Primary Advantages Of Realistic Icons.

Realistic icons are important elements of the modern website design. Also you can meet them in software programs, applications and add-ons, etc.

Internet websites are a special niche requiring special methods for representation and promotion. One of these techniques is including realistic icons into the website design. Definitely icons will help users of your web site to get a quick initial impression of your internet business as well as products that you offer. The icons should be placed on webpage homepage to be noticeable at once.

You may hire the experienced designer to create some unique set of icons meeting your site personal requirements and products. But keep in mind that such way of designing of realistic icons is quite expensive and takes a lot of time. The custom order result still remains indefinite Even professional web site designers fall short of the mark called non-uniqueness. To avoid wasting 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 exclusive items.

Finding authoritative icons resources it can be one other way of getting pleasant web icons. They're different Realistic icons stocks and providers on the internet. You see what you buy and the price may occur essentially lower than in case with custom orders. Also you save your valuable time. Thus for finding nice and inexpensive realistic icons stocks are much more preferable.

Realistic Icons Tips

Designing realistic icons you have to build the basic pictograms first. Also it should look vivid enough if being displayed at worse resolution. The person should be able to identify the icon meaning just by looking at its outlines for a short time period. How to test your icons? If it's possible to discern the icon within less than a second - it's well done.<\p>

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

Vector format in which the icons are stored makes them pretty easy to modify. It allows you to resize, rotate, adjust the edges and edit outlines. It's also possible to change the color scheme and add more details etc. So you needn't be an experienced designer or an artist to use them.

Realistic web icons may be useful in case you need to design the interface layout of the new software or IT services. But remember if you want to create premium quality and eye-catching realistic icons you should be patient because it is not easy. Generally you need to modify the high-resolution pictures to get truly realistic images.

Realistic Isn'T Mystic: Revealing The Truth About Realistic Icons

The very first mention about realism occurred in 1850 when it's spread over French art. Over the years it came through all kinds of art and design. Realism in web design is effectively represented by Realistic web icons.

Facts about history of realistic icons

Simple Icons Major Characteristics

We can easily claim that among the most important features of minimalistic design are Simple web icons. In addition, simple icons as well as other elements of design should be used moderately. Simple icons are meant to be used where they are unquestionably essential and eliminated where it is possible. Refrain the optional simple web icons.

Simple web icons design consists of limited amount of color, reserved shades, clear elements, soft lighting. Simple icons are developed out of elegant and simple elements which really don't distract webpage visitors from the main navigation and webpage idea.

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

Simple web icons and minimalistic design

Additionally to simple icons themselves lightweight background textures and patterns are very important for the design and content perception. The background pattern or images should not grab all the attention of your visitors. The eyes should focus on the web-site content or some main blocks. Creating the background use a light simple shade. This makes it secondary compared with the foreground items like simple web icons.

Clear typography is another prominent feature of the lightweight and clear design. Simple icons names (if there're any) should be precise, meaningful and equivalent to their function. Headings placed on simple web icons should be of readable font and huge enough for easy reading.

Enough white or empty space is helpful for developing a fantastic clean simple icons design. Extra spaces keep elements individual and for that reason more readable and easier to work with. Even if 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 most cases it is not entirely minimal. Nevertheless the dominance of white space there are still some simple icons, light textures, neat styles and bold fonts. Remember minimal is just not exactly the same as simple. From the very begining minimal meant plain typographic not including images and styling. But present day design requires something much more than black text on white background to make the site distinguish among thousands of other plain web pages. Reducing elements of design to the most important items you can add much more zest to your web page 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. While creating the modern web site design you should bear in mind the eternal truth stating that genius lies in simplicity. Simple icons look great and professional especially for a clean business style design.

The Essence Of 2d Web Icons And Models On The Whole

2D icons as well as other objects are notable for their flexibility. This is achieved by the peculiarity of rendering them at different 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).

All these items can be managed by 2D transformations such as rotation, scaling or angular position etc. Meshing simple models you will get more complex ones.

Due to the layers technique 2D icons can create the illusion of all 3D characteristics such as shadow, reflection or highlighting. The layers really should maintain the definite hierarchy and order carefully.

2.5D Icons versus 3D and 2D Icons

2Dicons are also well known as 2.5D models. This technology enables web-designers to work with any layer without the need of touching the others. This type of 2D object creation is preferred by the most of the famous graphics editors.

2.5D is a synonym to pseudo 3D. It means "two-and-a-half-dimensional" graphics. Models which were built with a help of with 2.5D technology appear to be tridimensional while in fact they're not.

This technology used for designing 2D icons is often attained by the special lighting effect. 3D illusion is reached due to the virtual light source to the left or to the right side and above the users monitor.

Line Icons Ideas

We usually use lines for emphasizing edges as well as outlining the contours of objects. Line icons can be the great decoration of any web design, however if you have a talent to design them correctly.

Line Icons - what do you know about them?

Let's find out what line actually is. It is a form containing both width and length but eliminating depth.The line is not only straight but more often curved. Inspite of the being static shapes, Line icons can make an illusion of the dynamic objects. The mood depends on the lines direction. Horizontal lines in Line icons express calmness, harmony and also stability while the vertical ones strive for the light movement. The diagonal lines reflect energy as well as stronger dynamic feeling. If you wish to create refine and ultra-modern line icons designs you should use combination of straight lines and curves.

Line art background

Curve stitching may be the first type of line art known to the artists. Such kind of line art was made with a help of threads of various colours and needle. The canvas was a cardboard first. String Art is another name for this particular movement. Its founder was a Mary Boole. He created it as the accessory material for children to assist them to study geometry of angles and spaces. Spirelli is a form of string art that has been usually applied to scrap-booking and making cards. Line art existed also like illustrations for print sources before the photography was invented. At that time line art involved only black and white colours. A few shades of gray were also acceptable and imitated.Line art combines geometry and art and in such a way becomes appealing to both technical and creative sides of human nature, Designing Line web icons may develop special imagination and creativity along with calculation skills.Line art differs from photography or multi-color painting by its ability to be printed to the halftone pic with no extra conversion. This kind of art is named line drawing and line copy as well.

Simple Icons As Greatest Representative Of Minimalistic Internet Page Design

Simple icons are created to join forces of minimalism and modern trend. Lightweight Simple web icons are supposed to be built to increase web site user interaction.

Minimalistic website design

Let's find out what minimalistic web site design indicates. Surely the first characteristics are simplicity and light-weight elements. Simple icons involve all this. This type of icons does not have complex wordings, figures, textures and patterns. Less even implies more in some areas and to some extent. Website design is exactly such area.

Today minimalistic design is something unusual. High modern day technologies frequently lead to the loss of simplicity. Nowadays the contemporary trend is to mix minimalistic web design with CSS3 and HTML5. Website which uses simple design often has off-color effects and also actively use CSS and Ajax.

Among essential features of the contemporary simple web page 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;

Vintage Web Icons As An Element Of Vintage Design

In case your want your internet site looks archaic - use Vintage web icons. They are one of the most noticeable and easy-to-apply graphical elements. With a help of vintage web icons it is possible to create the vintage atmosphere at your website Also use vintage typography, less-saturated colors and retro textures. Your internet site visitors will definitely 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. Nowadays with a help of computer technologies you are able to put a new face on this type of art and easily use its characters in webpage design and printing. Usually such faces in the vintage web icons are retro cars, pin-up girls, soldiers and politicians of the former times as well.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 contain hints to retro cars concepts for attracting more interest to your webpage layout. This is the fantastic 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 web page 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.

Military and security guard website pages may effectively use soldiers and officers with an outdated appearance to win the visitors favour and trust.

There is no limit in usage of specific characters. Apply your creativity and use them as you want. This will help to make people surprise and thus remember your site.

Vintage Icons Patterns and Typography

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.

Authentic fonts to be used for developing 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 appropriate fonts that will perfect match your design.

Try to pick up a such vintage-inspired design that looks modern and appropriate, but no old-fashioned. If you create the cozy and noble, antique feel with a help of Vintage web icons, images and styled blocks for the web page layout, your visitors will come to your site with a thankful smile over and over again. They will feel more comfortable and cozy at your site.

But try not to make your vintage design look too stuffy, it is best to be aware that professional layout is formal-looking and the major emphasis should be made on the goods, services or content your web page provides.

Vintage Icons Respectable Style

Retro continuously gains its right place in the modern webpage design industry. No doubt the best representatives of traditional beauty and noble taste are Vintage web icons. Nowadays modern internet site style usually comprises some vintage twist. Retro and Vintage are the most well-known and widely used trends in the modern-day digital art. Vintage web icons, textures, patterns as well as clip-art bring mystery to your design. They help you to create the atmosphere of the old happy times, with feelings of simplicity, innocence and nobility. People think the good times are over associating them with their period of childhood or sweet youth. Therefore vintage style revives for this reason psychological peculiarity of the human nature.

Retro style and the modern website design industry

In present day art retro becomes some conscious norm. Having emerged in the post-modern art, it penetrates into the modern website design in the form of vintage icons, old-style backgrounds, aged photography etc.

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

Methods Of Creation Of Line Icons

Often Line web icons are the objects with the outlined contours. Such design elements are called contour drawings. There're items without some strict outlines which can be rather some hint than actual contour of line icons. They're called gesture drawings. These kinds of drawings are being widely used by experienced designers who can repeat the outlines of the object right after seeing it. It is not a complete piece of art but rather a sketch which usually requires 20-30 seconds to be drawn.

One more technique is adding some halftones and shades to the object. It can be done with the help of short lines and crosshatching. Their frequency and pencil pressure can be different. This variety creates more three-dimensional look to the object. So this method is really helping in designing of amazing Line icons, logos and buttons.Also lets get information about open lines. It is such sort of the lines where the dots not combining the singular elements. It may look really striking when being applied to line icons design. The lines can be gesture-like, parallel, contour etc. as well. Contour drawing includes great simplicity and refinement of line design. The curves which are important for creating complex line shapes are called Bezier curves in computer graphics. These curves are useful small features important for developing the vector shapes like line icons, different buttons etc.Nowadays computer technologies reached such a level when it becomes possible to reproduce the identical designs or even build new shapes that based on some older ones. The great thing - it can be done without extra efforts and time. Another benefit is that it is possible to return to the previous adjustments with a help of the history panel. So you don't have to design Line icons from scratch after you have made some mistakes.

Important Information Regarding 2d Icons

2D web icons is a wide spread trend in the web design of nowadays. Being two-dimensional, they 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.

Being originally based on vector graphics devices 2D computer graphics traces back to the 50s. Nowadays2D icons are among the most essential two-dimensional digital design items.

What's actually 2D?Generally it is being connected with computer graphics and determined as the two-dimensional way of digital images generation. Two-dimensional models are mostly 2D geometric ones, digital images and texts. The term 2D means as models themselves as the techniques and tricks specific to them either.

2D web 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 may be a primary reason why they are so beloved and desired in the world of present day website development and digital art.

Simplicity And Business Web Icons Designing

Remember the easiest method to success -it is simplicity. Simple business icons, clear typography and enough air (white spaces) are indicators of serious potential, safety and stability of your company. The most traditional colors for designing business icons are black, white, gray and blue. Verdana is the greatest readable font ever, so it's recommended for use in the wordings for business icons if there are any. Black text on white business icons with some boardings or light shapes is classical. The content blocks are to be of light, close to white colours. business icons style demands minimalism. Creating a great amount of multi-color icons, flashy objects, logos and graphics you risk to produce the web page messy.

Succeed with the the unique business icons

The new websites which are not so reputed yet require professional look to make the Internet surfers notice them. The most widespread web site design style used by the artists around the globe is web 2.0 style. The web 2.0 logos and business web icons look fresh and clean. A unique logo is the face of your company.

Cool content used in today's design is efficient. In case you want to make your internet site unique use unique design. Elegance of its exclusive business icons and logo, simplicity of the content layout and clear arrangement of buttons and blocks promote the website not worse than optimized and reasoned out content.Copying as well as stealing ideas of other companies trade logos or corporate styles is harmful for your internet site reputation. Anyway you'll be disclosed or compared with the competitors who have invented those styles earlier.Unique logos and business icons should be easily recognizable and carry a pure idea of what is actually being offered by your company.

Business Icons - Professional Tips

How to find a proper design for your web page? This can be a very difficult task. The header graphics, logos, business icons and content placeholders and of course the fonts - all this stuff needs to be well designed. While doing this keep in mind the business area and wishes of your potential customers.

The successful web page ought to include your potential customers expectations. For this reason use the right business icons, buttons and styles for content blocks.

The first step as the first brick is really crucial. At the very begining you should decide what's the main audience of your site. After that think about what do your potential customers expect. Name, hosting provider, content material and design style need to be carefully chosen according to the results of your research. You should feel what colors and styles of business icons as well as other elements of design reflect the business area your company represents.

Make sure you keep in mind that various colors evoke certain emotions in various groups of people. As an example if you are planning to create the website for some club, it is more efficient to use business icons of bright disco colors and nonstandard forms. Also in such a case pay attention to the fact that tints of red as manifestation of passion and sex are pertinent for business icons, logos or buttons. But don't use bright colors if you need to develop the web page for some consulting company. Website design should be clear, calm and reserved. You need to avoid playful lines and light-minded graphics. Cool colors and simple recognizable shapes of business icons are preferable. Such a site will make your potential clients believe into professionalism and stability of your company.

Glass Icons Helpful Information

Web icons bring clean look to your site making its design interesting and more professional. Though this effect should be reasonably used since it can be harmful for the design perception.

Nowadays Glass web icons are incredibly well-known elements of web-site or blog decor. This glass icon style is so effective thing that can easily impart the perfect, clear and professional look to your internet-site, presentation or desktop and embody a kind of the "Web 2.0" spirit.

Pros and cons of the glass icons usage.

Do the elaborate and intricate look of the web icons designed in the glass style turn your brain and you think that it is a hard task to do this? You shouldn't be puzzled - it is pretty obvious that the process of their creation is rather simple. Glass icons can normally be designed within a few minutes with Photoshop, Illustrator or Corel application, so it's not a big problem even for the newbies in the design sphere. So you do not need to have extra web design knowledges. All you need is some helpful tutorial, some skills of working with these pieces of software and the images you are going to turn into glass web icons.

The glass effect with all its glass buttons, tabs and rollovers is considered to have beenborrowed from the Apples OSX operating-system style and copied by Windows (especially Windows Vista). Certainly you may argue that Glass web icons are so firmly associated with Apple product that the glass-styled elements make people think of the entirely different brand which makes the usage if this type of web icons meaningless, but you cannot deny the fact that the glass icons style has a great deal of benefits .

Social bookmarking web icons is an important feature of the present day site. If you wish to have a great advantage for the web-site promotion use eye-catching glossy icons for this purpose. Attractive social bookmarks raise the possibility of the visitors clicking on them and the amount of the clicks increases correspondingly. So due to this fact it is possible to promote your content more effectively.

Glass Icons Are First Class Design Items

Glass icons can be viewed as an independent icon style though it is logical to assume that glass style is just one of the types of the shiny, glossy design.

Other types of the glossy web icons design that can be marked out:

• glass icons;
• metal icons;
• glass-metal icons;
• transparent icons.

Glossy icons can be aqua, crystal, plastic etc. and at the same time transparent and half-transparent.

Glass icons are usually depicted with reflecting. It is one of the standard features of the "Web 2.0" icons. Creation of vertical reflection effect for web icons is certainly simple moreover you can find a great amount of tutorials on the net teaching how to do this.

The pure look of glass icons makes navigating through the website pages playful and attracts lots of people. In the Internet sources you may find a huge selection of tutorials about the ways of creating such neat web icons.

Creation of glass web icons.

Adobe Photoshop is the number one software program for creating web icons. Photoshop is becoming steadily more and more flexible software for design. Nowadays it allows to create almost all visual effects used for the graphic design. A great amount of the prominent web designers and illustrators create their great web icons designs with this software. The most important feature of the latest Photoshop versions is the ability to combine pixel painting with vector tool for creating glass icons, buttons, characters etc.<\p>

The simplest way to design Glass web icons is to make the "glass" layer overlap the image, not the whole image but the most of it. By using the "eraser" tool it is possible to build an empty diagonal line through the image. You are supposed to proceed using eraser for making adjustments to the glass layer until the moment when the glass effect repeats the contour of the icon. As a result it should create a kind of the glass haze in the opposite sides. After this procedure complete the further adjustments should be applied.

Professional web site designers should use this effect carefully and bear in mind that glass-fever may look ridiculous . Keep in mind glass icons should be used with taste so that the website style could remain professional and reserved.

3D Icons Fever

The thoroughness and truthfulness of the picture may be even the weakness 3D web icons possess. It means you're much more free to use artistic vision while drawing some object. For example, if we take a cell-phone, you are able to draw it rather similar to what we associate with its name but eliminate additional details, shades and highlights. Often schematic drawings work even better than 3D models. You should analyze each particular situation. To create an object and make it seem closer to real one 3d icons should repeat thoroughly each detail and line. So to answer the question we can claim it is more like a kind of technical representation than a piece of art. Though some illustrators manage to create abstract 3D web icons that involve creative thought and look like true works of art. Realistic and accurate modeling is one of famous trend of 3D design nowadays.If you are going to use some characters as icons, 3D icons are going to appear much more realistic than 2D ones. The characters may stay cartoonish and this will give zest to your website.

The technical issues you may face while using 3D icons in your project layout.

Producing the icons design for your site please keep in mind the following hardships:

It is not possible to display all the glory and details of 3d icons with poor resolution of the viewers screens;

since the monitor screen is 2D device it will not display the true three-dimensional object as we see it in reality;

2D space is easier to be modified and controlled in comparison with 3D one;

sometimes users have to download some extra software that is required for correct viewing of 3D web Icons.

As far as you can see both kinds of graphical representation are based on geometric data but 3D objects are in fact the sculpture models, more complex items. And the requirements for creating the high quality 3D web Icons are much severer. 3D icons may lack creativity and abstract air but the facts of depth and volume which are successfully created with 3D technology are incontestable.

3D Icons and 2D Icons Important Information and facts

Basic differences between 2D and 3D icons design

As for the 3d Icons the light source plays essential role for creating authentic three-dimensional images. Without doubt the using several light sources in web page design nowadays is preferable but bear in mind that they should follow basic rules of physics and be truthful. So if you want to make 3D icons look softer and more realistic - use several lights.

Both 2D and 3D icons represent the volume found in the three-dimensional world but use various ways of creating this illusion. 2D Icons can undoubtedly represent volume to less extent than 3D Icons. Usually the images are flat and show just one perspective. To this disadvantage you can also add another one - detailed highlights and imperceptible soft shadows are missing. The shades usage is limited as well.

3D icons have all these features instead. Nevertheless don't forget that 3D is nothing but mathematical replication of the data that however restricts its usage. In some cases you can easily replace 3D Icons by 2D ones or by the videos with the sounds - but all this depends on situation. Software used for 3D modeling enables to create that 3D dimension. Don't forget that 3D icons should be depicted in correlation with the other objects and the environment they're placed into.