Icons contest, should it be innovative?

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Hello,
It seem like there is a lot of conversation about the Icons contest. It’s nice to see that many are concern about the interface :slight_smile:
Many, like Michael Phipps, think that the icon theme should be innovative and bring new concept. (Photo realistic, Animated icons, 3D, Fx…)
I don’t entirely agreed with this. I, and i hope i’am not the only one :wink:, think that the default icon sets have to stay simple, clean with no crazy Fx: Just simple, elegant !
I’ve proposed the DropLine Neu set from Silvestre Herrera as example.
It may be too much like the others icon sets, but it have a lot of gracefulness.

  • It is cartoon-like, but that simplicity allow to recognise the meaning of the icon quickly.
  • That’s ain’t like photo realistic ones, they mess the screen with uneeded pixels.
  • In the same vein, the 3D and Fx, will pollute our eyes with informations.

So, to resume, i think that the desktop should stay almost static, animations should be used carefully, only for important informations. That’s the only way to keep the interface simple, fast and responsive IMHO.

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jeanmarc wrote:
Hello, It seem like there is a lot of conversation about the Icons contest. It's nice to see that many are concern about the interface :) Many, like Michael Phipps, think that the icon theme should be innovative and bring new concept. (Photo realistic, Animated icons, 3D, Fx..) I don't entirely agreed with this. I, and i hope i'am not the only one :wink:, think that the default icon sets have to stay simple, clean with no crazy Fx: Just simple, elegant ! I've proposed the DropLine Neu set from Silvestre Herrera as example. It may be too much like the others icon sets, but it have a lot of gracefulness.
  • It is cartoon-like, but that simplicity allow to recognise the meaning of the icon quickly.
  • That’s ain’t like photo realistic ones, they mess the screen with uneeded pixels.
  • In the same vein, the 3D and Fx, will pollute our eyes with informations.

So, to resume, i think that the desktop should stay almost static, animations should be used carefully, only for important informations. That’s the only way to keep the interface simple, fast and responsive IMHO.

If you read mphipps posts carefully, he’s not really asking for flashy, animated, 3d icons… he’s encouraging someone to come up with something new and different. This specifically means, he wants a unique icon set that is identifiable to Haiku.

In other words - re-using a publicly-available icon set that is semi-reminiscent of Windows XP is probably exactly what he’s NOT interested in at this point.

I completely agree that clean, simple, and elegant icons are what I prefer - but I also understand what Michael is asking for - and he may very well not get it - but at least he’s trying :slight_smile:

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I’d like to see an icon set that is both new and unique, yet is still clean, simple, and elegant.

I’d be surprised if that isn’t what we end up with. :slight_smile: