Saturday, February 26, 2011

Simple Web Icons Features

We can easily say that among the most important features of minimalistic design are Simple web icons. Additionally, simple icons and other design elements should be used moderately. One of 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 several functions.

Limited amount of color, reserved shades, clear elements, soft lighting are being used for simple web icons design. Simple icons are created out of elegant and simple elements which really don't distract website visitors from the main navigation and web-site 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 important ideas for developing a minimalistic design with simple web icons

Additionally to simple icons themselves light-weight background textures and patterns are important for the design and content perception. The eyes should focus on the web page content or some important blocks but not on the background pattern or image itself. 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 are any) should be precise, meaningful and equivalent to their function. Headings placed on simple web icons need to be of readable font and huge 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 individual and for that reason much more readable and easier to work with. In case you use some extra space between simple web icons this don't harm to the design of your site at all.

Speaking about the minimalistic trend in general it's not entirely minimal. Despite its great amount of white space there are still some simple icons, light textures, neat styles and bold fonts. Bear in mind that minimal just isn't exactly the same as simple. From the very begining minimal meant plain typographic not including images and styling. Nowadays there's a great number of various webpages over the Internet. Thats why modern design demands something more than black text on white background. Reducing elements of design to the most important items you can add more zest to your site layout with some unusual coloring, catchy simple icons, half-transparent and light-weight textures and patterns.

Simple is often used like a synonym of smart. While creating the modern web page design you should bear in mind the eternal truth stating that genius lies in simplicity. Simple web icons look fantastic and professional especially for a clean business style design.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Vintage Icons Style

Retro takes over the present day web design industry. Unquestionably the best representatives of traditional beauty and noble taste are Vintage icons. Modern webpage style acquires some vintage twist. Retro and Vintage are the most well-known and also widespread trends in the contemporary digital art. Vintage web icons, textures, patterns as well as clip-art bring mystery to your design. They make you plunge into the atmosphere of the old happy times, when everything seemed to be so simple, innocent and noble. People usually associate childhood or youth with happy times. Due to this psychological peculiarity of people vintage style is so popular.

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

In today's art retro becomes some conscious norm. Having emerged in the post-modern art, it penetrates into the present day web site design in the form of vintage icons, old-styled backgrounds, aged photography etc. It is obvious it gives some zest to the feel and look of the ordinary web sites.

The new retro style quite often incorporates the Web 2.0 look with a vintage twist. It requires to combine the present day clean blocks and the outdated ones. Also there is a necessity to combine aged design elements like Vintage web icons, styles and color palettes.

Methods Of Creation Of Line Web Icons

Usually Line icons are the objects with the outlined contours. They are called contour drawings. There're items without some strict outlines that are rather some hint than actual contour of line icons. They're called gesture drawings. Such drawings are being widely used by skilled designers who can repeat the outlines of the object right after seeing it.

One more technique is adding some halftones and shades to the object 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. This particular trick is widely used in world wide web design as well. It helps to develop amazing Line web icons, logos and buttons.Furthermore lets get info about open lines. It's such type of the lines where the dots not combining the singular elements. The lines can be gesture-like, parallel, contour etc. as well. Contour drawing includes fantastic 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 important for creating complex line shapes. These curves are useful small features essential for producing the vector shapes like line icons, different buttons etc.Today computer technologies reached such a level when it becomes possible to reproduce exactly the same designs or just build new shapes that based on some older ones. The great thing - you can do it without extra efforts and time. Furthermore, it is possible to return to the previous adjustments due to the history panel. So you don't have to design Line web icons from scratch after you have made some mistakes.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Vintage Icons As The Starting Point To The Vintage Web Design

Vintage web 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 internet site. Your internet site visitors will surely like antique air of your new design.

Retro trend is all about the styles of the70s and 80s. Retro advertising art from the 1950s is bold and striking. Computer technologies allow to put a new face on this type of art using its characters in web site 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.Most frequently used retro cars are Fiat 500, the 1970 Dodge Challenger, the 1969 Chevrolet Samara, the 1964 Ford Mustang etc. Vintage web icons may include hints to retro cars concepts for attracting more attention to your webpage layout. This is the great idea for websites that have a deal with auto sales, transporting services, tour sites etc. A pin-up model is another popular character used in vintage icons design and other webpage graphics styling. Usually it presents images of how the really sexy and beautiful woman should look like. If you are an owner of the web site 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 webpage 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.

Usage of specific characters is not limited to the above-mentioned ones. Apply your creativity and use them as you wish. Thus you will surprise your visitors. So far as you know it is a very good way to turn your potentional customers minds to your web business.

Vintage Icons Patterns and Typography

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.

Authentic fonts to be used for creating vintage icons titles, content headings and texts are Matchbook, Bazar Medium, Embossed, Hill House,-Fontleroy Brown, Fusty Saddle, Just Old Fashion, Goudy Bookletter 1911, Rocket Script, Parisian, Star Avenue etc. Feel free to discover and purchase on the web the best suitable fonts that will ideal match your design.

If being relevant to the topic, general style and idea of your webpage vintage-inspired layout is supposed to look 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 web page layout, your visitors will come to your site with a grateful smile over and over again.

But try not to make your vintage design look too stuffy, you should be aware that professional design is formal-looking and the major focus should be made on the goods, services or content your web site offers.

Line Icons Information And Facts

We typically use lines for emphasizing edges as well as outlining the contours of objects. Line icons can be the fantastic decoration of any web design, of course if you have a skill to design them thoroughly.

Lines and their features in line icons design.

What's in fact 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 give some appropriate mood or feeling of a movement. Inspite of the being static shapes, Line web icons can make an illusion of the dynamic objects. The mood is usually being conditioned by the lines direction. Horizontal lines in Line web icons embody calmness, harmony and also stability while the vertical ones strive for the light movement. Energy and stronger dynamic feeling pertain to the diagonal lines. If you want to develop refine and modern line icons designs you should use mix of straight lines and curves.

Line art - Line Icons

Curve stitching is the first type of line art known to the artists. It's carried out with threads of various colours and needle. The canvas was a card board first. This movement is also well known as "String Art". It's founder was a Mary Boole. He created it as the accessory material for kids to help them study geometry of angles and spaces. Spirelli is a type of string art that has been usually applied to scrap-booking and making cards. Before the photography appeared line art lived also in the form of illustrations for print sources and included only black and white colors. Several tones of gray were also acceptable.Appealing to both technical and creative sides of human nature, line art combines geometry and art. So if you desire to become a Line icons designer keep in mind 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 without extra conversion. Thus it is different from photography or multi-color painting. This kind of art is named line drawing and line copy as well.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

2d Icons Rule

Today 2D icons is a wide spread trend in the modern day web design. These two-dimensional icons are well known 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.

Being initially based on vector graphics devices 2D computer graphics traces back to the 50s. Presently2D web icons are one of the most significant two-dimensional digital design items.

Today I want to find out what actually 2D is.It really is being associated usually with computer graphics and determined as the two-dimensional method of digital images generation. Two-dimensional models are mainly 2D geometric ones, digital images and texts. The term 2D comprises not only the models themselves but the techniques and tricks specific to them as well.

2D icons and objects are independent objects with their own semantic value. 2D graphics means that we can get more direct control of the image than 3D technology. This might be a primary reason why they're so beloved and preferred in the world of present day website design and digital art.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Simple Icons And Minimalistic Web Design

Simple icons are produced to join forces of minimalism along with modern trend. Light-weight Simple web icons are meant to be designed to improve internet site user interaction.

Minimalism in web page design

Lets find out what minimalistic web design means. Of course the first characteristics are simplicity and light-weight elements. Simple web icons involve all this. This type of icons doesnt have complex wordings, figures, textures and patterns. Less even indicates more in some areas and to some degree. Website development is exactly that area.

Today minimalistic design is something uncommon. As far as you know high present day technologies have one great weakness - often they resulted in the loss of simplicity. These days the modern trend is to mix minimalistic web design with CSS3 and HTML5. Simple does not always mean primitive. Internet site that uses simple design often has off-color effects and also actively use CSS and Ajax.

Among important features of the contemporary simple webpage design are the following:

  • 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;