Lolli #2 (South Africa) Clean and Simple ucon re-design for iOS7 (in color)

	Wolf (United States) Home screen Display + Icon View

	GDesign (Germany) Home screen Display + Icon View

	Chris (United Kingdom)

	heyEndro (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)

	Marv (Germany)

	Sparkel (India)

	TIGERdesign (Jordan) 'Extreme Modern Minimalist Glowing Icons"

	TIGERdesign #2 (Jordan) 'Intense, Powerful Lovely... Colors"

	Tap Studio (Manchester, United Kingdom) Humorous design submission by the winning designer

	Tildinaz (Italy) "Hello, this is the funny one :)"

	Effektmedia (Creativopolis, California) 'I worked carefully for a concept between the new iOS7, irony and visual design elements.'

	Madelis (Spain)

	Sensor (Peru)

	Sensor (Peru) #2

Thanks to all our designers who participated in our iOS7 design competition. Which was your favorite design? Did the designers of the world do a better job than Jony Ive?! Let us know in the comments below!

Written by Jo Sabin on Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.