It will give your icons a more powerful, compelling, and organic shape. Use geometric shapes as often as you can to design your icon. Image Source: Icons8 Blog Geometric Shapes This will help you maintain pixel - perfection. If you are rescaling your icon for various applications, you might need to change the design slightly for every size so you’re not left with half pixels that can bring blurriness to your design.

Use a stroke width that is an even number (like two or four pixels), and keep it consistent throughout the icon or icon pack. Position your icons on a pixel grid to make sure there is no blurriness. You need to make your icons scalable, responsive, and suitable for actual devices. It's not enough to just design eye-catching icons. But first, we need to cover a few basic principles that icon designers usually follow to create a memorable icon. The creation process is the most exciting, and we’re going to get there. So let’s learn how you can feed the beast by creating your own. More topics, different colors, different styles, different branding. Although many icons have been created and will continue to be created, there will always be a demand for more. Pretty powerful, isn't it? Now that we know just how important these little symbols are, let’s get to designing them. If you are a User Interface designer, using the right icons will make sure that the functionality of your app stays consistent worldwide. Icons are literal lifesavers in situations when we all need to communicate in the same language without actually speaking. Imagine being in Japan and not knowing if you can cross the street at a certain point. And not only!Īll traffic signs are icons. Whether you need to find the right feature of an app, or when you are searching for the bathroom in a foreign airport, icons save you a lot of time. Image Source: FusionGroup Why are Icons Important?Īs the world is getting busier and crazier, icons are a much-needed part of our lives that help to convey messages simply, elegantly, and fast. If you want to check out a detailed icon history from the very first folder icon to the skeuomorphic ones we see today, check out this amazing website. If we focus on a more recent history of icons, it's clear just how much they defined and influenced the development of the concept of User Experience. They're all icons.īut moving towards our millennia, icons became more and more prominent as we started using and needing to communicate with devices. What are the first historical icons that come to mind? Hieroglyphics from ancient Egypt! And it’s not just them, it’s also cave paintings or Viking runes. That is why icons have been used for centuries to communicate. It’s even more incredible how fast they deliver it.

It’s mind-blowing how much information icons contain. The modern form of the work dates back to 1565. Icon Historyįor all our Latin-heads out there, the word ‘icon’ comes from the Latin word ‘eikṓn’ which means ‘likeness,' or 'image’. So if you think about it, an icon is the most universal language in the world. This icon will mean basically the same exact thing in any language, culture, and to all ages and genders. The word ‘icon’ in the dictionary basically describes a sign or a representation of an object by virtue of its resemblance or analogy.Ĭonsider the way a 'trash can' icon indicates where all of your deleted files go.

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