david hose

Visual Studio 2026 Product Icon Refresh

Client:

Microsoft, Visual Studio

Role:

Designer

 Challenge:

The challenge was to evolve the Visual Studio launch icon in a way that meaningfully reflected the product’s growth. It needed to stand apart from previous and current taskbar icons while aligning with Microsoft’s updated product icon system, including its visual style and color guidance.

Solution:

The approved Visual Studio icon preserves its recognizable infinity symbol while refreshing its visual treatment to align with Microsoft’s product icon system.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Illustrator, Production

Challenge:

In collaboration with Microsoft Design Group and Portland-based studio Always with Honor, I helped create more than 450 emojis for Windows 10. We established a bright, expressive geometric style and a pixel-precise design system that met Microsoft’s display requirements and remained legible at small sizes. A bold black outline helped each emoji stand out against any background.

After the initial release, our internal team extended the emoji library in line with new candidates approved by the Unicode Consortium. We created hundreds of designs, refining each through multiple rounds of review and approval, then prepared the final artwork for color-font production.

Solution:

Once the visual style was established, I designed hundreds of emojis in Illustrator, maintaining consistency and attention to detail. After approval, I prepared each design as a layered, font-ready file, organizing artwork by color and refining shapes for legibility at smaller sizes.

Client:

Microsoft Office

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

Visually refresh Microsoft’s Office Application Icons to reflect an evolution of significant product changes. With this icon redesign we faced two big challenges. We needed to signal innovation and change while maintaining a familiarity for Office’s 1 billion+ customers.

Solution:

I Partnered with multiple product teams and stakeholders to create a comprehensive design solution for each Office application icon. Simplicity and harmony were key visual elements when creating each Office app. We incorporated an updated color palette choosing hues that are bolder, lighter and friendlier. While each app icon has a unique symbol representing the app’s core functionality, the system is tied together by a set of guidelines which creates harmony across the collective suite.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Designer, Production

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 10 the Windows Design Group (WDG) wanted to visually refresh all the operating system’s File Explorer Icons. The first challenge was to perform a thorough icon audit of all the File Explorer icons that were actively being used by the operating system. The second challenge was to create a system of icons with a refreshed look while maintaining some cohesion and familiarity to the legacy set of icons. Extensive explorations including line weight, color palette, color application, angles, light source, and size requirement for high dpi displays.

Solution:

Once the style was established and tested by our team I designed hundreds of desktop styled icons for Windows 10 File Explorer.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Designer, Production, System Maintenance

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft wanted to replace Windows 8/8.1 Segoe UI Symbol icon font with Segoe MDL2 Assets font. The challenge was to create an updated style of glyph assets (or icons) with a consistent line weight, placement and consistent usage of preestablished metaphors.

Solution:

Once a style was established our design team created a library of common-elements used to maintain consistency between thousands of icons we’ve since created. Segoe MDL2 Assets font icons are constantly being added and are now successfully implemented in the Windows 10 OS.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 8 Microsoft wanted to visually refresh some of it’s existing icons and added additional icon to the operating system. Extensive explorations including line weight, color palette, color application, angles, light source, and size requirement for high dpi displays were performed.

Solution:

Once the style was established I designed hundreds of icons for application such as Mail using Photoshop paths and various layer effects as defined by the style guidelines. Once the icons were approved, I created 6 additional sizes to satisfy high dpi requirements.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft wanted to create a series of tips for its Tips application to help users navigate Windows. The challenge was to create supporting illustrations to help conceptualize the tips documentation.

Solution:

I collaborated with writers and content producers to create unique illustrations using guidelines developed by the WDG design team. The illustrations were designed to focus the user’s attention using abstracted UI (focusing the user on the primary content of the tip while abstracting the surrounding user interface). In some cases animation was best suited for the tip, in these cases I created a series of key frames for our animators to animate.

Client:

Microsoft, Windows

Role:

Visual Designer

Challenge:

Create a series of Microsoft Ninja-cat holiday desktop wallpaper for download from Microsoft Store. Our small team of illustrators was tasked with creating uniquely themed wallpaper which required Microsoft’s Ninja cat in epic landscapes and scenarios.

Solution:

I drew up some quick ideas then jumped into illustrator to create 3 uniquely themed ninja cat desktop wallpapers. This project was super fun and collaborative.

Client:

Microsoft

Role:

Illustrator

Challenge:

Create illustration assets for various Microsoft groups including Rewards, Tips, and other Microsoft groups.

Solution:

I brainstormed, sketched and created original vector illustrations adhering to the brand guidelines, translating ideas into detailed illustrations.

When time permits, I love the challenge of creating vector based illustrations from existing references. Here are two examples that show the process from monoline to full color rending. Both were created using Adobe Illustrator.