Thanks all for the kind words and that there is still interest – really cool
———
Update: Research
I do have an update, but it's more research focussed. (But ideally
until Sunday evening I am gonna have much more ready – fingers crossed.)
I paused the contribution due to personal struggles, lack of motivation (I think everyone can relate),
but also doubts about a proper structure.
I want to share some insights about the last part.
Learning from others
A while ago I read
this long, but great essay by Andy Matuschak and Michael Nielsen.
One part of the essay (about tools for thought, but it applies here) that it takes large sums to invent something completely new, but afterwards (for competitors) it's much cheaper to create something similar.
It might seem like a stretch to treat icons like this, but there is a surprising amount of hidden complexity.
I designed many icons in my life, but adding a few icons to a set is a different story than building a new one.
Size and safe area:
I took icons from icon sets that I find well designed and analysed how they are designed. Specifically the artboard size and padding/safe area:
- Analysis Icons.png (218.22 KiB) Viewed 2718 times
Usage in apps:
I looked at two CAD-Apps that I think are well designed – OnShape and Fusion360 – to see how those handle icons.
- App Analysis.png (452.69 KiB) Viewed 2718 times
Automatic processing
I did some work for and with the people behind
OpenMoji. They have really impressive pipeline where they e.g. generate all the skin tone combinations for the hand shake emoji via code. I am helping them automate outlining the emojis for dark mode usage. Similar principles could be handy for handling icons.
- OpenMoji Dark Mode.png (296.52 KiB) Viewed 2718 times
Customization
One fear I had when designing the icons so far is that you are then stuck with exactly the icons as designed, since they are just images. It's much easier to theme the window of an app, than its icons.
Apple has a really interesting
system for their SF Symbols. They are available in multiple thicknesses, but also in multiple styles – most notably monochrome, hierarchical and multicolor.
- Apple Customization System.png (87.75 KiB) Viewed 2718 times
They use a fairly limited set of colors that works across a huge range of icons. This limited and predefined set of colors means, that it's easy to theme them – they have
a dedicated app for that purpose?!
- Apple Icons Colors.png (108.59 KiB) Viewed 2718 times
Conclusion
Those two aspects (the right design size + theming capabilities) were those I really wasn't sure how to approach best.
But I think taking the best bits from what those companies are doing and adjusting them where needed, is gonna work nicely