Our next Fireside Chat is with icon designers from Cuban Council, Firewheel Design, Hicks Design, and Icon Factory. What question(s) would you like to see us ask?
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Our next Fireside Chat is with icon designers from Cuban Council, Firewheel Design, Hicks Design, and Icon Factory. What question(s) would you like to see us ask?
JF
on 03 Apr 07How the hell did you get so good? Icon design totally baffles me. Do you work zoomed in or zoomed out?
Luis
on 03 Apr 07This is a typical question but I’ll ask it nonetheless: Where do you guys get your inspiration?
flake
on 03 Apr 07Will Vista affect icon design trend? If yes, how? If no, why?
Gayle
on 03 Apr 07Oh! I can’t wait for this one!
I want to know how they choose the best symbol for an abstract concept.
Gtdown
on 03 Apr 07Does the potential for resolution independence in new OSes like Leopard encourage you to make more intricate designs or are the designs out there now as good as it gets?
Eddie
on 03 Apr 07Will we be using the floppy disk for “save” forever? “familiarity” aside, what’s the best representation of this function?
Drew
on 03 Apr 07How critical do you think Icons are for a successful product?
Matt
on 03 Apr 07When scaling an making several versions of the same icon (64×64, 32×32, 16×16) do you scale down the original and then tweak or start mostly from scratch each time?
Chad
on 03 Apr 07Do you usually start with a sketch on paper or just dive into PS or Illustrator?
And somewhat off topic, but who designs the 37s app icons?
Dave
on 03 Apr 07I second Matt’s question. Do they start big and get small or is it the other way around? I’m always impressed with how similar icons look great at 64×64 and 16×16.
A related question would be: Do you design in a way that ensures that an icon will look good at multiple sizes? Do you reject details in an icon that just wouldn’t work out at 16×16?
SG
on 03 Apr 07Most of Susan Kare’s icon designs are still around. Has icon design really moved forwards in the last 25 years?
Jamie
on 03 Apr 07Do you start with a photographic reference and then “icon-ify” it?
Jack
on 03 Apr 07Do you ever wish your icons didn’t have to be so square? :D
Jason
on 03 Apr 07I have participated in icon creation workshops in the past and one thing I find interesting that I would like to find out is, What is your basic method or workflow that you go through to come up with such informational yet simplistic imagery?
me
on 03 Apr 07what’s the fastest land animal?
Curious Dog
on 03 Apr 07Why are good icons so expensive? (many webapplications would need alot of them and one needs to buy many sets to get all of them).
Why are icons so hard to make? (I tried to make, but never managed to get good ones, even if I can do very good bigger things).
Why is there no standard for the icon symbolic representation, and every set/author “re-invernts” the wheel (the abstractions).
dave rau
on 03 Apr 07What are your favorite non-digital icons (historical icons)?
blackant
on 03 Apr 07A good article on Josh’s (Firewheel) design process: http://tinyurl.com/fhrkj
Ian
on 03 Apr 07Would icon design be more photo-ish in the future?
3D interactive icons?
Ian
on 03 Apr 07forgot: ICON as Interface?
Martin Kool
on 03 Apr 07With regards to icon scaling and vectors, have any of you used the Adobe Flash line tool with its stroke hinting and hairline size to create icons that require little to no touching up? In theory it sounds like it might eliminate some of the usual vector scaling problems.
james
on 03 Apr 07My Question:
What was the process you went through to bootstrapping your way toward leaving your 9-5 and starting your own company?
Tom
on 03 Apr 07Following on from SG’s comment:
Is the movement towards increasingly three-dimensional/photo-realistic iconography of any demonstrable benefit in terms of usability? It appears to be largely motivated by marketing and branding/identity (which obviously has it’s own value).
The constrains on Kare when she designed the original Mac icons forced her to abstract and simplify, much further than designers have to now. Was it this process that resulted in such effective icons?
Kris Gosser
on 03 Apr 07What are some of the techniques you find yourself using a lot while creating icons?
For example, in reference to Firewheel : do you find yourself using the Edit > Transform > Perspective while making your Oslo series?
Just stuff like that… what are the techniques that seem to pop up with most icon designs…
scott
on 03 Apr 07What advances do icons offer, usability wise, over plain text links or natural html buttons?
Rob Goodlatte
on 03 Apr 07Do you notice any trends or ‘fad styles’ in current icon design? Do you find yourself building icon sets to capitalize on these trends?
Nathan
on 03 Apr 07When dealing with creating Icons that already have a familiar icon for them, do you think it’s better to create an icon that a user is already familiar with via previous icons, or do you take an avant garde route, going with a new icon to represent something old (or semi-old, or new, even)?
Kevin Keating
on 03 Apr 07What do you think about the new Adobe CS3 icons?
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Apr 07how do you create circle or curves from pixels? with software or standard drawing tools?
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Apr 07software, physical tools (mouse, tablet, camera, etc.)
Great topic.
Patrick Haney
on 03 Apr 07I want to know when one of these terrific designers is going to write a book on icon design. Seriously. We can get a lot of information from the web, but I want a paperback version of the process, the philosophy, the technical steps, and the design styles.
Hook us up.
Joshua Blankenship
on 03 Apr 07What features – potential or dreaming – would you like to see in a future iteration of Illustrator (or your vector program of choice)?
Dan Rubin
on 03 Apr 07I’ll echo Patrick’s comment: we seriously need a book on this subject, or even a few books (I’d buy from any and all of these guys).
Suggestions for folks just getting into icon design would also be useful as hell. And I’d also be curious whether Mr. Hicks has to do anything special when designing icons due to his color-blindness.
Jonathan Métillon
on 03 Apr 07Do you guys promote and contribute to free projects like the Tango Icon Library?
JF
on 03 Apr 07Patrick, that’s a great idea: A book on icon design. Someone?
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Apr 07What is the worst icon EVER?
Jay Neely
on 04 Apr 07In what ways can icons be made more dynamic for purposes of informing users about what they do? Alt tags on images display some explanatory text when the mouse hovers over them; but is that really the best that can be done? As technologies like Flash become more common, could icons become animated to better convey purpose/information?
seaofclouds
on 04 Apr 07will we ever see more sticker icons from iconfactory? i’d love to fill my dock!
Lakshan
on 04 Apr 07The standard desktop iconset (Open, Save, Cut, Paste) remained virtually same on any platform and was easily noticeable for anyone.
But today’s icons of web apps looks innovative but yet confusing too ;)
So how about the idea of Icon designers collaborating together on making icons on a common guideline ?
Gustavo
on 04 Apr 07Chad, 37signal’s icons were done by Ryan Singer
Michelle
on 04 Apr 07What to consider in developing a logo so when you come to needing a favicon, small buttons/stamps/banners, etc you can carry through the identity effectively.
catherine
on 04 Apr 07What makes a good icon? And following on from Anonymous Coward – check out almost anything done in Lotus Notes. A critique of their icons around the theme, “what not to do in icon design”, would be very interesting.
Ben Darlow
on 04 Apr 07+1 vote for asking their opinion on the Adobe Creative Suite 3 icons.
Fabio
on 04 Apr 07Past: What was the better improvement since the first icons (in tech specs)? Colors, size, design, concept?
Present: Everybody is talking about rip-offs, copywrite, etc. I remember some discussion about Transmit’s icon. How do you control it? How do you see DRM and licences in your area?
Future: Will we see rollover effects (simple animations, or just an additional image) in a near future? We saw it in the past, but it disappeared (thanks God).
For Iconfactory: When will we have another Pixelpalooza?
Mike Gowen
on 04 Apr 07This one is mainly directed to Josh W (Firewheel) although all of the designers on the panel could offer insight…
I’ve always been amazed at Firewheel’s bold use of vibrant color. I find that a great eye for palettes and color can take a design from just good, to amazing. How do you select the color schemes, and do you have any advice for those that get stuck in the monochromatic black hole?
Great chat Signals…can’t wait for it!!
Mike
Jeffrey
on 04 Apr 07For Cuban Council: Can I get an invite to the k10k forum?
Human Powered
on 04 Apr 07Since icons are usually metaphors that represent something else, how do you choose the appropriate metaphor for the icon?
How has icon design evolved since, say, the year 2000?
Also, I echo Dave Rau’s question about non-digital icons.
David Mermelstein
on 05 Apr 07What define’s excessive use of icons? I see so many sites that include tools (print | bookmark | print | email to a friend | ect…) that have icons and text. What are your thoughts on this. I just noticed in CNN’s redesign that they just use text (thumbs up).
P.S. Does any one know a good blog on icons? Perhaps all of you should collaborate on a blog on design.
Josh
on 06 Apr 07Are you into iconography or the visual representations of ideas throughout history – or is it limited to stuff on the web?
How do you feel about abstract art?
This discussion is closed.