Sunday, February 27, 2011

Realistic Icons

The first mention about realism happened in 1850 when it was spread over French art. Over the 100's of years it came through all kinds of art and design. Speaking about realism in web page design we can easily say that it is represented here by Realistic web icons.

The historical past of realistic icons

Simple Icons As Best Representative Of Minimalistic Internet Page Design

Simple web icons are produced to unite minimalism and modern trend. Superb and lightweight Simple web icons are aimed to increase webpage user interaction.

Minimalistic website design - prevalent trend

Let's discover what minimalistic website design means. Definitely the first features are simplicity and lightweight elements. Simple web icons contain all this. This kind of icons doesnt have complex wordings, figures, textures and patterns. Less even means more in some areas and to some degree. Webpage design is just that area.

Minimalistic design is quite an unexpected trend nowadays. As far as you know high modern technologies have one great disadvantage - often they lead to the loss of simplicity. Today the contemporary trend is to mix minimalistic web page design with CSS3 and HTML5. Website with simple design often contain brave and off-color effects and actively use CSS and Ajax.

The most significant features of the modern simple webdesign:

  • grid based design;
  • simple icons;
  • light shading and reserved color transition;
  • light texture of patterns and backgrounds (often transparent like);
  • more empty or white space;
  • simple shapes and figures, clear lines;
  • less amount of various bright colors;
  • clear and readable typography;

Friday, February 25, 2011

How To Create Line Web Icons

The objects with the outlined contours is another kind of Line icons. They are known as contour drawings. There are items without some strict outlines that are rather some hint than actual contour of line icons. They're referred to as gesture drawings. Skilled designers often use such kind of drawings because they are able to repeat the outlines of the object right after seeing it.

One more technique is adding some halftones and shades to the object. You can do it with the help of short lines and crosshatching. Do not afraid to alter their frequency and pencil pressure. Such variety creates more three-dimensional look to the object. This trick is widely used in web design as well. So this technique is definitely helping in creation of amazing Line web icons, logos and buttons.Furthermore lets get information on open lines. It is such type of the lines where the dots not combining the singular elements. The lines can as well be parallel, gesture-like, contour and so on. Contour drawing includes superb simplicity and refinement of line design. You may be wonder 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 real helpers in creation of the vector shapes such as line icons, unusual buttons etc. Nowadays computer technologies reached such a level when it becomes possible to reproduce the same designs or even build new shapes that based on some older ones. The great thing - it can be done without extra efforts and time. Furthermore, it is possible to go back to the previous adjustments due to the history panel. So you do not have to design Line icons from scratch after you've made some mistakes.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Find Out All Benefits Of Realistic Icons.

Realistic web icons are essential elements of the modern web design. Also you can meet them in softwares, applications and add-ons, etc.

As far as you know rrnternet sites require special means of representation and promotion. The most powerful way is of course including realistic icons into the web site design. For sure icons will help users of your web site to get a quick initial impression of your web business as well as products that you offer. If you want to make icons noticeable - place them on the website's home page.

You may hire the professional designer to create some unique set of icons meeting your site individual requirements and products. But take into account that such method of creating of realistic icons is very expensive and takes a great deal of time. In fact the results of custom order usually are not clear. Even professional site designers fall short of the mark called non-uniqueness. To save time and smoothen things down they take icons designed earlier and simply play with the colors and shades, use some other effects and sell realistic icons as unique items.

Another source of getting attractive web icons is finding authoritative icons resources. There are different Realistic icons stocks and providers on the net. The great benefit of this kind of of getting web icons is that you see what you buy. The cost may be lower than in case with custom orders. Besides, you save much valuable time. Thus for finding nice and inexpensive realistic icons stocks are much more preferable. All these advantages make icon stocks the great deal.

Some helpful tips for utilizing realistic icons

If you make a decision to produce a realistic icon first of all you need to build the basic pictograms. It should look simple and motivated enough to produce one icon significantly differ from another. Also it should look vivid enough if being shown at worse resolution. The icon must be recognizable at first sight. You may make a test and see if it's possible to discern the icon within less than a second.<\p>

When you find the formula of the basic silhouette and it is stable you possibly can make realistic icons more eye-catching with the addition of decorative elements. Really don't overload icons with the details and color tints. Icons should look well design and also reserved. You can also make the edges anti-aliased. So keep in mind the simple rule - the decoration shouldn't detract from the icons essence and functions.

Vector format in which the icons are stored makes them pretty simple to modify. You are free to resize, rotate, adjust the edges and modify outlines, change the color scheme and add more details etc. So you don't have to be an experienced designer or an artist to use them.

Realistic icons may be handy in case you need to design the interface layout of the new software program or IT services. But don't forget if you'd like to generate high quality and eye-catching realistic icons you should be patient because it is not easy. Truly realistic images may be created only if you take and modify the high-resolution photos. So keep this in mind.

Line Icons - Get More Scores In Web Design

Lines are more frequently used for outlining the contours of objects and emphasizing edges. If placed and designed reasonably, line icons can be the best decoration of any minimalistic or clear web site design.

Lines and their facilities in line icons design.

What's actually a line? This is a form containing both width and length but eliminating depth.The line is not only straight but more often curved. The lines can provide some appropriate mood or feeling of a movement. Staying static shapes, Line icons can make a sort of illusion of the dynamic objects. The mood is generally being conditioned by the lines direction. As an example horizontal lines in Line icons bring the feeling of calmness, peace and stability. Speaking about the vertical lines - they strive for the light movement. The diagonal lines reveal energy along with stronger dynamic feeling. If you need to develop refine and ultra-modern line icons designs you should use mix of straight lines and curves.

Victory of line art.

No doubt the earliest kind of line art that familiar to a great amount of artists is curve stitching. It's carried out with threads of various colours as well as needle. The canvas was a card board first. This movement is also well-known as "String Art". Originally it was found out by Mary Boole as the accessory material for kids to help them study geometry of angles and spaces.Spirelli is a type of string art that's been usually applied to scrap-booking and making cards. Line art existed also like illustrations for print sources before the photography was created. At that time line art involved only black and white colors. A few shades of gray were also acceptable and imitated.Appealing to both technical and creative sides of human nature, line art includes geometry and art. If you desire to become a Line icons designer remember that this process may develop imagination and creativity as well as calculation skills.Line art has an ability to be printed to the halftone pic with no extra conversion. Thus it's different from photography or multi-color painting. This type of art is named line drawing and line copy too.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Vintage Web Icons And Website 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. With a help of vintage web icons it is easy to create the vintage atmosphere at your site Also use vintage typography, less-saturated colors and retro textures. Your site visitors will surely like antique air of your new design.

Retro trend is all about the styles of the70s and 80s. Speaking about retro advertising art it appeared in 1950. Today with a help of computer technologies it is possible to put a new face on this type of art and easily use its characters in web page design and printing. These faces outlined in the vintage web icons are more often retro cars, pin-up girls, soldiers and politicians of the former times.Undoubtedly among the most often used retro cars are Fiat 500, the 1970 Dodge Challenger, the 1969 Chevrolet Samara, the 1964 Ford Mustang etc. Vintage web icons may contain hints to retro cars concepts for attracting more interest to your webpage layout. They are perfect for the websites concerning 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 site graphics styling. It often depicts exaggerated, idealized images of how the really beautiful and sexy woman should look like. Pin-up images are great for vintage web icons or clip-art designed for the model agencies, websites regarding health and beauty areas.

In case you have a web site that is connected with military and security guard you may effectively 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. Thus you will surprise your visitors. So far as you know it is a good way to turn your potentional clients minds to your web business.

Vintage Icons Patterns

Highly recommended Vintage patterns in vintage icons design:

  • 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 developing 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. You are free to find and purchase the fonts to match your design on the internet.

Try to get a such vintage-inspired layout that looks contemporary and appropriate, but no old-fashioned. If you create the warm 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 grateful 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 products, services or content of your web site not on the internet site design.

Vintage Icons Design

Retro continuously increases its right place in the modern web page design field. Vintage web icons symbolizing the old-time styling are the message of classic beauty and noble taste, Vintage design trend arouses gentle feeling in the visitors hearts.Nowadays contemporary site style generally involves some vintage twist. Retro and Vintage are the most well-known and widespread trends in the contemporary digital art. Vintage web icons, textures, patterns as well as clip-art bring mystery to your web site design. They help you to create the atmosphere of the old good times, with feelings of simplicity, innocence and nobility. People usually associate childhood or youth with happy times. Hence vintage style revives due to this psychological peculiarity of the human nature.

Discover all about retro style

Speaking about retro in simple terms we'd outline an aged or culturally outdated trend that has become some conscious norm in today's art. Having emerged in the post-modern art, it penetrates into the contemporary website design in the form of vintage icons, old-styled backgrounds, aged photography etc.

The new retro style quite often incorporates the Web 2.0 look with a vintage twist. It requires good recipe of mixing today's clean blocks and the outdated, aged design elements like Vintage icons, styles and color palettes.

2d Web Icons

2D web icons are really well known for their flexibility. This is achieved by the peculiarity of rendering them at various resolutions suitable for various output devices.

2D Icons items:

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

These items can be managed by 2D transformations for example rotation, scaling or angular position etc. Meshing simple models you may get more advanced ones.

Because of the layers technique 2D web icons can create the illusion of all 3D characteristics like shadow, reflection or highlighting. The layers really should maintain the certain hierarchy and order carefully. This makes editing 2D icons and related objects simpler.

2.5D Icons as the pseudo 3D sort of 2D Icons

The layered 2Dicons may also be generally known as 2.5D models. This technology enables website designers to work with any layer without the need of touching the others. This kind of 2D object creation is preferred by the most of the leading graphics editors.

2.5D is a synonym to pseudo 3D and is interpreted as "two-and-a-half-dimensional" graphics. Models created with 2.5D technology appear to be tridimensional while in fact they aren't. The featured projection depicts both front and side views.

This technology used for designing 2D 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.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Simple Web Icons

Simple web icons are among the principal features of minimalistic design. Bear in mind that simple icons and also other design elements should be used moderately. Among the secrets is minimizing icons use in general. Simple icons are meant to be used where they are absolutely necessary and eliminated where it is possible. Optional simple web icons are to be refrained from repetition or eluded.

Limited amount of color, reserved tones, clear elements, soft lighting are being used for simple web icons design. One of the greatest benefits of Simple icons is that they don't distract website visitors from the main idea of your internet site.

Rules for simple icons design:

  • minimal usage of duplication
  • less amount of graphical elements
  • maximum intuitive clarity
  • clear typography in simple web icons
  • less icons

Some important tips for creating a minimalistic design with simple web icons

Additionally to simple icons themselves light-weight background textures and patterns are very important for the design and content perception. The background pattern or images shouldn't catch all the attention of your visitors. The eyes should focus on the website 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. Simple icons names (if there're any) should be precise, meaningful and equivalent to their function. Also use readable as well as enough large font for headings on simple web icons.

Also for creating a great clean simple icons design you may use enough white or empty space. Extra spaces keep elements more understandable. Due to this fact it is less difficult to work with them. In case you use some extra space between simple web icons this do not harm to the design of your site at all.

Speaking about the minimalistic trend in general it is not entirely minimal. Despite its large amount of white space there are still some simple icons, light textures, neat styles and bold fonts. Please remember minimal is not exactly the same as simple. From the very begining minimal meant plain typographic not including images and styling. Today there's a great amount of various web-sites over the Internet. That's why modern design requires something more than black text on white background. Reducing elements of design to the most essential items you can add more zest to your web-site layout with some uncommon coloring, catchy simple icons, half-transparent and light-weight textures and patterns.

Simple is often used like a synonym of smart. Simple icons is the best solution if you would like your internet-site look great and professional.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

2d Icons Facts

Today 2D icons is a wide spread trend in the modern day web design. Being two-dimensional, they are notable for their flexibility and comparative simplicity. 2.5D Icons is the type of 2D Icons that is closer to pseudo 3D representation.Such models show both front and side views.

2D computer graphics was originally based on vector graphics devices. 2D web icons are among the most major two-dimensional digital design items.

What is actually 2D?It's being associated usually with computer graphics and determined as the two-dimensional way of digital images generation. Two-dimensional models are mainly 2D geometric ones, digital images and texts. The term 2D includes not only the models themselves but the techniques and tricks specific to them at the same time.

2D web icons and objects are independent objects with their own semantic value. 2D graphics makes it possible to get more direct control of the image than 3D technology. This may be a primary reason why they are so beloved and preferred in the world of contemporary webpage design and digital art.