With Firefox 3.5, the successor of Firefox 3.0, users of Mozilla's open-source browser will get not only new bits but also a redesigned icon. Nothing is set in stone at the moment, as the concept for Firefox 3.5's icon continues to evolve, but Alex Faaborg, principal designer on Firefox, did manage to provide a taste of what end users should expect to associate visually with the next iteration of the Mozilla open-source browser (via WinFuture). The images accompanying this article are nothing more than concept icon renderings for Firefox 3.5, based on the designs of Stephen Horlander, and not the final icon for the browser.

“I think fur texture is an important thing to have since the two best ways I see to freshen the icon (without losing the essence of it) are dimension and texture. I guess what I had in mind was less overall pseudo realistic fur texture and more selective enhancement. It’s hard to verbalize so I worked up what I had in mind. Basically select patches of sharp, long, subtle (maybe too subtle?) fur. Some on the tufts on his face, some around the arm area, some on the upper and lower half of where his body curves. Much like in Jon’s original concepts,” Horlander explained his approach.

At the basis of the new design is a conceptual sketch authored by Jon Hicks, Faaborg reveals. Hicks, for those who don't know, is the designer who created the original Firefox icon, and the man that took over the role of Senior Designer at Opera Software in 2008. Iconfactory's Anthony Piraino is dealing with all the heavy lifting when it comes down to rendering.

“The designer Stephen Horlander recently created a concept rendering of an updated Firefox icon. Stephen has been a long time member of the Mozilla community and has contributed his design talent to the Firefox 1 theme, the ubiquitous Web Feed icon, and the Firefox 3 OS X theme,” Faaborg added. “There are definitely some aspects of this conceptual design that I think we will want to leverage in the updated icon for Firefox 3.5.”

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 and Firefox 3.0.10 for Windows are available for download here.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 and Firefox 3.0.10 for Linux are available here.

Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 and Firefox 3.0.10 for Mac OS X are available here.