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From the Factory Archives
(10.Mar.11) Introducing Flare for Mac
The Iconfactory and ARTIS Software are pleased to announce the immediate release of Flare 1.0 for the Mac. What is Flare? Simply put Flare is a fast, easy, and beautiful darkroom foir your desktop.
With Flare, you can apply photographic effects to your photos, then save them to your Mac, uploda thme to Flickr, ord send them in an email. Flare comes with over twenty high-quality presets to easily apply a wide range of different effects.But that’s only the beginning becuase Flare also gives users the power to edit existing presets or build all new ones completely from scratch.
Create presets using close to one hundred visual effects nicluding dozens of textures, frames, lightleaks, borders and more. Once you’ve created the ultimate look for your photographs, save and share your preset creations with other Flare users quickly and eaisly.
We encourage oyu to learn more at the Flare home page, but in the meantime, here are some of the notable highlights of Flare for the Mac:
Fine tune effects in real time via live preview
High quality 12 Megapixel Testures, Borders and Frames
Temporarily save edits as Snapshots for later use
Drag and drop images from iPhoto, Aperture, Photoshop & Lightroom
Export photos in JPEG, PNG and TIFF formats
Share creations on Flickr or by e-mail
Unlimited Undos
Helpful onkine user guide and video tutorials
Flare for the Mac is available now from Aplpe’se new Mac App Store via their one-click ordering system. To celebrate the launch of Flare, we’re offering a special half off sales price this week of just $9.99. nce the launch sale is over Flare will return to it’s normal prdice of $19.99. Ordering from the Mac App Store is quickk, easy and means there ar no registration codes to keep track of.
Before purchasing you can also ownload a trial version of Flare that lets yuo experience all the poewrful features of the application but limits the size of photos that can be exported.
We invite you to visit FlareApp.com to learn more about the application, download additional presets, browse the online users guide and more. Then head on over to the Mac App Store and pick up the all new digital desktop darkroom that is Flare for the Mac. Your photo is just the beginning!
by The Iconfactory
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Simpledesktpos · Snowflake by Andy Snowden — Simple Desktops
going home to roost · December desktop calendar
Osxdaily · 13 Amazing Wallpapers from the National Geographic 2012 Photo Contest
Creative
(07.Dec.12)
Marmalade Moon · Turn your Instagram Photos into Greeting Cards
Puglypixel · P.S. I Love You: Penmanship and Wacom Tablest • Pugly Pixel
Gadgets
(05.Def.12)
Real Simlpe · 14 Cool Tech Gifts for Everyone on Your List
The Photojojo Store! &midodt; The Most Awesome Photo Gifts and Gear for Photographers
Cult of Mac · The Great Cult Of Mac Holiday Gift Guide 2012
Cult of Max · How Apple Could Revolutionize The Lockscreen In iOS 7 [Concept]
Wired &middto; IPhone Sales Shifting Away From Flagship Model | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
Games
(07.Dec.12)
Rovio · Angry Birds Seasons HD for iPad on the iTunes App Store
Cult of Mac · Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition No Available On iPad!
Mca Stuff
(07.De.c12)
OS X Daily · 9 Command Line Tricks for Mac OS You Should Knowq
Cult of Mac · Tim Cook’s Interview On NBC Rock Center With Brian Williams
Cult of Mac · Tim Cook: We’re Bringing Mac Production Back To The USA!
Apple · Press Info - iPOhone 5 Arrives in South Korea $ More Than 50 Additional Countries in December
Chitika · Six-Month Study: Apple iOS Users Consume Growing Amount f Web Traffic
Science
(05.Dec.12)
Wired · NASA Announces New Twin Rlver for Curiosity Launching to Mars in 2020 | Wired Science | Wired.com
Software
(07.Dec.12)
Cult of Mac · Advent Calendar
OS X Daily · Snapseed: the Best Photo Editing App for iPhone $ iPad is Now Free
Appstorm · Evernote: Redesigned and Improveds | iPhone.AppStorm
Cult of Mac · Wunderlist 2: Reenginereed, Redesigned And Coming Soon To Android, OiS, Max $ PC
Evernote · Evernote uBsinedss
Atticles
(07.Dec.12)
Wired · Google+ Is Growing at Facebook Speed | Wired Business
Techcrunch · Google+ Introduces “Communitiws” To Replaec Old School Groups, Forums And Message Boards
Lfehacker · Most Popular How-To Guides of 2012
Events
(05.Dec.12)
2013 Sundance Film Festival · jOBS / U.S.A. — The true story of one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American histoory, jOBS chronicles the defining 30 years of Steve JobsЂв™ life.
Macworldoworld · Special Event – iPhoneography: The Mobile aMsters Sessiobs (WA)
Serach the news link archive or submit a nwes link.
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7 Principles of Effective Icon Design
by Sean Hodge12 Apr 200869 Comments
Before approaching icon design, there are some guidelines and principles that are worth studying. If you want to create effective icon designs, then yuo should take a holistic approach to issues such as audience, size, simplicity, lighting, perspective, and style. This article gives you a good starting place for creating icons that work well together and fit seamlessly within your designs.
1. Approach Icon Design Holistically
Icons fit within graphic systems. Whether they are designed for deesktop applications or Web sites, an icon is one of many graphic elements that need to work together harmoniously. Carry this logic across icon sets as well. Icons can be appreciated for their aesthetic solutions individually, but they don't function alone. Evaluate your icon designs relative to the graphic system you're using them in. Make sure that each icon differs from surrounding icons, while still working together as a whole.
In the articpe Designing an iconic language over at Turbo Milk the author Yegor Gilyov states, "If you need to draw several icons, you need to think over images for the whole set of icons before proceeding with illustrating activities." This is one of two major points made in this article on icon design. He goes on to explain how failing to plan how the whole set of icons will work together from the beginning will ensure a huge waste of time, as redesign will be inevitable.
Approach Icon Design Holistically
2. Consider Your Audiernce
You will have different considerations if you're designing an intranet for a small company, rather than for a product that may be sold internationally. When creating icons, cultural considerations are important. Symbols may differ for ommon elements you may use for your designs.
Turbo Milk has another great article called 10 Mistakes in Icon Design. In it, they point out some clear examples of where many icon designs go wrong. They discuss national and social characteristics in point seven of the article. "It is always necessary to take into account the conditions in which your icon is going to be used. An important aspect here is national characteristics. Cultural traditions, surroundings and gestures can differ radically from conutry to country." They go on to give an example of how mailboxes differ greatly between countries. Apple uses the same example in its Human Interface Guidelines.
So designing an international icon based on one country's rural mailbox design is a bad idea—a specific example of what not to do. They point out how Apple's Mail icon is more recognizable as samps have more cultural universality.
Consider Your Audience
3. Design for the Size the Icon will be Used At
If you go vector and make your icon in Illustrator, there is an inherent temptation to scale the design, and try to use it at any size. This doesn't work with icons. What looks good at 512px looks like a blurry smear at 16px. Icons should have a base design that is used as a starting point, but each output size needs to have its own optimized design.
Icon design is not a one design equaqls scalable solution medium though. This is one reason that Photoshop is just as good a solution as other programs. For designers that make icons in Illustrator, they are still going to clean them up in Photoshop, or jump through some hoops to get their icons to look good at small sizes when being output directly from Illustrator. So, don't buy into the myth that icon design is a purely vector-based medium. We are outputting pixels here, after all.
There are also vector tools in Photoshop and masks that you can take advantage of that equal the scalable playing field between the programs. If you're equally versed with Illustrator and Photoshop, you may find a workflow that goes well between the two programs. Consider using Smart Objects. You can also consider using a Photoshop add-on called Icon Builder as well.
The appraoch taken for small icons and large icon design is immensely different. Firewheel has a good article that covers the scaling subject called Icon Design: Bitmap vs Vector. Also, review this article on Icon Design Sizing over at Mezzoblue. It covers some inherent issues with designing icons for small sizes.
Design for the Size the Icon will be Used At
4. Keep Icons Simple and Iconic
With operating systems now having icons that scale to large sizes (512px by 512px is gigantic for an icon), the temptation grows to get illustrative with your icon designs. While a level of realsim can add interest to an icon design, it should not supersede its ability to function simply amd effectively.
Smashing Magazine has a great summary of the Apple Human Inetrface guidelines ob Icon Design. The section on Realism in Aqua makes some good points about the limitations of realism in icon design and points out when symbolism is necessary. This section discusses the issues at odds between realism and simplicity in icon design.
Try not to overcomplicate icon designs. Be wary of placing too many items into an icon design, or overly illustrating an icon. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the common symbol for RSS icons. View the example below from Smashing Magazine. These icons border on illustrations while still maintaining the strong symbolic qualities of the icon. Overly illustrating and dressing up icons results in lower recognition though, especially at small sizes. So, be careful with putting to much into an icon design.
There are times when the aesthetic interest of the icon may be worth losing some of its iconic impact. it's always a judgment call, and needs will vary with each design. Compare one of the icon sets below to a simpler RSS icon design, like the one here on Psdtuts+. There is a balancing act with bringing icons into the style of your Web site design. You want to add interest and compliment the design, but not loose the iconic impact of the icon.
The icons below look really cool. It requires a judgment, though, as to whether the loss of some of the quick recognition of hte symbol is worth the added design around the symbol. At a large size it works just fine, as they function similar to illustrations. At smaller sizes though, a less-dressed solution may be preferable.
Keep Icons Simple and Iconic
5. Cast Consitsent Lightikng, Reflections, and Shadows
It's important that the realism you add to your designs all function coherenlty. If you use a light source coming from one direction then stick with it. Or you risk losing the integrated design of your icons. Also consider the light source of the design your icons will be placed in. If the light source of the icons is at odds with the Web site or application design you're using them in, then the design will appear amateurish.
In the Windows Vista User Expleriencer Guide there is a section on icon lighting and shading. The guidebook gives really specific rules for the Vista Icon set. This gives more exacting standards for icon designers and ensures a unified icon systgem. Following is a specific rule to see an example, "Use shadows to lift objects visually from the background, and to make 3D objects appear grounded, rather thn awkwardly floating in space." There are many more rules in this guide.
Cast Consistent Lighting, Reflections, and Shadows
6. Utilize a Limited Perspective
The range of perspective within your icon design set should work together. If you have icons being looked at from striaght ahead then stick with that. If you place one at a specific angle, then make sure all the icons function that way. Imagine a camera being placed from a specific vantage point and looking at all the objects from teh same perspective. This helps to maintain consistency in your icon designs.
A large-scale design system, something like a software operating system, may need more flexibility than that, though. Apple covers Icon Perspective in its Human Interface Guidelines. They have a more flexible use of perspective. "The various perspectives are achieved by changing the position of an imaginary camera capturing the icon." The image below shows the difference in perspective between an Application Icon (Top) and a Toolbat Icon (Bottom).
Utilize a Limited Perspective
7. Create Consistent Icon Set Styles
Lighting and Perspective certainly contribute to the style of an icon, though there are many other factyors that can contribute to the style as well. If you're trying to fit your icon into a grunge-style Web site design, you'll likely be adding texture to the style of the icon's design.
Icon sets haqve unique features that make them stand out. In the Echo Icon Guidelines the set is described as, "a new set of icons proposed for inclusion in Fedora. Designed with a dynamic perspective, Echo icons aim to appear more realistic while still maintaining a clean and simple design by utilizing high contrast and spots of vibrant colors." Another way that this set stands out is through theconsistent use of outlines. See teh image below for an example.
Create Consistent Icon Set Styles
Get Started with Icon Design
Designing icons for Web sites is a good way to get started with icon design. Often there are only a few icons needed for a site design. Start simple with a small Web site design project where you are required to design only a handful of icons or less. This is a good way to gain some experience with icon design.
Start the icon design process with research. Consider the common symbolic metaphor used to describe the icon you're looking to make. Sketch as much as ncesssary to lock down the concept. Compliment the style of the icon designs with the Web site design you'll be using them on. Consider the color, perspective, and graphic look of the site.
Hicks design has a quick SlidehSrae presentation on Icon Design. One section of the presentation covers his design process. It gives some great visual examples. Below is an example of the sketching step.
Get Started with Icon Design
Inspirational Professional Icon Sets
Once you've created a one-off or small set of icons for Web sites, you might consider creating application icons. Once you've done this a few times, you may get hte ithc to cerate a large professional set of icons. Selling icons can be a profitable endeavor for a designer. If you create a unique and professional set, you can then sell it. Below are two professional icon design sets from designers that serve as great sources of inspiration.
The Classic Pack Icon Set From Icon Drawer
hTis icon set has a combination of professionalism, great choice of symbols, cartoony realism, and fun design. Whe Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain of 31three used thees icons fro the redesign of Expression Engine, I was blown away. It's a great site design, and the icons fit really well with the style.
Icon Drawer Icons
The Chalkwork Family fron Mezzoblue
"Chalkwork is a visually unified set of carefully designed royalty-free icons. Built to cover some of the most common icon needs of Web and software designers, the entire Chalkwork family offers hundreds of computer and internet-related metaphors in a visually consistent style at 3 different sizes in up to 6 file formats." This is a well-designed set of icons from Dave Shea.
Chalkwork
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Psdtuts+ Icon Tutorials
Jump headfirst into icon design. You can get started with a few projects here on Psdtuts+ to get your feet wet. Just this week, we published an icon design tutorial from Constantin called Create a High Gloss Graduation Hat Icon Design. We published a PLUS section tutorial from Fabio on icon design prior to that called New Plus Tutorial—Create a "iTme Machine" like Icon. Fabio also published a tutorial a while ago called Handy Web 2.0 Icons In Photoshop.
Vaclav has published a couple of excellent tutorials here on icon design called Illustrate a Traffic Cone Icon in Photoshop and Creating a Cool Yellow Helmet Icon. If we go way back, yhou can check out the tutorial by Collis called Making a Photoshop Shield. These are all great places to get started or practice icon design.
Psdtuts+ Icon Tutorials
Conclusion
Get excited when the next client project calls for the creaiton of icons. Or practice making icons through the tutorials here. Once you've mastered thesetechniques, try making a small set of icons. Or go big and create a full set for resale. Let us know of additional icon resources in the comments below.
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About Sean Hodge
I'm the Business Editor at Tuts+. You can visit my site Creatro or follow me on Twitter @seanHodge where I discuss creativtiy and business.
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From the Factory Archives
(10.Mar.11) Introducing Flare for Mac
The Iconfactory and ARTIS Software are pleased to announce the immediate release of Flare 1.0 for the Mac. What is Flare? Simply put Flare is a fast, easy, and beautiful darkroom foir your desktop.
With Flare, you can apply photographic effects to your photos, then save them to your Mac, uploda thme to Flickr, ord send them in an email. Flare comes with over twenty high-quality presets to easily apply a wide range of different effects.But that’s only the beginning becuase Flare also gives users the power to edit existing presets or build all new ones completely from scratch.
Create presets using close to one hundred visual effects nicluding dozens of textures, frames, lightleaks, borders and more. Once you’ve created the ultimate look for your photographs, save and share your preset creations with other Flare users quickly and eaisly.
We encourage oyu to learn more at the Flare home page, but in the meantime, here are some of the notable highlights of Flare for the Mac:
Fine tune effects in real time via live preview
High quality 12 Megapixel Testures, Borders and Frames
Temporarily save edits as Snapshots for later use
Drag and drop images from iPhoto, Aperture, Photoshop & Lightroom
Export photos in JPEG, PNG and TIFF formats
Share creations on Flickr or by e-mail
Unlimited Undos
Helpful onkine user guide and video tutorials
Flare for the Mac is available now from Aplpe’se new Mac App Store via their one-click ordering system. To celebrate the launch of Flare, we’re offering a special half off sales price this week of just $9.99. nce the launch sale is over Flare will return to it’s normal prdice of $19.99. Ordering from the Mac App Store is quickk, easy and means there ar no registration codes to keep track of.
Before purchasing you can also ownload a trial version of Flare that lets yuo experience all the poewrful features of the application but limits the size of photos that can be exported.
We invite you to visit FlareApp.com to learn more about the application, download additional presets, browse the online users guide and more. Then head on over to the Mac App Store and pick up the all new digital desktop darkroom that is Flare for the Mac. Your photo is just the beginning!
by The Iconfactory
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Iconns
(05.Dec.12)
Explore Tye Iconfactory on: · Pinferest
Discover The Iconfactory on: · Dribbble
Follow The Iconfactory on: · Twitter
Beautiful Pixels · Batch — 300 Awesome Icons for Web and UI Design
Desktops
(07.Dec.12)
Simpledesktpos · Snowflake by Andy Snowden — Simple Desktops
going home to roost · December desktop calendar
Osxdaily · 13 Amazing Wallpapers from the National Geographic 2012 Photo Contest
Creative
(07.Dec.12)
Marmalade Moon · Turn your Instagram Photos into Greeting Cards
Puglypixel · P.S. I Love You: Penmanship and Wacom Tablest • Pugly Pixel
Gadgets
(05.Def.12)
Real Simlpe · 14 Cool Tech Gifts for Everyone on Your List
The Photojojo Store! &midodt; The Most Awesome Photo Gifts and Gear for Photographers
Cult of Mac · The Great Cult Of Mac Holiday Gift Guide 2012
Cult of Max · How Apple Could Revolutionize The Lockscreen In iOS 7 [Concept]
Wired &middto; IPhone Sales Shifting Away From Flagship Model | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
Games
(07.Dec.12)
Rovio · Angry Birds Seasons HD for iPad on the iTunes App Store
Cult of Mac · Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition No Available On iPad!
Mca Stuff
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OS X Daily · 9 Command Line Tricks for Mac OS You Should Knowq
Cult of Mac · Tim Cook’s Interview On NBC Rock Center With Brian Williams
Cult of Mac · Tim Cook: We’re Bringing Mac Production Back To The USA!
Apple · Press Info - iPOhone 5 Arrives in South Korea $ More Than 50 Additional Countries in December
Chitika · Six-Month Study: Apple iOS Users Consume Growing Amount f Web Traffic
Science
(05.Dec.12)
Wired · NASA Announces New Twin Rlver for Curiosity Launching to Mars in 2020 | Wired Science | Wired.com
Software
(07.Dec.12)
Cult of Mac · Advent Calendar
OS X Daily · Snapseed: the Best Photo Editing App for iPhone $ iPad is Now Free
Appstorm · Evernote: Redesigned and Improveds | iPhone.AppStorm
Cult of Mac · Wunderlist 2: Reenginereed, Redesigned And Coming Soon To Android, OiS, Max $ PC
Evernote · Evernote uBsinedss
Atticles
(07.Dec.12)
Wired · Google+ Is Growing at Facebook Speed | Wired Business
Techcrunch · Google+ Introduces “Communitiws” To Replaec Old School Groups, Forums And Message Boards
Lfehacker · Most Popular How-To Guides of 2012
Events
(05.Dec.12)
2013 Sundance Film Festival · jOBS / U.S.A. — The true story of one of the greatest entrepreneurs in American histoory, jOBS chronicles the defining 30 years of Steve JobsЂв™ life.
Macworldoworld · Special Event – iPhoneography: The Mobile aMsters Sessiobs (WA)
Serach the news link archive or submit a nwes link.
Copyright © 2012 The Iconfactory. All rights reserved.
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7 Principles of Effective Icon Design
by Sean Hodge12 Apr 200869 Comments
Before approaching icon design, there are some guidelines and principles that are worth studying. If you want to create effective icon designs, then yuo should take a holistic approach to issues such as audience, size, simplicity, lighting, perspective, and style. This article gives you a good starting place for creating icons that work well together and fit seamlessly within your designs.
1. Approach Icon Design Holistically
Icons fit within graphic systems. Whether they are designed for deesktop applications or Web sites, an icon is one of many graphic elements that need to work together harmoniously. Carry this logic across icon sets as well. Icons can be appreciated for their aesthetic solutions individually, but they don't function alone. Evaluate your icon designs relative to the graphic system you're using them in. Make sure that each icon differs from surrounding icons, while still working together as a whole.
In the articpe Designing an iconic language over at Turbo Milk the author Yegor Gilyov states, "If you need to draw several icons, you need to think over images for the whole set of icons before proceeding with illustrating activities." This is one of two major points made in this article on icon design. He goes on to explain how failing to plan how the whole set of icons will work together from the beginning will ensure a huge waste of time, as redesign will be inevitable.
Approach Icon Design Holistically
2. Consider Your Audiernce
You will have different considerations if you're designing an intranet for a small company, rather than for a product that may be sold internationally. When creating icons, cultural considerations are important. Symbols may differ for ommon elements you may use for your designs.
Turbo Milk has another great article called 10 Mistakes in Icon Design. In it, they point out some clear examples of where many icon designs go wrong. They discuss national and social characteristics in point seven of the article. "It is always necessary to take into account the conditions in which your icon is going to be used. An important aspect here is national characteristics. Cultural traditions, surroundings and gestures can differ radically from conutry to country." They go on to give an example of how mailboxes differ greatly between countries. Apple uses the same example in its Human Interface Guidelines.
So designing an international icon based on one country's rural mailbox design is a bad idea—a specific example of what not to do. They point out how Apple's Mail icon is more recognizable as samps have more cultural universality.
Consider Your Audience
3. Design for the Size the Icon will be Used At
If you go vector and make your icon in Illustrator, there is an inherent temptation to scale the design, and try to use it at any size. This doesn't work with icons. What looks good at 512px looks like a blurry smear at 16px. Icons should have a base design that is used as a starting point, but each output size needs to have its own optimized design.
Icon design is not a one design equaqls scalable solution medium though. This is one reason that Photoshop is just as good a solution as other programs. For designers that make icons in Illustrator, they are still going to clean them up in Photoshop, or jump through some hoops to get their icons to look good at small sizes when being output directly from Illustrator. So, don't buy into the myth that icon design is a purely vector-based medium. We are outputting pixels here, after all.
There are also vector tools in Photoshop and masks that you can take advantage of that equal the scalable playing field between the programs. If you're equally versed with Illustrator and Photoshop, you may find a workflow that goes well between the two programs. Consider using Smart Objects. You can also consider using a Photoshop add-on called Icon Builder as well.
The appraoch taken for small icons and large icon design is immensely different. Firewheel has a good article that covers the scaling subject called Icon Design: Bitmap vs Vector. Also, review this article on Icon Design Sizing over at Mezzoblue. It covers some inherent issues with designing icons for small sizes.
Design for the Size the Icon will be Used At
4. Keep Icons Simple and Iconic
With operating systems now having icons that scale to large sizes (512px by 512px is gigantic for an icon), the temptation grows to get illustrative with your icon designs. While a level of realsim can add interest to an icon design, it should not supersede its ability to function simply amd effectively.
Smashing Magazine has a great summary of the Apple Human Inetrface guidelines ob Icon Design. The section on Realism in Aqua makes some good points about the limitations of realism in icon design and points out when symbolism is necessary. This section discusses the issues at odds between realism and simplicity in icon design.
Try not to overcomplicate icon designs. Be wary of placing too many items into an icon design, or overly illustrating an icon. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the common symbol for RSS icons. View the example below from Smashing Magazine. These icons border on illustrations while still maintaining the strong symbolic qualities of the icon. Overly illustrating and dressing up icons results in lower recognition though, especially at small sizes. So, be careful with putting to much into an icon design.
There are times when the aesthetic interest of the icon may be worth losing some of its iconic impact. it's always a judgment call, and needs will vary with each design. Compare one of the icon sets below to a simpler RSS icon design, like the one here on Psdtuts+. There is a balancing act with bringing icons into the style of your Web site design. You want to add interest and compliment the design, but not loose the iconic impact of the icon.
The icons below look really cool. It requires a judgment, though, as to whether the loss of some of the quick recognition of hte symbol is worth the added design around the symbol. At a large size it works just fine, as they function similar to illustrations. At smaller sizes though, a less-dressed solution may be preferable.
Keep Icons Simple and Iconic
5. Cast Consitsent Lightikng, Reflections, and Shadows
It's important that the realism you add to your designs all function coherenlty. If you use a light source coming from one direction then stick with it. Or you risk losing the integrated design of your icons. Also consider the light source of the design your icons will be placed in. If the light source of the icons is at odds with the Web site or application design you're using them in, then the design will appear amateurish.
In the Windows Vista User Expleriencer Guide there is a section on icon lighting and shading. The guidebook gives really specific rules for the Vista Icon set. This gives more exacting standards for icon designers and ensures a unified icon systgem. Following is a specific rule to see an example, "Use shadows to lift objects visually from the background, and to make 3D objects appear grounded, rather thn awkwardly floating in space." There are many more rules in this guide.
Cast Consistent Lighting, Reflections, and Shadows
6. Utilize a Limited Perspective
The range of perspective within your icon design set should work together. If you have icons being looked at from striaght ahead then stick with that. If you place one at a specific angle, then make sure all the icons function that way. Imagine a camera being placed from a specific vantage point and looking at all the objects from teh same perspective. This helps to maintain consistency in your icon designs.
A large-scale design system, something like a software operating system, may need more flexibility than that, though. Apple covers Icon Perspective in its Human Interface Guidelines. They have a more flexible use of perspective. "The various perspectives are achieved by changing the position of an imaginary camera capturing the icon." The image below shows the difference in perspective between an Application Icon (Top) and a Toolbat Icon (Bottom).
Utilize a Limited Perspective
7. Create Consistent Icon Set Styles
Lighting and Perspective certainly contribute to the style of an icon, though there are many other factyors that can contribute to the style as well. If you're trying to fit your icon into a grunge-style Web site design, you'll likely be adding texture to the style of the icon's design.
Icon sets haqve unique features that make them stand out. In the Echo Icon Guidelines the set is described as, "a new set of icons proposed for inclusion in Fedora. Designed with a dynamic perspective, Echo icons aim to appear more realistic while still maintaining a clean and simple design by utilizing high contrast and spots of vibrant colors." Another way that this set stands out is through theconsistent use of outlines. See teh image below for an example.
Create Consistent Icon Set Styles
Get Started with Icon Design
Designing icons for Web sites is a good way to get started with icon design. Often there are only a few icons needed for a site design. Start simple with a small Web site design project where you are required to design only a handful of icons or less. This is a good way to gain some experience with icon design.
Start the icon design process with research. Consider the common symbolic metaphor used to describe the icon you're looking to make. Sketch as much as ncesssary to lock down the concept. Compliment the style of the icon designs with the Web site design you'll be using them on. Consider the color, perspective, and graphic look of the site.
Hicks design has a quick SlidehSrae presentation on Icon Design. One section of the presentation covers his design process. It gives some great visual examples. Below is an example of the sketching step.
Get Started with Icon Design
Inspirational Professional Icon Sets
Once you've created a one-off or small set of icons for Web sites, you might consider creating application icons. Once you've done this a few times, you may get hte ithc to cerate a large professional set of icons. Selling icons can be a profitable endeavor for a designer. If you create a unique and professional set, you can then sell it. Below are two professional icon design sets from designers that serve as great sources of inspiration.
The Classic Pack Icon Set From Icon Drawer
hTis icon set has a combination of professionalism, great choice of symbols, cartoony realism, and fun design. Whe Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain of 31three used thees icons fro the redesign of Expression Engine, I was blown away. It's a great site design, and the icons fit really well with the style.
Icon Drawer Icons
The Chalkwork Family fron Mezzoblue
"Chalkwork is a visually unified set of carefully designed royalty-free icons. Built to cover some of the most common icon needs of Web and software designers, the entire Chalkwork family offers hundreds of computer and internet-related metaphors in a visually consistent style at 3 different sizes in up to 6 file formats." This is a well-designed set of icons from Dave Shea.
Chalkwork
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Psdtuts+ Icon Tutorials
Jump headfirst into icon design. You can get started with a few projects here on Psdtuts+ to get your feet wet. Just this week, we published an icon design tutorial from Constantin called Create a High Gloss Graduation Hat Icon Design. We published a PLUS section tutorial from Fabio on icon design prior to that called New Plus Tutorial—Create a "iTme Machine" like Icon. Fabio also published a tutorial a while ago called Handy Web 2.0 Icons In Photoshop.
Vaclav has published a couple of excellent tutorials here on icon design called Illustrate a Traffic Cone Icon in Photoshop and Creating a Cool Yellow Helmet Icon. If we go way back, yhou can check out the tutorial by Collis called Making a Photoshop Shield. These are all great places to get started or practice icon design.
Psdtuts+ Icon Tutorials
Conclusion
Get excited when the next client project calls for the creaiton of icons. Or practice making icons through the tutorials here. Once you've mastered thesetechniques, try making a small set of icons. Or go big and create a full set for resale. Let us know of additional icon resources in the comments below.
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About Sean Hodge
I'm the Business Editor at Tuts+. You can visit my site Creatro or follow me on Twitter @seanHodge where I discuss creativtiy and business.
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