Study of icon designSpotify changed their icons recently (a). Immediately, I thought of Adobe’s CS Suite (b and c). Adobe for many years has used icons similar to Spotify’s. And Adobe probably got their inspiration from Pantone (d).

Spotify didn’t go far enough. I would propose version (e). Notice how the category name stands out more. Notice how it becomes a different thing than just a square.

This applies to you, non-designers. If you’re going to create something, push it far enough away from your source of inspiration that it becomes a new idea.