
Crafting Icons - bpolania
http://www.elischiff.com/blog/2015/8/4/crafting-icons?utm_campaign=iOS%2BDev%2BWeekly&utm_medium=email&utm_source=iOS_Dev_Weekly_Issue_210
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ahmacleod
These are all beautiful illustrations, but they don't feel iconic to me.
Granted, there is a spectrum when it comes to detail, but isn't the purpose of
an icon to distill an idea to its visual essence?

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ryanSrich
Glyphs and symbols are more likely what you're talking about. They are often
referred to as icons in the tech field so I get the confusion with
nomenclature.

Icons are mostly represented as visually interesting identifying artifacts
about your product. That's why we call app icons _icons_.

The "icons" within the interface of that app, things that might tell you a
menu is present or that a group of users is online, are symbols. Glyphs often
conform to content. A good example of a glyph is an emoji or dingbats.

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mayoff
"The art of icon design is steadily being lost with each passing
year."[citation needed]

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carlosrg
Why do you need a citation, if you have two eyes? Just look at iOS or OS X
included icons, or Windows 10 icons, or the App Store top 100 apps. Most icons
are a flat background and some boring bland logo outline. We are in the dark
ages of software-related design.

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TranquilMarmot
From what I understand of icon design, the goal is to make something that's
instantly recognizable when glanced over. Your mind shouldn't have to
interpret colors, light sources, shading, depth, etc. just to recognize a
brand/app's icon. The Twitter and Apple icons are _instantly_ recognizable no
matter how small they are or how fast you glance over them. Facebook and
Google have their icons as just letters with one specific color and typeface,
and when you see that color + typeface together _anywhere_ you instantly
recognize what brand it is for.

Flat icons may not take as much effort to make (which is debatable... in some
cases, they take even _more_ thought to create since you have to think about
every little line and curve) but they do get their point across a lot faster
and more effective than a fancy, shaded, intricate icon with tiny little
details. In my opinion, if you can't easily draw an icon on a piece of paper
in a few minutes, it's not a very good icon- it's more of a picture or a
drawing.

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carlosrg
The human brain doesn't have any problem interpreting non-flat icons, as it
doesn't have any problem with real world objects. We didn't have that problem
you're saying before the flat design trend. Also icons should be aesthetically
pleasing. When I see a iOS 6 homescreen, I see something beautiful. Can't say
the same about iOS today.

And I'm going to stop here, because people are going to downvote the hell out
of me. Design can be something very divisive.

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micampe
What does “design can be something very divisive” tell you about “why do you
need a citation, if you have two eyes” and the original quote that started
this thread?

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some1else
What a clever title. I would even go as far as calling it icon rendering.

A good icon, just like a good logo, causes a small visual play in the back of
one's mind. For that to happen, a lot of design time is spent in exploration,
sketching perceptual cons, cross-pollenations and optimizations.

I respect Eli, but I'd hate to see this part of icon design survive, while
genuine creativity vanes.

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thaddeusmt
It's like watching magic. Granted the effect is enhanced by the accelerated
speed of the videos, but, wow. I wonder how long it takes to learn
Illustrator/Sketch/etc well enough to be able to create art like this (e.g.
watching the tire tread get put on the taxi - what voodoo was that?).

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buckbova
What, mapping a pattern to a cylinder? I feel like there should be a better
way to capture light and shadow on the surfaces than drawing each bit.

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Rexxar
A little meta comment: It would be nice if HN remove automatically tracking
informations from links (Here "?utm_campaign=iOS ...")

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aw3c2
I love it because it puts garbage in that intrusive tracking analysis.

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geon
We could generate more garbage...

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crimsonalucard
I like this site because it's not flat.

