AlternativeIcons
A list of possible alternatives.
Textmate alternative icon by vladstudio:
I really wanted TextMate icon to be book, not list (to represent projects, not files). Made in Photoshop. Enjoy! :-)
The TextMate Halloween Theme 2006
Jack-o’-Lantern Photograph by Toby Ord on 31 Oct 2003. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jack-o%27-Lantern_2003-10-31.jpg, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License
Joshua Emmons's first stab: I love everything about TextMate except the icon. It looks too much like a document (as opposed to an application). I agree with all those here who are in support of gears and the color purple. Purple gears are rad.
Made in Illustrator, and thus can take on arbitrary size upon request. Looking forward to your comments.
Jonas's design: CS3 style icon below doesn't really blend with other CS3 icons, so I created a better one, that suites the style and size. If you have quite a lot Adobe programs in your dock, try this icon:
Ethan Dunham's icon: I think the gear metaphor is the way to go. It speaks of the automation/text-crunching ability of the program, which is really the highlight. Since the focus of the program is on productivity and serious coding work, the icon should reflect that. The robot and AOL-guy/SubEthaEdit icon don't fit the idea of what this program is about, IMHO. Also, simple is better than complex. Looking at the icons in my dock, most are very "uncluttered." With that in mind, here's my version of the icon which breaks down nicely in size:
(Update: Ben P asked to see in different colors, so I took another stab at it. I tried purple first, since that is what people were thinking. But how about metal! See the three on the right. (No icon resources for these yet)
- Wow, my favorite yet. That shape is easy to pick out of my dock. (Disclaimer: all the posted icons are better than what I can do.) - Eric Hsu
- 1 vote for icon resources for these :-D - MSpreij
- To add my vote, I prefer the existing icon. The current icon implies the use of the program, as per the Apple Human Interface guidelines. I've got too many abstract shapes in my dock already.
- I find myself going through the trouble of copying this into each Beta release's Resource folder because it's so easily recognizable in the Dock. - natebeaty
- These Icons rock totally! - Caius
- Any chance you could combine the purple and the right-hand metal gear and change the 'T' in the right-hand gear to an 'M' so that there are two interlocked gears - one purple and one metal - with a T in the first and an M in the second?
Jon Raphaelson's icon:
(download)A combination of a couple of ideas from the list. Try it before you knock it for not downsizing, the 48 is missing the text and the 32 and 16 are also missing the pen, which makes them actually really pretty good looking at small sizes. I like it in this green, but I have 6 or 7 other good color combos (think candy iMacs) on my hard drive, so if you want them, email me. Hope you like.
- Hey Jon's looks pretty good too! However, I think it has to be in purple... Palm Desktop, Excel and iTunes already occupy this part of the spectrum. - Eric Hsu
- Done and done :). The download link now points to a internet enabled disk image, with six of my favorite late 90's iMac colors (aqua, lime, lemon, orange, cherry and grape). I'm sticking with lime, but I guess there's no accounting for taste :) - Jon Raphaelson
- I'll take Jon's in grape or cherry. Fantastic. - Chris Thomas
- Second that! Please, please adopt Jon's icon over the new SubEthaEdit ripoff that shipped with 1.1b3! - Alexander Payne
What about Wolfgang Bartelme's alternative versions] to Jon's icons?
I think, they're a nice improvement and a good example of open development, i.e. one building on another's ideas. Kudos to Jon and Wolfgang!
Update (2005-07-08): This is now (and has been for some time) the new official icon. Wolfgang has provided me with the PSD for the image in various sizes and one big size. -- Allan Odgaard
Chris Vincent's icon:
(download)
I started from scratch and attempted an icon that looked a little more "Aqua-ish". Not incredibly unique, but perhaps preferable to some users.
Call me boring, but I like CV's simple icon! A good accent color. - Eric Hsu
This is the one I use too. Simple and clean. I just made it a bit bigger, to match the size of other Text Editor's icons, and quickly made a doc and a project icon. - Fred B
TorstenBecker's icon (download):
16px icon of 1st version: 
and of the 2nd one: 
done from groundup using inkscape, inspired by subethaedits icon and the color-wheel one posted on the mailing list, thats why its purple. the itention was to make a more organic version of a textmate. some notes about this new icon (r59) are available at the mailing-list.
Dave Woodward's icon:
(download)
I made the colors of the “little guy” more saturated, and gave him red shoes and made the little antennae ball red. I lightened up the typewriter as well as gave it a cooler hue to help it recede into the background. I made the vertical height of the guy’s antennae shorter so that I could scale him up (which is why he is a little blurry at the full 128×128 pixel size). As a result the icon looks significantly better when scaled down. I also hand tweaked the 16×16 pixel icon to make sure his shoes stood out.
Some icons harvested from the mailing list
Links are to the original letter with details.
http://one.textdrive.com/pipermail/textmate/attachments/20041009/8a397d64/Picture5.pdf 
Braces + Robot braces
Colored Folding Icons and Bookmark Icon
Stoplight theme coloring:
pdf screenshot of above icons in use
install instructions here: http://one.textdrive.com/pipermail/textmate/2004-November/001211.html
Robot sightings
Color wheel
When placing a new brand into an existing market, one of the things to identify is the values presented within the brands of your competition. For icons, the overriding value to consider is that of colour.
CS3-compatible
Created by Jay Elmore one day afer installing Adobe Creative Suite 3.
