Icon design
Icon design-the process of designing a graphic
Style and usage
Icon designs can be simple, with flat two-dimensional drawing or a black silhouette, or complex, presenting a combination of graphic design elements such as one or more linear and radial color gradients, projected shadows, contour shades, and three-dimensional perspective effects.
Sizing
As
Many modern icons have a maximum size of 1024 by 1024 pixels or greater. The challenge of icon design is to create an image that is communicative, beautiful, and understandable, at every size from this maximum resolution down to the minimum resolution of 16 by 16 pixels. Many icon formats allow one icon to include
Usage
The most common and important examples are application icons, used to represent an app on Mac, Windows, Linux, or mobile platforms. These icons rely on unique and memorable metaphors as a form of product branding. Other common uses include favicons, toolbar icons, and icons for buttons or controls.
Process
The process of icon design can be divided into two parts: defining the pictogram and creating final design or illustration.
Defining pictograms
There are three main approaches in defining
- The first and the most desirable in icon design practice is using conventional images.
- If there is no conventional pictogram for the particular icon, a designer can use a literal image, including an image that is shared by the main concept (for example printer is shared image for printing concept), or metaphorical image.
- After the pictogram is defined, it is necessary to check it for possible conflicts (for example the snail image is a good metaphor for slow motion but if used as a road sign it will conflict with literal and partially conventional meaning "snails on the road").
Defining the pictogram can be different for the
Notable icon designers
- Susan Kare, one of the early professional icon designers, designed many of the icons contained within the Classic Mac OS.
- Jon Hicks created the icon for the Firefox Browser and the emoticons for Skype.[1] He's also the author of the Icon Handbook.[2]
See also
References
- ^ "New Skype Emoticons | Hicks Journal". hicksdesign.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
- )
External links
- iOS Human Interface Guidelines — App Icon
- macOS Human Interface Guidelines — Designing App Icons
- Microsoft Design Language — Icons
- Microsoft Icon guidelines for UWP apps
- Microsoft guidelines on designing Windows Aero Icons
- Microsoft guidelines on designing Windows XP icons
- Android guidelines on icon design
- Icons at Curlie