Based on the icons that I have researched, and after writing a list of the internet symbols I want to create icons for, I have started to design some. I want them to be communicative and so for it to be easy to understand what the icon is to represent. I also want them to look good, which is which I have focused on simple lines and stuck to my colour scheme that I decided on.
I'm going to create lots of icons, so I can decide which ones to then try and create in to a pattern and add some text to.
At the moment I'm just creating the outlines of the icons but I might end up changing the style as shown in these examples. I quite like the second example, which is based on the Google Web Labs symbols with varying levels of opacity.
Icons/ symbols to create:
Hand and arrow cursors, mouse, messenger chat bubbles, mobile phone, laptop, computer screen, printer, email, download, shopping trolley, volume, wifi, home, bin, egg timer (waiting), magnifying glass (zoom), usb stick, new document, battery life, clock, brightness and contrast, play pause etc, eject, speech marks, tag, settings, location, link, go back, book marks, reading list, files, pencil, refresh, lock, phone, scissors, paragraph symbol, earth (www symbol), profile, hashtag, email, music, image, archive, movie, attachment, rss, comment, open in new window, done, love, alert, fullscreen, power on, palette
When creating some of my icons I realised they weren't really looking like icons, as I had put too much detail in, so I made sure to go back and only include what is necessary to make it obvious what the icon is of.
My favourite so far is the printer. Each one is taking surprisingly longer than I thought as I strive to get the lines and the curves perfect, and to make sure there is enough detail to understand what the icon is but not too much so that it doesn't look like an icon anymore.
Another example where I have simplified the icon as it just looked too much otherwise. As I create these icons, I'm eager to add colour or create them as fills as I wonder how different they will look. I like them how they are, but I think just using the outline would be too simple for the intended purpose.
All the icons (for now - sure I'll think of more I need to do). I think some still need to be simpler.
I also think the pt size (2pt is a bit thin for some of them).
Here they are in black and white, I really like them like this but think a few are too detailed to work this way.
Next, I'm going to ask peoples opinions on whether they should be black and white or outline, and then start working them in to patterns or with the text.
