Loren Brichter’s Design Influence
I’ve been a fan of Twitter’s dedicated Mac OS X client since it was called Tweetie and made by atebits. If imitation’s the sincerest form of flattery, then the original designers of the Twitter app should be awfully flattered these days. Exhibit A: Sparrow, a simple mail client I’ve covered here before. For some reason I wrote that it reminded me of the Twitter app. Oh really, Upstarter. Maybe because they look exactly the same.
Exhibits B and C: The new web browser Raven, and the iTunes client Simplier. Look familiar? Raven’s “Smart Bar” is a literal interpretation of Twitter’s toolbar, and from ten feet away Simplier could easily be mistaken for the Twitter app. And what about Reeder? Even Facebook’s new iPad iteration looks awfully familiar. Shouldn’t the founder of atebits, Loren Brichter, be getting credit for all this? Because if he is, I can’t find it anywhere.
