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July 6, 2006

StreamerNet Icon Redesign

About a month ago, my good buddy Michael Ashby came to me with an icon redesign project for the startup company called StreamerNet.

StreamerNet provides individuals and businesses with a variety of very powerful portable streaming services and an application for the PC called StreamerNet Mobile Video Producer. Both their application and services make heavy use of advanced Windows Media features.

StreamerNet wanted to have their original "galaxy" of icons redesigned, with a smoother, more sophisticated and more consistent icon style across the suite. There were also a few changes needed and one new icon to create.

Here are the original icons:

One of my main goals was to clean up the icons and simplify them as much as possible. The icons above have quite a bit of detail in them, though so small that much of it was getting lost, and not clearly suggesting the purpose behind each icon.

I began with the Video Email icon first, establishing a style with sketches, then producing a final icon for approval by the client. StreamerNet liked the first icon's style and look, so I continued on the other icons.

Because of a tight timeframe, I did sketches for my own concepting, heading directly to final art in Fireworks once I was satisfied with the concepts. There were of course a few tweaks to make on the final art, though not very many.

Here are the final icons:

As you can see, the new icons are a little bit larger, and more consistent in style than the originals, while being a little simpler and clearer. I think the added depth of the new icons also helps them pop off of the screen a bit better than the originals.

The icons are now in use on the Solutions page, as well on the headers for each sub-page linked to the icons, and will most likely be used in the StreamerNet Mobile Video Producer application.

I'm very pleased with the final icons. I think they help tell the story of StreamerNet in an attractive, consistent way, while maintaining and clarifying the original concept.

July 6, 2006 3:21 PM | Icons | add to del.icio.us

Comments

Fantastic work, as usual Mike! The icons are clear, precise and give a good understanding of what each aspect of the application is. Kudos!

Posted by: mashby at July 6, 2006 5:50 PM

Thanks Michael — I had a blast doing this project and really am pleased every time I look at the new icons. :-)

Posted by: Mike Rohde at July 6, 2006 6:10 PM

Great work. I especially like your use of bright colors and simple visual language.
There was too much intricate detail in the original Icons, which gave the impression of complexity.
Your redesign got rid of all that unnessacery detail, without losing meaning.

I would simplify even more...but I am not familiar with the project so I don't know.

Posted by: Sholom Sandalow at July 7, 2006 1:04 PM

Sholom, thanks for the feedback. This project was challenging in that the client liked the concepts presented in the original icons, the general format, layout and so on, but wanted an improvement, clean-up and moderate simplification. My challenge was to simplify without going so far as to loose the original feeling. :-)

After some discussions with the client, I decided to take a middle road of simplification while keeping a little of the complexity in each icon, but much less than the original.

My tendency in design is to "simplify, simplify, simplify" but in this case a super-simple set of icons wouldn't have fit their needs or desires.

But that's the fun of redesign projects — finding the right balance of simplicity and clarity, while maintaining the overall look the client would like to see.

Posted by: Mike Rohde at July 7, 2006 1:48 PM

wow very nice update, great blog btw!

Posted by: Jason Gilmore at July 11, 2006 1:47 PM

Thanks Jason! :-)

Posted by: Mike Rohde at July 13, 2006 4:18 PM