Thursday, February 24, 2011

Simple Web Icons Features

Simple icons are among the principal features of minimalistic design. In addition, simple icons and other design elements should be used moderately. Simple icons are meant to be used where they are absolutely important and eliminated where it's possible. Optional simple web icons are to be refrained from repetition or eluded.

Limited amount of color, reserved tones, clear elements, soft lighting are being used for simple web icons design. Simple web icons are created out of elegant and simple elements which do not distract webpage visitors from the main navigation and webpage idea.

These rules for simple icons design can be outlined:

  • minimal usage of duplication
  • less amount of graphical elements
  • maximum intuitive clarity
  • clear typography in simple web icons
  • less icons

Some important tips for creating a minimalistic design with simple web icons

Additionally to simple icons themselves lightweight background textures and patterns are necessary for the design and content perception. The eyes should focus on the website content or some important blocks but not on the background pattern or image itself. So the background needs to be of a light simple shade making it secondary compared with the foreground items like simple web icons.

One more prominent feature of the lightweight and clear design is for sure clear typography. Simple icons names (if there're any) should be precise, meaningful and equivalent to their function. Headings placed on simple web icons need to be of readable font and huge enough for easy reading. Clear hierarchy should be followed as well.

Enough white or empty space is helpful for creating a great clean simple icons design. Extra spaces keep elements separate and for that reason more readable and simpler to work with. In case you use some extra space between simple web icons this do not harm to the design of your site at all.

Generally the minimalistic trend is not entirely minimal. Despite its great amount of white space there are still some simple icons, light textures, neat styles and bold fonts. Minimal isn't exactly the same as simple. From the very begining minimal meant plain typographic eliminating images and styling. Today there's a great amount of various web pages over the Internet. Thats why modern design requires something more than black text on white background. Reducing design elements to the most important items you can add much more zest to your web-site layout with some uncommon coloring, catchy simple icons, half-transparent and lightweight textures and patterns.

Simple is often used as a synonym of smart. Simple icons is the best solution if you'd like your site look fantastic and professional.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

2d Icons And Models Information And Facts

2D web icons are actually well known for their flexibility. This is achieved by the peculiarity of rendering them at different resolutions ideal for various output devices.

2D Icons may include the next items:

  • raster pictures (digital graphics);
  • styled text as a typeset for 2D Icons;
  • vector models (geometric graphics).

All these items can be managed by 2D transformations for example rotation, scaling or angular position etc. Meshing basic models you will get more complex ones.

Because of the layers technique 2D web icons can create the illusion of all 3D characteristics like shadow, reflection or highlighting. The layers should maintain the definite hierarchy and order carefully. This makes editing 2D icons and related objects simpler.

2.5D Icons vs 3D and 2D Icons

The layered 2Dicons are usually generally known as 2.5D models. This technology allows site designers to work with any layer without the need of touching the others. The most of the well known graphics editors choose this kind of 2D object creation.

2.5D is a synonym to pseudo 3D and is interpreted as "two-and-a-half-dimensional" graphics. Models that were created with a help of with 2.5D technology appear to be tridimensional while in fact they are not.

This technology used for designing 2D web icons is often attained by the special lighting effect. 3D illusion can be reached due to the virtual light source to the left or to the right side and above the users monitor.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Simple Icons As Bright Features Of Minimalistic Web Design

Simple web icons are created not to make the design beautiful but rather minimal and modern. Lightweight Simple icons are supposed to be built to improve web site user interaction.

Minimalistic web page design

Lets discover what minimalistic web site design indicates. Of course the first features are simplicity and lightweight elements. Simple icons involve all of this. This type of icons does not have complex wordings, figures, textures and patterns. Less even implies more in some areas and to some degree. Web development is exactly such area.

Minimalistic design is rather an unexpected trend nowadays. So far as you know high present day technologies have one great weakness - frequently they lead to the loss of simplicity. Nowadays the contemporary trend is to mix minimalistic web page design with CSS3 and HTML5. Website with simple design often contain brave and off-color effects and actively use CSS and Ajax.

Among essential features of the modern simple web page design are the following:

  • grid based design;
  • simple icons;
  • light shading and reserved color transition;
  • light texture of patterns and backgrounds (often transparent like);
  • more empty or white space;
  • simple shapes and figures, clear lines;
  • less amount of various bright colors;
  • clear and readable typography;

Monday, February 21, 2011

Line Web Icons Development - Various Techniques

Often Line icons are the objects with the outlined contours. Such design elements are known as contour drawings. It's also possible to find another type of icons: the items are without some strict outlines. They're known as gesture drawings. Such drawings are being widely used by skilled designers who are able to repeat the outlines of the object right after seeing it. It's not a complete piece of art but rather a sketch which usually requires 20-30 seconds to be drawn.

One additional way is adding some halftones and shades to the object. You can do it by using short lines and crosshatching. Please don't afraid to vary their frequency and also pencil pressure. Such variety creates more three-dimensional look to the object. This particular trick is widely used in world wide web design as well. So this method is definitely helping in creation of amazing Line icons, logos and buttons.The lines with the dots not combining the singular elements are known as open lines. The lines can as well be parallel, gesture-like, contour etc. The curves which are essential for creating complex line shapes are called Bezier curves in computer graphics. These curves are handy small features essential for producing the vector shapes like line icons, different buttons etc.Nowadays computer technologies reached such a level when it becomes possible to reproduce the same designs or just build new shapes that based on some older ones. The fantastic thing - you can do it without extra efforts and time. Another benefit is that it is simple to go back to the previous adjustments with a help of the history panel. As a result there's no need to make Line icons from scratch in case you have made some mistakes.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Real Truth About Realistic Icons

The first mention about realism happened in 1850 when it was spread over French art. Over the years it came through all types of art and design. Speaking about realism in internet site design we can say that it's represented here by Realistic icons.

Brief discourse on history of realistic icons.

Primary Advantages Of Realistic Web Icons.

Realistic web icons are necessary elements of the present day pieces of software, applications and add-ons.

As far as you know sites require special ways of representation and promotion. One of these methods is including realistic icons into your web site design. For sure icons will help users of your web site to get a quick initial impression of your online business and also products that you offer. If you want to make icons noticeable - place them on the website's home page.

You may hire the skilled designer to create some unique set of icons meeting your site individual requirements and products. But keep in mind that such way of creating of realistic icons is very expensive and takes a great deal of time. After all the results of custom order are not clear. Even professional web-site designers fall short of the mark known as non-uniqueness. To save time and smoothen things down they take icons created earlier and simply play with the colors and shades, use some other effects and sell realistic icons as exclusive items. Though in fact they aren't.

Finding authoritative icons resources it's another way of getting pleasant web icons. They're different Realistic icons stocks and providers on the net. You see what you pay for and the price may occur essentially lower than in case with custom orders. In addition you save your valuable time. So as far as you see now - stocks are much more preferable for finding properly designed and low-cost realistic icons .

Tips for utilizing realistic icons

Creating realistic icons you need to build the basic pictograms first. It should look vivid enough if being displayed at worse resolution, resized, discolored or blurred. The person should be able to identify the icon meaning just by looking at its outlines for a short time period. How to test your icons? If it is possible to discern the icon within less than a second - it's well done.<\p>

The next task is to make realistic icons more eye-catching by adding decorative elements. Do not overload icons with the details and color tints. Design should look integral and reserved. You can make the edges anti-aliased. The decoration should not detract from the icons essence and functions.

The icons are usually stored in vector format which makes it pretty easy to edit. It enables you to resize, rotate, adjust the edges and edit outlines. You can even change the color scheme and add more details and so on. And don't be afraid - you don't need to have extra knowlages in web page design.

Realistic web icons may be helpful in case you need to design the interface layout of the new software or IT services. Designing high quality, eye-catching and good-looking realistic icons is not an easy task. Generally you should modify the high-resolution photos in order to get truly realistic images.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Vintage Icons

Retro takes over the modern webpage design industry. Without doubt the best representatives of classic beauty and noble taste are Vintage icons. Present day web site style acquires some vintage twist. Retro and Vintage are becoming the widespread trends in the contemporary digital art. Vintage web icons, textures, patterns as well as clip-art bring mystery to your internet site design. They make you dive into the atmosphere of the old happy times, when everything seemed to be so simple, harmless and noble. People think the good times are over associating them with their period of childhood or sweet youth. Hence vintage style revives for this reason psychological peculiarity of the human nature.

Learn all about retro style in the contemporary internet site design industry

In today's art retro becomes some conscious norm. You can certainly find sights of retro style in the contemporary webpage design in the form of vintage icons, old-styled backgrounds, aged photography etc. It is obvious it gives some zest to the feel and look of the ordinary internet websites.

Typically the new retro style includes the Web 2.0 look with a vintage twist. It requires good recipe of combining the modern clean blocks and the outdated, aged design elements like Vintage web icons, styles and color palettes.