Making Icons

Post unfinished work here for feedback and advise.
DannyKing
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Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:58 am
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Making Icons

Postby DannyKing » Mon Feb 04, 2008 8:18 pm

Hi all,

I started playing around yesterday and I came up with these:

Image
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/204/mockupdc1.png - full image.

I'm playing with the idea of making an icon theme, probably aimed at gnome, but I've never done this before and so I have no idea what I'm doing! These above are the first mock ups, I thought I'd ask people here what they think and ask a few questions...

1. Do you like them?
2. Does anyone know of a list of all the filetypes/actions/etc/etc that would need to be made?
3. I've read through http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Desktop_Project which seems to make sense (standards, etc) - is this the best style guide to follow?
4. Can anyone critique and suggest improvements to the above mock ups?
5. Which icon style is nicer, the extra glossy one or the others?
6. It'd be pretty cool if I could create a theme that would be implementable across Linux, Windows and OS X - is this possible without three times the work?
7. Would anyone be interested in working on this with me? I'm not looking to spend a large percentage of my time on these each week, I have a lot of other work to do - It'd be more of an informal, spare-time project.

Thanks!
Image

sheep
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:18 am

Re: Making Icons

Postby sheep » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:19 pm

Extra glossy one is better.
In SVG icon try to make bigger points or thinner curve. How about bolding text in HTML and CSS icons (for smaller ones).
I don't like mp3 icon. Others are very good :)

DannyKing
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Re: Making Icons

Postby DannyKing » Tue Feb 05, 2008 5:10 am

Thanks sheep! I agree, I need to make the svg line thinner & the mp3 icon needs a better symbol - thanks!
Image

DannyKing
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Re: Making Icons

Postby DannyKing » Tue Feb 05, 2008 10:13 pm

I started again, this time making the icons in a more sensible way: All I need to do to change the colour of an icon now is to change a single 'base colour' and not have to think about editing any gradients.

Here is my progress so far:

Image

I thought that having a different base colour for each type of file (e.g. images, code, music, etc) would be nice. I played around with the idea of having a different tone for each file type within each group, but it didn't look great.

I can't seem to think of a symbol I like for music files yet!

Any critiques?
Image

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prkos
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Re: Making Icons

Postby prkos » Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:54 am

I like the gloss in the last set the best.

Maybe try with a simple player with bug headphones on one side and music sheet flowing out of it to the other side for the mp3 icon
just hand over the chocolate and nobody gets hurt

Inkscape Manual on Floss
Inkscape FAQ
very comprehensive Inkscape guide
Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook - 109 recipes to learn and explore Inkscape - with SVG examples to download

DannyKing
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:58 am
Location: UK
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Re: Making Icons

Postby DannyKing » Wed Feb 06, 2008 3:51 am

That's a nice idea, I'll try and sketch a few designs for it - thanks!

sheep
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:18 am

Re: Making Icons

Postby sheep » Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:49 pm

How about loudspeaker for mp3?
Similar to:
Image

DannyKing
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2008 2:58 am
Location: UK
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Re: Making Icons

Postby DannyKing » Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:00 am

Here's an update:

(slightly smaller rendering than I intend the optimal size to be)
click: Image

Any comments welcome!

Thanks for your suggestion sheep, I liked the idea of using a loudspeaker and tried several times with it, but in the end I chose a sound wave - what do you think?
Image


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