Vector Icons and the Icon Design Contest

For those who don’t subscribe to the main mailing list, there has been movement on better support for icons. Stephan Assmus has come up with a way that should allow vector icon support in R1. He also has written a new version of Icon-O-Matic to support the format. Read about it here:
http://www.freelists.org/archives/openbeos/07-2006/msg00032.html

A new set of icons will be needed for Haiku. Stephan has provided format specifications for these icons. To help develop guidelines for these icons, a basic design contest is being set up. The current expected end date for this is September 1, 2006. Read about it here:
http://www.freelists.org/archives/openbeos/07-2006/msg00043.html

As stated, he is currently expecting links to be posted to the mailing list. PM me (Katisu) if you need me to do it for you. If there is enough submissions, a web site will hopefully be set up.

Please don’t be afraid to experiment and submit multiple designs, this contest is mainly to come up with ideas and guidelines for the final designs.

Katisu wrote:
As stated, he is currently expecting links to be posted to the mailing list. PM me (Katisu) if you need me to do it for you. If there is enough submissions, a web site will hopefully be set up.

As I suggested in the other thread, how about a page on the wiki for submissions? Considering it’s already there looking all pretty, it’d be a shame not to use it.

Dirty Harry wrote:
Katisu wrote:
As stated, he is currently expecting links to be posted to the mailing list. PM me (Katisu) if you need me to do it for you. If there is enough submissions, a web site will hopefully be set up.

As I suggested in the other thread, how about a page on the wiki for submissions? Considering it’s already there looking all pretty, it’d be a shame not to use it.

Yeah, you beat me to the post. What I get for doing multiple things at once. I’m not sure using the wiki is a good idea. Wikis are more for informational purposes than as a contest page. Also, it would be nice to have a page that allows ratings and comments without allowing to edit the whole page. In general I have to agree with Stephan for the moment. Let’s wait and see how many submissions roll in at first before doing web site work.

Here’s my suggestion, Tango Yellow. I’m not suggesting this is a particularly good idea, just throwing it out there for people to think about.

Disk

Folder (I made a bit of a mess of the colour change I’m afraid, but nevermind)

CD

Text

Images

Generic executable

MediaPlayer

StyledEdit

Background preferences

Advantages

  1. Easy. As you can see with the exception of the folder, it’s plain old Tango. All that would needed would be a few changes to the colour palette to make it more Be-like, namely for folders, the recycling bin and icons depicting the desktop, which could use Haiku’s lighter blue rather than the darker shade chosen by the Tango’s authors.
  2. Gives us a consistent set of guidelines from which to create further, Haiku-specific icons from.
  3. Collaborative. Probably means not just less work for Haiku, but for Tango in the long run.
  4. Works well with grey. I’m using Tango on Windows with the classic theme and it looks pretty nifty.
  5. We get both SVGs and pixmaps with Tango.

Disadvantages

  1. Indistinct. Haiku should be unique and distinctive. This is at odds with the fact Tango’s probably going to become pretty ubiqutous on free desktops.
  2. Not Be. The icons are drawn from different palettes, and different perspectives from Be’s ones.

We should stay with isometric icons. This define the UI elements for BeOS.

http://mc.clintock.com/first_floor/study_1/desk/computer_projects/icons/ << this guy supplied the icons for Zeta. Why can’t we use these? They are under a copyleft license as well.

Purposeless wrote:
http://mc.clintock.com/first_floor/study_1/desk/computer_projects/icons/ << this guy supplied the icons for Zeta. Why can't we use these? They are under a copyleft license as well.

zumi also makes very good BeOS-like icons

Could you post a link for the Zumi set? I haven’t seen it.

Purposeless wrote:
Could you post a link for the Zumi set? I haven't seen it.

I could only find a screenshot from mlotz’ website:

http://svg.mlotz.ch/screenshots/other/zumi.png

but zuMikkebe browses these forums too :slight_smile:

I know that a lot of people are attached to the BeOS-style icons, but I also like the idea of Tango Yellow. It would be fast, and it would be easy for new users to adjust to. From there, we could use the Tango icons as starting points to create an new set . . . Tanrenga maybe?

Zumi has a couple different ones:

These are too close to the original designs:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/mushaspot/beos-svg

Some of these might be questionably close to the original designs:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/mushaspot/kabuto

and then there is
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/zumi/bebop

umccullough wrote:
[...]but zuMikkebe browses these forums too :)
I sent zuMi an email, just to make sure he knows about this. 8)

Yo Meanwhile, yo umccullough, I got your messages.

I didn’t understand very well the terms of this contest, but I can show my works if you are interested.

Kabuto Icons
a recent screenshot, rendered using mlotz’s libbsvg

http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/images/kabuto-20060731.png

It uses::
-3/4 view
-standard web-palette
-gradients, not applied on flat surfaces
-shine on spherical surfaces
-outlines
-optimized for 32*32
-a lot far to be complete

Alba Icons

uhm, now I can’t find any screenshot different than this one,rendered using mlotz’s libbsvg too.

http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/images/trs-20060801.png

These are some icons made for a dead project.

It uses:
-flat front/top view
-standard web-palette
-gradients
-glassy reflections
-outlines
-optimized for 64*64
-a lot, lot, lot far to be complete

Hey zuMi,

Well, the “guidelines” are a bit open and also somewhat too technical for me to explain, so I’ll leave that to others.

But: to make sure you “officially” join the contest, I think you should follow the suggestion in Katisu’s first post:

Send Katisu a message using PM with the all the links in it (also the ones he posted himself in this thread).

Good Luck!

BTW, This explanation of the terms is more simple and clear, but it gives no address to send your icons/links to…

Meanwhile

Just for clarification.

At the moment, links to submissions are supposed to be mailed to the main mailing list at openbeos@freelists.org. If for some odd reason you can’t do this, feel free to PM me (Katisu) and I’ll see that the information gets past on.

I ask that you do the submissions as specified so that comparisons can be done easier.

32-bit PNG images of each icon in the resolutions 16x16, 32x32 and 64x64 on transparent background. (11 icons x 3 resolutions = 33 images total).

Of the following icons:
Hard disk
Folder
Trash can
CD-ROM
Text file
Image file
Person
Generic executable
Archive
Styled Edit
Screen Prefs

Please don’t limit yourself to one style/one entry. As much as the old BeOS icons are liked, the general consensus is that there should be a unique style for the Haiku icons. The contest is not so much about picking a whole set of icons, but to develop a set of guidelines for how the Haiku icons should look. From there the whole set of icons will be made whether it be by an individual or a whole team.

zuMikkebe wrote:
**Kabuto Icons** a recent screenshot, rendered using mlotz's libbsvg http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/images/kabuto-20060731.png

I absolutely love most of the icons in the set for their boldness and cleanliness, home, email, rubix etc, but think Person is a little too MSNy? I do hope you submit more designs if you have the time.

Thanks, as you said I gave focus especially on cleanliness , because those icons were made to look good at low res like 32x32.

About person icon…hum, i don’t think it’s similar to that chubby msn man, they have in common only the spherical head, nothing else; and about differnt design, there are some others, but I don’t think they’ll be proposed in the future:

-maranza: this was my first attempt to svg icons, round 3d icons inscribed in an hexagon, I’m thinking now I used too many gradients;

http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/images/maranza-20060805.png

-garum : a recent attempt to 3D looking icons with a weird point of view; i made only 5 icons at this moment.

http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/images/garum-20060805.png

Regards,
zuMi

zuMikkebe wrote:

-maranza: this was my first attempt to svg icons, round 3d icons inscribed in an hexagon, I’m thinking now I used too many gradients;

http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/images/maranza-20060805.png

-garum : a recent attempt to 3D looking icons with a weird point of view; i made only 5 icons at this moment.

http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/images/garum-20060805.png

Regards,
zuMi

I would still recommend that you submit them if it isn’t too much trouble. The contest is about coming up with different ideas (brainstorming). Then hopefully the best ideas can be merged together to form a unique design.

Katisu wrote:
I would still recommend that you submit them if it isn't too much trouble. The contest is about coming up with different ideas (brainstorming). Then hopefully the best ideas can be merged together to form a unique design.

I know that, but as I wrote before there are too few icons at this moment, and I don’t know when I can make the missing ones, as needed for the contest ( and “garum” is pretty hard to draw, probably I have to abandon it but I love its mirror effect).

Bye,
zuMi

Excuse me sirs, but probably I’m going to bore someone.

I have got much time to spent in these days ( a long story made short: my cat had bladder calculi and after a surgical removal I’m at home to check its health ), so I’ve retouched many icons of kabuto set.

http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/kabuto

But I’ve some doubt about folder icon, I made three versions, but I can’t decide, somebody can help me?



thanks,
zuMi