← Gone Away
Icons
My name is Clive Allen; I am an icoholic.
Ah, how releasing it is to say those words! Even though for several years now I have managed to control my addiction, the fact is that once you're an icoholic, you are always an icoholic. Any moment of weakness and suitable tools to hand, and the icoholic can slip back into his addiction, spending hours every day creating tiny pictures that will serve as the icons that we computer-users click on so thoughtlessly. I am free now but was once enslaved.
For some time I have been wanting to share my terrible experiences in the dim and dreary world of icoholism but was always constrained by the fact that I have none of my extensive collection of icons here in the States. But this morning I remembered a Dutchman named Johan Spee and realized that, through him, I still had access to at least a few of my icons. Let me explain:
Way back in the days of Windows 3.11, I became bored with the standard uninteresting icons supplied with the operating system. I wanted my desktop to look tasteful and individual and it seemed to me that I could achieve this by designing my own icons. Upon investigation, I discovered that there were such things as icon editors and that many of them were free. It wasn't long before I was hard at work, learning the intricacies of icon design and producing ever more competent creations.
The icon editor is essentially a tiny graphics program intended for use with very restricted pixel sizes and colors. In those days the standard was 32x32 pixels and 16 colors and this remains the ideal of the true zen of icon design. It's the restriction that makes it, you see. There is something compelling about the discipline of such tight constraints; there is real achievement in being able to fool the eye into seeing a detailed picture with full color when limited to so few pixels and colors.
But no-one warned me that icon design is addictive. I was an easy convert, quickly becoming desperate for my hours of designing every day. Before long, I was a zen master of icon design.
I thought I was the only icoholic in the world and then, one day, I discovered Johan Spee. He had put a collection of his icons on the net; I downloaded them and ended up by having a short email correspondence with him. This is what he has to say about his latest collection (probably his last, for he seems to have disappeared into the ether, no doubt freed at last from his addiction just as I have been):
Icons are simple, little, colorful and seemingly harmless things. Be careful though, appearances are deceptive. Once you get a taste there is no turning back. I know. My name is Johan Spee, I am an Icoholic.
This is the Icoholics Anonymous icon collection version 4.b. Most of these icons were made from scratch, others were extracted from different sources and redesigned; over 2100 altogether. One thing they all have in common: these icons are the cream of the crop.
That does not mean they are in 256 colors or 48 x 48 pixels or any other Win 95/98 novelties that contravene the Zen of Icoholism. In my philosophy an Icon is a visual Haiku, not a picture, so I stick to 32 x 32 pixels and 16 colors. Call me old-fashioned, I don't mind. Just take a look: this is still the ultimate icon collection.
The reason that Johan's surfacing from the depths of my memory has enabled me to write this post is that I also recalled that he included some of my icons in his collection. There is no copyright on icons and it is a compliment if another icon designer includes any of your work amongst his own. And this happy chance has enabled me to add to this post a few examples of my work of so long ago.
Ah, happy memories...
If you would like to see Johan's full collection (it is called Icoholics Anonymous), it can be downloaded here. A small viewer is included to make it easy to see the icons.
And, if you dare flirt with the possibility of addiction, a simple freeware icon editor called IconArt can be obtained by clicking here. But don't say I didn't warn you!