This week we dived further into the world of icons.
Pedro Ramírez Vázquez was a Mexican architect who was known primarily for designing the Azteca Stadium, National Anthropology Museum and the 1968 Olympic graphics. Within the 1968 Olympic graphics he developed a range of different pictorial icons to represent each sport, as pictured below. The Olympics have always been rich with imagery but these particular icons stood out to me as I find them to be so full of life and encapsulating of them time. The icons shown are flat in style , some even repeating elements; this helps the set to be cohesive and consistent in it’s communication. These are my favourite Olympic icons, especially when paired with the rest of the graphics, they truly sing the song of the time.
Susan Kare is an American iconographer best known for her pioneering work on the original Macintosh computer in the 1980s, where she designed many of the interface elements and icons that would become the blueprint for digital communication. She created simple yet expressive pictograms like the trash can, the smiling Mac, and the command key symbol, each one serving a specific function while maintaining an inviting and human touch. These early digital icons were pixel based and often constrained by tight technical limitations, yet Kare’s work made them feel approachable and clever. What I find most compelling about her icons is how they manage to be both utilitarian and full of personality, they communicate clearly, but also feel warm and playful. Even now, decades later, her visual language remains deeply influential and instantly recognisable, truly capturing the spirit of early digital design.
The Noun Project is an online collection of over 7 million icons, designed by designers from over 120+ countries with the goal of creating the most extensive icon library on earth. They also provide stock imagery but icons are the highlight here. They provide icons for a range of different purposes, varying from UI specific icons all the way to hyper detailed illustrations that question the line between icon and illustration. The Noun Project seems like a useful tool to be aware of, however I feel for this module it is something to use only for inspiration as I plan to develop my own icons for my music app.
Noun Project: Free Icons & Stock Photos for Everything
This weeks class had us look further into the world of icons, the amount of variability within the likes of icons really is impressive. I particularly enjoyed looking at Susan Kare, I feel her approach is great and the mac icon library has always spoken to me as being a little different and I now know why. As I develop my own icons this unique approach is something I hope to keep in mind and hopefully apply to my own work.