The Iconfactory


The Iconfactory is a small software and graphic design company that specializes in creating icons and software for creating and using icons. The company was founded in April 1996 by Corey Marion, Talos Tsui, and Gedeon Maheux. Lead Engineer Craig Hockenberry joined the company in 1997 and Artist Dave Brasgalla joined in January 1999. The company incorporated in January 2000. The Iconfactory gained popularity through the creation of packages of free icons for download, but quickly grew to become one of the leading studios in commercial icon design. The Iconfactory also publishes software for creating, organizing and using icons as well as general GUI applications.
From 1997 until 2004, the Iconfactory held an annual icon design contest for the Macintosh icon community called Pixelpalooza. The competition was a chance for aspiring artists from all over the world to design and produce original icon creations for the chance of winning software and hardware prizes. Pixelpalooza was discontinued in 2005, although the company says it may make a return in the future.
The Iconfactory's most notable client project to date was creating over 100 icons for Microsoft to be included in the Windows XP operating system as well as creating the base icons in Windows Vista's Aero interface. They have also created over 100 icons for the Xbox 360 UI and website.

Software

Discontinued:
CandyBar and Pixadex were maintained with Panic. xScope and Frenzic are maintained with ARTIS Software.

Sales

In 2010 the total sales for the Iconfactory was $US 370,000

Alleged patent infringement

On May 31, 2011, Lodsys asserted two of its four patents: U.S. Patent No. 7,620,565 on a "customer-based design module" and U.S. Patent No. 7,222,078 on "Methods and Systems for Gathering Information from Units of a Commodity Across a Network." against Iconfactory and 6 other developers for using Apple, Inc.'s API for In-app purchase.