iPhone PSD file - Updated

Manicho probably never saw it coming when he designed this iPhone .psd back in April of 2007, nearly eight weeks before the release of the real device.This .psd became the mainstay development file for the first 11 months of the phones life, before another popular iPhone .psd was released on DA. That alone was enough to get his .psd the most popular image device downloaded within the community. I normally think about this categorically, but this .psd has exceptions simply because it’s the first of it’s kind. As far back as I can find, there hadn’t been a more effect rich and detailed .psd. So without further spiel, let’s take a look at the phone.


- Body
Even though the gauge of chrome is a bit thicker than real thing , this part of the .psd has to be talked about first because this is where the phone shines, literally. The shell of the phone carries it’s own unique blends of shadow, highlight and sheen that carry over realistically and sometimes the smallest detail means the biggest difference. With polished metal corners and layered field of depth, this image pulls it off and has been copied by other designers since. Even with merged layers, there is a lot to learn about this .psd to the trained eye.

- Screen Interface
Lets face it, it’s a lock screen with a devart page showing on an Apple OS window. The wallpaper is plain cool. The theme chosen is unique and techie. It would have been nice to have included an official stock interface so developers can demo their work a little better with the UI but whose complaining, right? When your getting it early, anything can happen.

- Button Design
Both inset and radius reflections come off very well on the home button. The fact that the button remains darker than the faceplate of the phone and then uses that color depth and half button highlight to create the curve is awesome. You can look at the many other iPhone .psd’s made after this deviation, including mine and they all follow the same radius effects. The one mistake made on this device is the direction of the light. The faceplate directional light source is from the top left. The buttons source is straight up. About half of the iPhones I’ve seen do this. Again, the smallest detail means is the biggest difference but this is the original iPhone .psd so it gets a “get out of jail free” card. The speaker you ask... Keep thinking original, k?

- Resolution
The biggest learning experience after creating my first mobile device .psd is that size means everything. If your going to design a device, you really cant put much detail in without creating above 2000px resolution. This .psd defies that logic if it was indeed created at actual pixel resolution but I wouldn't try this at home kids. The resolution on this .psd would have been completely perfect if had supplied that. Resolution is everything!

- Props and Extras
It’s so Apple blue and abstract, I could have sworn it was lifted from a stock OSX wallpaper.. None the less, a sensible, complementing background scheme. I always insist that designers add document and identity stats. It’s important for others to know who did the work and what the work features are. I think with this .psd, no introduction is needed anymore. The numbers speak for themselves. This is it.

Sitting at 55,248 downloads and 156,498 page views as of this critique, it still remains the top downloaded device .psd. That doesn’t include outside download sources. Deviant ~kol is not far behind with his iPhone .PSD version but this is Manicho’s moment. His original .psd deserves it.