M

Mantia

mantia.me · Personal blog · on HN since 2008

Louie Mantia, an icon and interface designer, writes about app icons, skeuomorphism, icon sizes, and Apple design.

What HN saysCommenters describe him as a designer of gorgeous iPhone icons, and cite his post on why resolution-independent assets do not work.
20HN people shared it
8linked it in comments
13stories submitted
263story points
12 years agolast shared
2008people per year2026

Most-shared posts

  1. 1
    Homepage
    3 people · first shared 2008
  2. 2
    MacBook Pro, Thousands of Colors
    2 people · 231 points · first shared 2009 · 148 comments on HN
  3. 3
    About app icons
    2 people · 10 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
  4. 4
    “Skeuomorphism”
    2 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
  5. 5
    Flash Design Is The Problem
    1 people · 4 points · first shared 2010 · 1 comments on HN
  6. 6
    Tinkering
    1 people · 4 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
  7. 7
    Success and Jealousy
    1 people · 4 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
  8. 8
    Steve Jobs and I
    1 people · 2 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
  9. 9
    iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S… 5 or 6?
    1 people · 2 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
  10. 10
    Designing Ramp Champ
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
  11. 11
    Designing Twitterrific 2
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
  12. 12
    Kernel Panic 404
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
  13. 13
    Multitasking: What does it mean?
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2010 · discussion on HN
  14. 14
    Blueprint
    1 people · first shared 2012
  15. 15
    The importance of icon sizes
    1 people · first shared 2014

What HN people wrote when they linked it

auston · 2008-12-13
I was lucky enough to get Louie Mantia (http://mantia.me/) before he left Tapulous for Icon Factory - I got charged about $900 for 4 icons (He now charges $1000 per icon due to a non-compete). I can also recommend Emanuel Sa (http://www.emanuelsa.com/) - He's WAY cheaper and just as good. Also I'd say David Lanham (http://dlanham.com/) & Fernando Lins (http://www.devixdesign.com/) are among the best as well.
esonica · 2009-05-06
I like a good piss take, and this is one of those. We could argue about all the features he included/left out, but its a job well done :) Looks like its done by an Apple fan : http://twitter.com/mantia Not a bad designer / star trek fan : http://mantia.me/ Am sure some Microsoft retaliations are in the works already :)
silencio · 2008-12-13
There's a friend of a friend of mine who creates some really gorgeous icons for iPhone: http://mantia.me/ He works at iconfactory (http://iconfactory.com), and their icons in general are really delicious, although probably not cheap.
gress · 2014-01-24
Resolution independent assets do not work. http://mantia.me/blog/the-importance-of-icon-sizes/
Steko · 2013-06-14
"save us from the unnecessary skeuomorphism" People get stuck on the word 'skeuomorphism' here but the key word is 'unnecessary': Find My Friends is often condemned for being too skeuomorphic. Mythbusted: Find My Friends uses standard iOS UI that is themed using custom graphics. The fine corinthian leather and stitching does not harken back to a day of fine corinthian leather products we used to use to find our friends. There is no connection to real world objects by using these materials. http://mantia.me/blog/skeuomorphism/
Skroob · 2012-03-30
I'm also pretty sure the background on their page is Louie Mantia's work as well. It's an older version that he's since replaced, but you can see it on this site: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/details/1236/blueprint.html FWIW, the current version (Blueprint Neue) is here: http://mantia.me/wallpaper/blueprint/
BigZaphod · 2010-04-02
mcantelon · 2009-08-11
I would say this a good example of them being closed and not appearing to care what their customers think: http://mantia.me/blog/macbook-pro-thousands-of-colors And, showing this isn't a one-time thing: http://www.betanews.com/article/Apple-Sued-Over-MacBook-Display-Qualit…

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