The Icon Book: Visual Symbols for Computer Systems and Documentation

"The Icon Book" is available in three formats: Book Only Edition (ISBN: 047159900X); Diskette Only Edition (ISBN: 047102497X); Book w/ Diskette Edition (ISBN:0471599018).

Customer Review: useful guide book for desining icons

This book is an comprehensive beginner’s guide of designing computer icons, and I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in designing, because the introduced strategies to create icons are so deliberate that we can use them to design other creative works like home pages.



The main purpose of this book is to discuss how to design icons that are easy to recognize, understand, and remember, including the concept of icons, strategies to design them, making processes, and even a case study. So if you read thorough this book, you can get an overview of designing process of useful icons.



Although this book is for icons, it provides many useful strategies in designing not only icons but also any designing works. One of the most useful strategies is to make an iconic language. This means that it is more efficient and wiser way to prepare common element parts of icons and make complicated icons by combining them, instead of making them from nothing. I think this idea is so useful for many designing works that we can apply those ideas to other works like homepages or posters besides icons.



Another good point of this book is that there are many example icons. Because this is an introductory book and written for beginners of designing, every discussion is accompanied by many recommended or anti examples in order for readers to understand clearly what the author wants to say. There is also a sample icon starter set.



Thus this book is a beginner guide book of creating computer icons and discusses many so useful and fundamental ways of designing them that you can create other decent designing works by applying them. That is why I recommend this book.





Customer Review: useless: basic and often ugly icons (diskette)

I haven't got the book, but just the diskette, which really disappointed me as these "starter icons" are absolutely basic and often ugly.

I found it useless for anyone who already works with icons, Wingdrings are better.
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