Vector Icons and the Icon Design Contest

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

I sent zuMi an email, just to make sure he knows about this. 8)

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

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.

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

i like the first one personally, mainly for how it works within the rest of the icon set. beos icons for system discs, home directories, system directories, etc have the little added icon dropped over the lower left hand side of the icon. i really like the way that the icon seems to be coming out of the open folder in the rest of your icon set (see system-folder-home, system-folder-haiku, and the others), while still keeping it in the lower-left corner i'm used to. if you could do a mockup of how these would look with the third folder option, i'd be curious to see it.
i do agree that the second choice (with the folder opening away) doesn't seem as good maybe less welcoming and user-friendly. great job, though. i really like the way this whole set looks.

This version without the shadow!

zuMikkebe, I've got to love the whole Kabuto set. I really do think using stippis vector format will do it justice - they are clean designs with detail that could be removed at smaller sizes without detracting from the look. I thought the Garum set was inspired, but I would prefer it equally without the mirror effect (I know you like it :wink: ).

What do you think about a different Preference overlay?

The tick has never meant much to me, maybe a screwdriver, spanner or a switch (similar to Stippis)

I prefer the 'tick' mark. It also indicates ticking off preferences. I like it.

auxman: Those are pretty sweet. I particularly like the image file icon.

Oh wow. Amazing work, you've got my vote.

Really gorgeous Auxman ! :o
I like the blend of realistic and cartoon look, the use of sweet colors, the BeOS legacy.. great indeed 8)

Ok, I made it, the link it's the same

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

Some retouches here and there, some new icon, some time wasted...hehe

J00 |200|_3!!!

The first time I saw BeFree, aka Mockup, icons and I thought you have a big talent, and this is the evidence.

The only doubt: can stippi's vectorial format render them properly? ( if I understood correctly an fx like the shine on screen is not currently supported )

Another icon set has been submited today ,it's been announced on the haiku mailing list and seems the author drew it using wonderbrush, so it's could be easily imported with icon-o-matic.

http://www.freelists.org/archives/openbeos/08-2006/msg00132.html

Yo,
zuMi

ok, i take some days to think about it, and the first thing I thought was : <<I have to open a preference app to change the behaviour of some part of the system, in few words to take control of it>> , so I don't think the "spanner" is right choice because it can't mean "control" anyway.

Then I remembered about some 70's japanese anime series, where a guy could pilot an huge anthropomorphic mecha using only "two" levers...this IS control!!

And the idea came : what about a panel with two levers as an overlay icon?

Some mockups:

red checkmark icon
spanner icon
levers icon

Very neat as always! If it aint obvious, I’d rather like your Kabuto set to be picked for Haiku… 8)

From discussion on the mailinglist, it appears others find the Preference logo the hardest to point on one thing that means configuration. See Stippis post about symbols and scalablity. http://www.freelists.org/archives/openbeos/08-2006/msg00158.html

I can only say the spanner is great, but might need some rotation/scaling so that at 16x16 it’d be more obvious.
General comment: I haven't tried Icon-o-matic yet, but how does stippis format support altering content at zoom levels, could it include a face-on spanner for 16x16 instead, or can it only hide stuff?

Very nice — You don't have a slightly lighter variation do you?

Yo people,
I'm proud to present my latest work,
the innovativest, weirdest, and probably ugliest icon set ever: http://xoomer.alice.it/mushaspot/haikucontest/garum

It's ready for the haiku icon contest, surely I'll win with this entry :p

I don't think it's the ugliest at all; I rather like it.

Not sure if it will make a good chance, but if you add it, you'll have enriched the contest (not just in quantity).

auxman!!!

Many people are interested in getting your icon set into the contest! Unfortunately, the url above doesn't have them in a format that is suitable for contest entry.

you can refer to the rules here:

http://www.haiku-os.org/wiki/index.php?title=Icon_Contest

and see the beta contest page here (for reference - it will be reset when the contest submission time is over):

http://iconcontest.bug-nordic.org/

You only have until September 1 in order to submit an entry, and many on the mailing list are inquiring about your icons.