A Tiny VP-9 Idea for the Visually Waning...

Soniclight wrote on 9/25/2007, 4:32 PM


I don't know what the V7 icon was since I upgraded to 8 from 6. My graphic design neurons are sometimes on overdrive, but,,,
IMO, the VP8 icon is dark and, well, kinda ugly.

Someone like me with waning eye-sight prefers the very visible V6 version.
But I've taken it a step further as the self-explanatory image above shows.
.

Comments

Soniclight wrote on 9/26/2007, 3:04 PM
OK, I get it.
No interest in this here.
No problem.

But I like it anyway :)
Jonathan Neal wrote on 9/26/2007, 3:14 PM
So, do you want your icons to have a big V or a big V8, V7, V6, etc. ? Do you each version's original icon behind them?
Soniclight wrote on 9/26/2007, 4:06 PM
Hey, now that's an idea. ;p The only thing is that visually speaking, the addition of characters diminishes the impact of one bold V and possibly the semi "glass" effect.

Alternative approach:

--- Just change the background color of the icon for each version and keep the V as-is.

-----------------------------

Little socio-historical trivia most of us know:

--- The letter "V" has had positive subliminal socio-emotional connotations since the days of Churchill, end of WWII, the 60s, etc.

Yeah, OK, I'm getting a bit, well, silly about this minor aspect of Vegas, but I do have some marketing/advertising and design experience.
Including designing a couple of program icons.

If Sony wants to give me a holler, I'll do it for free or maybe to cover the cost of the next Vegas upgrade ;)
Either way, I'm dirt cheap labor and a staunch Vegas fan who recommends it to people off-board..
,
rmack350 wrote on 9/26/2007, 4:20 PM
My main requirement for an icon is that it look unique on the quicklaunch bar. My biggest irritation is that a program I use all the time has an icon that looks like Outlook's. I sometimes click the wrong one.

Rob Mack
Soniclight wrote on 9/26/2007, 4:27 PM
I replaced Outlook long ago with Thunderbird and have it programmed into a button on my multimedia keyboard, along with Firefox and IE to other buttons..

But I know what you mean about hesitating and sometimes hitting the wrong icon for certain apps.
Comes down to the visibility factor, good eyes or not.

(Ergo why I did my .ico switch on VP8 and launched myself into this Don Quixote side-mission to suggest a more instantly recognizable icon for Vegas :)
Jonathan Neal wrote on 9/26/2007, 5:32 PM
Well, I may have some free time later, but what do you think of something like these. I went for the Ubuntu Human color scheme and bare in mind that these are compressed gifs.

Image & Image

Image & Image
Cheesehole wrote on 9/26/2007, 5:44 PM
Not bad... it's a big improvement over the new V8 icon. (I'm sorry but I can't even tell what it's supposed to be.) I like what Adobe did with the CS3 suite. They just used different colored chicklets with the initials of each app in a big boring white font. Ps for Photoshop, Dw for Dreamweaver, etc... boring but effective. I still like things to be pretty though.
DGates wrote on 9/26/2007, 6:26 PM
Good idea.

Jonathan Neal wrote on 9/26/2007, 6:48 PM
Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image & Image

These icons are scalable anywhere from 16x16 (product letter clear) to 128x128 (all very clear).
Soniclight wrote on 9/26/2007, 7:37 PM
Sheeeeeeeeezus. You guys are putting me out of business before I've even gotten into it.
Nice stuff!, a good start.

The thing to remember is how tiny the icon gets in a taskbar (the real test of any icon)::

--- Any small negative spaces or small digits will get washed out, such as in the font Jonathan used.
--- Too much subtly will sadly also go bye-bye, such as DGates designed..

As an example, the Verizon .ico looks like a bunch of blotchy crap in an .ico editor, yet it works at almost any size in part because:

--- The reflecton effect is large, the contrast big between V and background.
--- The "V" has plenty of negative space within it.

This is fun. And I'd better come up with something too.
Otherwise I'll definitely lose this imaginary job to friendly competitors here - lol
marks27 wrote on 9/26/2007, 7:54 PM
Hmm, now I feel odd -- I like the new icons :-
oh well,

marks
Soniclight wrote on 9/26/2007, 7:59 PM
Marks27,

Hey, it's a free country, everyone has a right to what they like. As I said, I've just got graphic design neurons from my past jobs background, so I can get a bit nit-picky :)
DGates wrote on 9/26/2007, 8:56 PM
The Adobe CS3 line is a simple, clever take on the periodic table of elements. And as you said, it lends itself well visually to small icon files.
Jonathan Neal wrote on 9/27/2007, 12:15 AM
DGates, they don't look good anymore?
Soniclight wrote on 9/27/2007, 2:29 AM
Hey, Jonathan, looks like you went "negative space" happy by doubling your offerings with alternatives along those lines.
Now we're getting somewhere!
Cheesehole wrote on 9/27/2007, 10:49 PM
Works for me! My quicklaunch is set to "View | Large Icons". Looks great.

Thanks Jonathan!