by Justas | Jul 19, 2016 | Articles
I was saving this article for my icon design guide, but eventually decided I didn’t want to wait. I’m also getting plenty of emails regarding the developing of your own style and creating unique icons, so I think it’s high time to share it with you! So how important is it to have your own unique and recognisable style? How to discover it? And what benefits could it bring? First thing to remember is that icon design in general shouldn’t be unique. It doesn’t mean that the style shouldn’t be either, though. You can recreate the same icon in a million different styles to find the one that would fit the project perfectly. However, your icon metaphors shouldn’t be unique. Unlike the logo design, where you need to come up with a smart, catchy and interesting mark. In iconography, it’s important that a person can recognise the icon in a split second. And this can only be done by using the time-tested and well-known metaphors. So don’t be afraid to use the good old magnifying glass to indicate “search” just because it’s not unique. Your main purpose as a designer is not to be unique, but to solve problems. Tweet This! If you manage to solve a problem by creating something unique – kudos to you! This is how the world is moving forward. But it sure is not easy. A lot of people tend to worry about discovering their own unique style too much. To the extent where this fear stops them from creating anything at all, simply because they think it’s not unique enough. They...
by Justas | Jul 1, 2016 | Inspiration
Hello, friend! Hope that things are going great! I have even two exciting occasions to get in touch with you. First of all, I wanted to let you know that my free icon design guide is coming along nicely! I’m putting a lot of work into it, and I’m so thrilled to see the progress and can’t wait to finally show you the result! Stay tuned for more updates. Another great announcement is that I’m once again starting to post up compilations of the best icons. If you have been reading my blog for a while now, you should remember that I used to compile the best icons and share them on my blog every week. Truth be told, some weeks dragged on slower than the others, and sometimes the collections were simply not as good. For these and some other small reasons, I’ve decided to switch to Monthly compilations. So on that note, I would like to invite you to check out the best icons of June!...
by Justas | Jun 7, 2016 | Articles
Hey, hope you’re doing well! You probably noticed that I haven’t been posting as much as I used to. Well, that is all due to lots of work I’ve been occupied with recently, and all my remaining free time I’ve been devoting to the upcoming free icon design guide. So that you don’t think I’m making excuses, I thought I’d update you on the progress with the guide. I’m really giving it my all because I want it to be a complete and best source for everyone in icon design, regardless of whether you are only thinking about taking up designing icons or already have some experience. And believe me, the Guide is so worth waiting for! It is going to be massive. Anyways, over the last week I’ve managed to put together the landing page for my Free Icon Design Guide. Check it out! Now when you can see what it’s all about and what it will be stuffed with, I definitely encourage you to sign up to be notified when the Guide is all done and ready to be spread. I reckon it will be an amazing source for anyone who is about to start out as an icon designer as well as for those of you who want to improve their icon design skills. I’ll also be doing some giveaways on the launch day so you don’t want to miss out! Stay tuned....
by Justas | May 10, 2016 | Interviews
Hey! Hope you’re doing well! I’m extremely happy to publish my second interview on Icon Utopia! Today we are talking with Scott Lewis – head of content at Iconfinder. You can find him on: Iconfinder Dribbble Twitter http://iconify.it/ Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Where did you come from? My name is Scott Lewis and I live in Richmond, Virginia (for now) in the United States. I am 46 years old and have lived in Richmond for the past 22 years. What is your story, how did you get started with icon design? I started drawing and making creative things when I was a very young child. Fairly early on my parents noticed that I had talent for drawing and they encouraged me in this. I started taking art lessons when I was 15 years old and eventually studied art and design at university (East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina). The very first icons I designed were as part of a design class project in which we were asked to represent common objects using only 3 different line weights. I chose brass musical instruments. My first attempts were pretty bad but not being content to not be good at something, I kept practicing and eventually fell in love with designing small glyphs and logos. After I finished university, I worked as an Art Director for different ad agencies and design firms for 8 years but wasn’t really happy doing creative work where I had to compromise my creativity to comply with clients’ whims. So starting in 1998 I taught myself computer programming...
by Justas | Apr 26, 2016 | Interviews
Hey! Today I got something special prepared for you! About a week ago I came across an incredible project ICONSPEAK — t-shirts designed to ease the communication with locals wherever you go. It comes in handy when you are in a foreign country with no knowledge of the local language whatsoever. After all, icons are a global visual language! I wish I found out about these t-shirts before my Thailand trip! There were times when talking to the locals was beyond difficult if possible at all. I’m sure many of you saw articles about the ICONSPEAK tees in your news feeds. Maybe you even thought, “Damn, why haven’t I come up with this idea?!” I know I did! Anyway, the traveler’s t-shirt went viral with the speed of light, but what do we know about people that made this brilliant concept a reality? I felt obliged to right this injustice and talk to the masterminds that invented a t-shirt that has a potential to change traveling experience for everybody. So without further ado, lets jump straight to the interview: As far as I know, you are a team of three, right? I would love to hear a little bit about each of you: could you briefly introduce yourselves? What are your backgrounds? How did you meet each other? You are correct Justas, we ware just the two of us on the trip, Florian and me (Georg). We travelled together through Asia and the Motorbike trip through Vietnam was an essential part of it. Before that – 2009-2012 we were study mates at the Bern University of Applied Sciences. Steven is a very...
