I am somewhat of an icon nut, and I am especially interested in icons which are simple, small, and beautiful. It’s easy to create something good looking if you have 128×128 pixels. You have room for a lot of smooth curves, alpha and so on. The real challenge is doing the same at 16×16. Behold, 10 free icon sets named after German cities all looking awesome at 16×16, although they do contain 32×32 versions as well.
If you feel like doing some detective work, you can try and work out why these icons correspond to these specific cities. Were they paired randomly, did the designer have something in mind?
If you take a look at Dortmund, all the icons consist of a single strong line, which has a gap somewhere along it. The icon description underlines this, so apparently it is an important “feature” of the city as well. Does it symbolize the river Emscher flowing through the city? The Dortmund-Ems Canal which links Dortmund to the North Sea? The city also has a fair number of moated castles, perhaps the lines symbolize the moat, the gap symbolizes the drawbridge?
If you’re into icon design, you might want to think this through, since a lot of “theory” work like this goes into creating an icon set that works well, and has a deeper meaning.
Enjoy the comments, and remember, be kind to ducks!
