Thursday, February 24, 2011

Simple Icons And Web Design

We can easily say that among the most important features of minimalistic design are Simple web icons. Moreover, simple icons along with other elements of design should be used moderately. Among the secrets is minimizing icons use in general. Reduce the amount of simple icons. Use them only where it is essential. Refrain the optional simple web icons. They may serve multiple functions.

Simple web icons design consists of limited amount of color, reserved shades, clear elements, soft lighting. Simple web icons are built out of elegant and simple elements which don't distract internet site visitors from the main navigation and webpage idea.

The following 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 useful tips for creating a minimalistic design with simple web icons

Additionally to simple icons themselves lightweight background textures and patterns are essential for the design and content perception. The background pattern or images shouldn't grab all the attention of your visitors. The eyes should focus on the internet site content or some main blocks. So the background should be of a light simple shade making it secondary compared with the foreground items like simple web icons.

Clear typography is an additional notable feature of the lightweight and clear design. Choose simple icons names in accordance with their function and bear in mind such names should be precise, and meaningful. Headings placed on simple web icons should be of readable font and large enough for easy reading.

Also for creating a great clean simple icons design you may use enough white or empty space. Extra spaces keep elements separate and thus much more readable and simpler to work with. Some extra space between simple web icons will do your design no harm at all.

Generally the minimalistic trend is not entirely minimal. Nevertheless the dominance of white space there are still some simple icons, light textures, neat styles and bold fonts. Minimal is just not exactly the same as simple. Initially minimal meant plain typographic excluding images and styling. Nowadays there's a great amount of various web pages over the Internet. That's why modern design demands something more than black text on white background. Reducing elements of design to the most essential items you can add much more zest to your site layout with some unusual coloring, catchy simple icons, half-transparent and light-weight textures and patterns.

Simple equals smart. Simple web icons look fantastic and professional especially for a clean business style design.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Vintage Icons As An Element Of Vintage Web Design

Vintage icons is one of the most noticeable and easy-to-apply graphical elements you may use in your website to make it look archaic. Vintage web icons suppose authentic use of vintage typography, less-saturated colors and retro textures to help creating the vintage air emanating from the web page. Antique air is going to charm and brings unconscious smiles to the faces of your website visitors.

Retro trend is all about the styles of the70s and 80s. Speaking about retro advertising art it appeared in 1950. Computer technologies help to put a new face on this type of art using its characters in web page design and printing. Usually such faces in the vintage web icons are retro cars, pin-up girls, soldiers and politicians of the former times as well.Most frequently used retro cars are Fiat 500, the 1970 Dodge Challenger, the 1969 Chevrolet Samara, the 1964 Ford Mustang etc. Vintage icons may contain hints to retro cars concepts for attracting more attention to your web site layout. This is the fantastic idea for websites that have a deal with auto sales, transporting services, tour sites etc. Also you can face a such well-known character as a pin-up model that is used in vintage icons design as well as other web page graphics styling. It often depicts exaggerated, idealized images of how the really beautiful and sexy woman should look like. If you're an owner of the webpage regarding health and beauty areas or the model agencies - keep in mind that you can use pin-up images that are great for vintage web icon.

In case you have a web page that is connected with military and security guard you may successfully use images of soldiers and officers with outdated appearance to attract much more attention and win the visitors trust.

There's no limit in usage of specific characters. You may apply creativity and use them unconventionally. This will help to make people surprise and thus memorize your website.

Vintage Icons Patterns

Vintage patterns recommended for usage in vintage icons design is the following:

  • patterns containing vintage papers;
  • with vintage frames;
  • with outmoded florals;
  • paper and bagging, gold-cloth as the texture fabric;
  • wooden or bronze textures for vintage icons.

For creating vintage icons titles, content headings and texts you can use such authentic fonts as Matchbook, Bazar Medium, Embossed, Hill House,-Fontleroy Brown, Fusty Saddle, Just Old Fashion, Goudy Bookletter 1911, Rocket Script, Parisian, Star Avenue etc. Feel absolutely free to discover and purchase on the net the best suitable fonts that will perfect match your design.

Try to get a such vintage-inspired layout that looks contemporary and appropriate, but no old-fashioned. If you create the cozy and noble, antique feel using Vintage web icons, images and styled blocks for the webpage layout, your visitors will come to your site with a thankful smile over and over again.

But try to avoid stuffiness in your vintage design look. Do not forget that the main focus should be made on the goods, services or content material of your site not on the web site design.

Revealing The Truth About Realistic Icons

The first mention about realism took place in 1850 when it's spread over French art. It is carried over the centuries and penetrated right into all types of art as well as design. Speaking about realism in internet site design we can say that it's represented here by Realistic web icons.

Exactly what do you know about historical past of realistic icons?

Line Icons Truth

Lines are more frequently used for outlining the contours of objects and putting an emphasis on edges. Line icons can be the best decoration of any website design, however if you have a skill to design them thoroughly.

Line icons - to be or not to be....

Lets discover what line actually is. It's a form containing both width and length but eliminating depth.We are accustomed to the fact that the line is usually straight. Newertheless the line is more often curved. Staying static shapes, Line web icons can create a kind of illusion of the dynamic objects. The mood is usually being conditioned by the lines direction. Horizontal lines in Line web icons express calmness, peace and also stability while the vertical ones strive for the light movement. The diagonal lines reflect energy along with stronger dynamic feeling. If you wish to create refine and modern line icons designs you should use combination of straight lines and curves.

Line Icons Art

No doubt the initial type of line art that familiar to a large amount of artists is curve stitching. It was carried out with threads of different colours and also needle. Initially the canvas was a cardboard. String Art is another name for this movement. It's founder was a Mary Boole. He created it as the accessory material for children to assist them to study geometry of angles and spaces. Line art lived also like illustrations for print sources before the photography was created. At that time line art involved only black and white colors. Some shades of gray were also acceptable and imitated.Line art includes geometry and art and in such a way becomes appealing to both technical and creative sides of human nature, If you desire to become a Line icons designer keep in mind that this process may develop imagination and creativity and also calculation skills.Line art differs from photography or multi-color painting by its ability to be printed to the halftone pic free of extra conversion.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Ways To Create Line Icons

The objects with the outlined contours is another kind of Line icons. They're called contour drawings. It's also possible to find another kind of icons: the items are without some strict outlines. They're known as gesture drawings. These kinds of drawings are being widely used by experienced artists who are able to repeat the outlines of the object right after seeing it.

One additional way is adding some halftones and shades to the object. It can be done by using short lines and crosshatching. Their frequency and pencil pressure can be different. And this variety creates more three-dimensional look to the object. It helps to produce awesome Line icons, logos and buttons.Also lets get info regarding open lines. It is such type of the lines where the dots not combining the singular elements. It may look very striking when being applied to line icons design. The lines can be gesture-like, parallel, contour etc. as well. You may be surprise what's bezier curves in computer graphics? It's such kind of the curves which are necessary for creating complex line shapes. These curves are useful small features necessary for developing the vector shapes like line icons, different buttons etc.Nowadays computer technologies reached such a level when it becomes possible to reproduce exactly the same designs or even build new shapes that based on some older ones. The great thing - you can do it without extra efforts and time. Another advantage is that it is easy to go back to the previous adjustments with a help of the history panel. As a result you don't have to make Line icons from scratch in case you have made some errors.

2d Web Icons

2D web icons and other objects are famous for their flexibility. This flexibility is achieved by rendering them at various resolutions ideal for various output devices.

2D Icons may embody the following items:

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

The above-mentioned items can be managed by 2D transformations for example rotation, scaling or angular position and so on. Meshing basic models you will get more advanced ones.

Because of the layers technique 2D icons can create the illusion of all 3D characteristics such as shadow, reflection or highlighting. The layers really should keep the definite hierarchy and order carefully.

2.5D Icons

2Dicons also are well-known as 2.5D models. This technology allows web-site designers to work with any layer without touching the others. This kind of 2D object creation is preferred by the most of the famous graphics editors.

2.5D is a synonym to pseudo 3D. This means "two-and-a-half-dimensional" graphics. Models created with 2.5D technology look like tridimensional while in fact they're not. The featured projection depicts both front and side views.

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

Monday, February 21, 2011

Vintage Icons Design And Style

Retro steadily increases its right place in the present day web site design industry. Undoubtedly the best representatives of traditional beauty and noble taste are Vintage web icons. Modern internet site style receives some vintage twist. Retro and Vintage are becoming the common trends in the modern digital art. Vintage web icons, textures, patterns and clip-art are so charming and mysterious. They make you dive into the atmosphere of the old happy times, when everything appeared to be so simple, harmless and noble. People usually associate childhood or youth with good times. Thus vintage style revives for this reason psychological peculiarity of the human nature.

Learn all about retro style in the modern web site design industry

In modern art retro becomes some conscious norm. Having emerged in the post-modern art, it penetrates into the contemporary internet page design in the form of vintage icons, old-style backgrounds, aged photography etc. There is no doubt it gives some zest to the look and feel of the ordinary web pages.

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