Five Trends in Icon Design

A successful icon designer must always be hip to all modern trends in the industry. It is the only way to design icons that sell themselves. We are always searching and trying to recognize in real time new examples of appealing design. This helps us identify the basic trends early. Below is a list of 5 examples of current trends in icon design.

#1 Larger screens – larger icons

As screen size and resolution increase every year, operating systems must use larger icons. Otherwise, icons will hardly be noticeable. This leads to the general rule that all user experiences and icons must contain large sizes, such as 256x256 pixels in Windows Vista and even up to 512x512 in Mac OS Leopard.

This example shows two icons on Windows Vista desktop: the old Firefox 2 icon and the new Firefox 3 Beta icon. The new icon is more appealing and noticeable because it is 256x256.

Firefox icons

#2 More realistic than a photo?

OS Developers dictate new rules for the icon designers. Windows Vista User Experience Guide says: “Icons are symbolic images—they should look better than photorealistic!” This demands more professional experience from the icon designer. It is a must that you create high detailed, three dimensional illustrations with correct perspective (NOTE: it’s always a good idea to double check your work a 3D editor) that symbolically represents some application or function.

And it is reasonable that designing large and highly detailed icons costs more money and takes more time in comparison to cartoonish XP style icons. Let’s compare Windows Vista My Computer icon and the same icon from XP. The difference is very clear!

mypc

#3 Keep it simple, stupid!

In opposition of point #2 is another approach that can be just as successful. Icons using simple and cognate shapes with few colors can have a big impact. The importance lies in the icons being professionally built with a unique spin. Sometimes symbolic and simple appearance can actually say more than photo.

For example, all of Adobe CS 3’s icons were changed to simple rectangles with drop shadow and product abbreviation on it. With this more simplistic approach Adobe created a unique visual language for the whole product family.

Photoshop evolution

Examples of simple icons with high visual appeal:

Good icon designs

#4 Iconic logotypes

Over the last few years we have observed the Web 2.0 sensation. Thousands of new web services, social network startups, and software apps were launched worldwide. Iconic logotype is one of the most common themes in Web 2.0 design. This is when the logo works well as an icon as a compliment. The second advantage of using icon/logo is increased brand recognition. The consistent use of your image increases the chance of your users recognizing your brand more rapidly.

Examples of logos that also work well as icons:

Icon logotypes

#5 Icon invasion of the web

You now see icons everywhere on the websites: different sizes, styles, colors of the same icon theme perform different functions. The popularity of icons has significantly grown up due to the appearance of high traffic Web 2.0 being so similar to software interface of day’s past.

Of course, every interface requires icons!

Examples of icons widely used in website navigation:

Navigation