In today's digital age, we are flooded with icons. They are omnipresent now- on our laptops, on our phones, on our tablets, on our TVs, on OOH hoardings, advertisements, just everywhere. No doubt, they are fascinating and very useful. Iconography is also an ever evolving subject.  Let us therefore, explore how graphic designers and web designers in India can get more creative with their web designing skills.

Grid drawing for the basics-

We all were taught in our middle and high school about drawing on a sheet full of grid or boxes. Those sheets were meaningless or inarticulate for us back then, but now is the time to understand their functionality and significance. Those grids help to design better while preventing the design go haywire and facilitate the design as an artwork with symmetry and dimensions. An icon needs understanding first on the basis of its meaningful representation and secondly on its compactness, conciseness with clarity. Making icon sketches and drafting the icons within those grids is an excellent idea to maintain the proportions of how they will appear on the virtual surface. The website or the app. You can also use square pixel grid designing software for the same to be done on your systems, if not on hard paper.

Let the icon design breath in space-

Every icon is unique, it should be so every time; only to have them distinguished from the others in the same row. Google Play store is full of icons and every icon symbolizing various applications are at safe distance from each other.  Reason is obvious, legibility, comprehension and differentiation. Your icons should be able to breathe in a space full of other icons and symbols. Use your grid with a consistent border around the edge to create an icon that is not only clearly visible but also is distinguished.

Use identifiable elements and shapes-

Icons are generally placed in small areas like mobile apps. To give them the clarity of shape they deserve, make the icons smaller but do not forget using geometrical shapes representing symmetry and justification of the size. Use of shapes like circle, square, rectangle, oval, etc. is the most logical way to create an icon that is simple and is relatable by the users.

Unique shapes are assets-

Using the elementary and heterogeneous shapes to create a homogenous icon is the way to be unique. Seemingly complicated designs are always confusing for the users and therefore, go ignored most of the times. Website designing agencies face this trouble half the time because their designers do not know how to give a design, uniqueness. Why is the shopping carts design online are easy to understand despite multiple elements? Because it contains lines and composite shapes that are identifiable by the people and its shape is unique while is also easy to remember. Ignoring images and text for icons is an  important point to remember while designing  icons.

Color scheme conflict should be avoided-

Using colors of your choice is not how icons should be treated. Icons require colors that are easy on the eyes and the brain to retain. Your color should stay consistent for every place it is used. Consistency can be broken if the icon is for a company logo, where the client might want it deviated. But if it is an icon which is meant for a universal purpose, the hues must be the same. Think off colors independently and collectively in appearance and the juxtaposition it may pose in a group of other icons.

Details must not be missed-   

Minutest of details make a huge difference in the smaller units like icons. A watermelon could be just a red and green semi circular disk is the dots are not added for the seeds. Similarly, a strawberry could be an inverted rose petal if the seeded dots are not there. The same logic applies to all the icons that need such small elements as variables to become differentiated from a synonymous figure.

With these tips, its hopeful that you design more accurate and clear designs for icons and symbols. Also do not decorate your icons with elements that either make them too heavy to read or too light to make the difference as they are icons not accessories.