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The first step that you must understand before creating an icon is to know about the icon, what is an icon, what is its use and how important is the icon in a design?
Why should you learn the basics and theories about icon design?
The goal is to make the foundation of knowledge about icons stronger, lest you have made a lot of icons but don't understand the icon itself. Understanding icon theory will make it easier for you to create future icon designs.
What are icons?
The word icon comes from the Greek, Eikon: likeness (similarity), image (picture). In the dictionary you will find many different definitions of icons such as representations of figures, idols, computer symbols and so on.
The most easily understood definition of an icon is a sign or representation that represents a real object based on a resemblance or analogy.
When creating an icon design, the shape must be similar to the original or analogous to the shape or function of an object in the real world, for example: a shopping cart icon.
credit: Piqo DesignThe icon above is often found in e-commerce-based applications or websites and is familiar to people who like shopping, this icon has the exact same shape as its original form in the real world, as an icon it has the right function or analogy to describe the process/ buying and selling activities.
So it's a natural thing in the world of icons if you find several similar or similar shapes, why is that? then returned to the initial understanding of the icon itself. This is where you will find the importance of learning about basic icons.
It's wrong if someone thinks there is no need to learn basic theory, if so, what happens in the future you will be easily confused when faced with problems related to icon design.
Why are icons important?
Why are icons important to learn, especially for a designer? because nowadays icons cannot be separated from our daily lives, how many important decisions are taken every day through icons such as shopping and so on.
In terms of business opportunities, you can find that today there are many marketplaces that specifically sell icons such as iconfinder, flaticon, the noun project and other marketplaces, because of today's technological developments, websites, applications, social media, all of which raise a very high demand for icon needs design.
Where is the icon applied?
Where will the icon design be used? Broadly speaking, there are two places where icons are used, namely digital such as computers, websites, applications, smartphones, smartwatches for presentations and others. The second icon is used for printing or printing needs, you must be familiar with the icons on road markings or on packaged products, clothes and so on.
Who will use the icon?
When you create an icon and sell it on the marketplace or display it in your portfolio, there are probably two who will use the icon, the first is a customer or client, usually they will look for an icon design to meet their needs by buying or downloading it on the marketplace or if the icon they are looking for is not in the marketplace they will hire an icon designer to make the icon they need.
The second is the designer himself, not all icons that you create are only used or needed by customers, designers also need icon designs, why? because not all designers can create icons and the presence of an icon marketplace helps them to speed up the work process rather than creating icons manually, of course it will take longer, it's better to download them directly on the marketplace.
How do I create icons?
This section will be discussed in the next article, as a reference you can download the ebook about the work icon from Justas Galaburda via the link below:
Source : www.jagodesain.com