Janarayson

Seven years of Hargapedia icons

Design4 min read

Every Hargapedia app icon from November 2017 to April 2025, and the festivals, sales and campaigns behind them.

The Hargapedia app icon changed about thirty times between November 2017 and April 2025. Most of those were for Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, 11.11 or whatever campaign we were running at the time.

The price tag and magnifying glass were almost always there. We’d change the colours, add some festive decorations or put something behind them, then switch back to the regular icon a few weeks later.

I still have the Sketch files from those years. Looking through them again, it’s interesting to see how often we changed the artwork while keeping the same basic design.

2017 to 2019

The first icon, from November 2017, is the one the others are built on: a price tag with a magnifying glass, tilted, on a light blue swirl.

Ten app icons in a grid with dates: Nov 2017 the first icon, a tilted cyan price tag with a magnifier on a light blue swirl; Jan 2018 Chinese New Year, a gold tag on red flowers; May 2018 Hari Raya, a green tag on green with a lantern and mosque silhouette; Jun 2018 World Cup, a gold tag on blue and red; Jun 2018 2.0 in development, a white outline tag on flat dark blue; Jul 2018 Pets, an orange tag on yellow with paw prints; Aug 2018 Merdeka, the cyan tag over the Malaysian flag; Jan 2019 Chinese New Year, a yellow tag on red with a lantern; Apr 2019 Hari Raya, a green tag on a mosque silhouette; Dec 2019 Chinese New Year 2020, a gold tag on red clouds
2017 to 2019. The 2.0 rebuild carried a flat dark blue icon for a few months in 2018, then launched in September with the 2017 icon, which isn't shown twice.

2018 was the busiest year. Chinese New Year in January, with two rounds of exports ten days apart. Hari Raya in May. The World Cup in June. A pets campaign in July. Merdeka in August, with the flag across the top. In between, the 2.0 rebuild spent a few months with a flat dark blue icon, a white outline of the tag, and launched in September with the swirl back.

In 2019 the events settled into the pattern that lasted: Chinese New Year, Hari Raya, then the next Chinese New Year in December.

2020 to 2022

Eleven app icons in a grid with dates: Oct 2020 11.11, a yellow tag on purple with 11.11 in pink; Dec 2020 Christmas, a gold tag on red snowflakes; Feb 2021 pets campaign, a yellow tag with a cat and a dog; Apr 2021 Hari Raya, a green tag on a mosque silhouette; Sep 2021 one million downloads, a gold tag on dark blue with fireworks and a 1 MILLION banner; Oct 2021 11.11, a yellow tag on pink and orange triangles; Nov 2021 Christmas, a yellow tag with Santa; Dec 2021 Chinese New Year 2022, an orange tag on teal with flowers; Mar 2022 Hari Raya, a gold tag on green with a lantern; Oct 2022 11.11, a cyan tag on purple with 11.11 in yellow; Dec 2022 Chinese New Year 2023, a gold tag on red with clouds
2020 to 2022. Chinese New Year 2021 reused the 2020 icon, so it isn't shown twice.

11.11 joined the calendar in 2020, and Christmas got an icon that year and the next. The one-off was September 2021, when the app passed a million downloads and the icon said so for a few weeks.

2023 to 2025

Six app icons in a grid with dates: Mar 2023 Hari Raya, a gold tag on dark blue with a lantern; Oct 2023 11.11, a cyan tag on yellow with 11.11 in blue; Dec 2023 Chinese New Year 2024, a gold tag on red with lanterns; Jul 2024 the rebuilt app, a lighter cyan tag on a pale blue swirl; Dec 2024 Chinese New Year 2025, a gold tag on red; Feb 2025 Hari Raya, a gold tag on green
2023 to 2025. Hari Raya 2024 reused the 2022 icon, and the April 2025 icon is the 2017 one again, so neither is shown twice.

The rebuilt app launched in July 2024 with a lighter version of the icon, a paler tag on a paler swirl. It lasted through Chinese New Year and Hari Raya 2025, and in April 2025 the classic icon came back. That’s the icon on the store today.