Icon design

I’ve recently been doing a lot of Mac house keeping, due to my purchase of a MacBook Pro and wanting to keep my files nice and tidy and start a new filing system… Backing up files and deleting rubbish that I don’t need. This kind of job always takes a while, as I am sure you can appreciate. You always get caught up looking through old projects or things that you did a long time ago. It’s amazing how much you can take on and how involved you can get with projects or assignments that you have to do. I was scanning through loads of things I had forgotten I had done!

I found a bunch of old university essays and started having a read. I quiet enjoyed myself and it was a nice refresher to some of the subjects we studied that I really did like. A side from some small year 2 essays on the “History and Theory of Art and Designâ€?, I came across the daddy of all my university work. My dissertation! I’ll never forget the stress of holding down a full time job and trying to get that finished. So this is the one I thought I would share with you.

I chose to discuss computer icon design using semiotics to illustrate an idea for evaluating the success of a computer icon design. I think it makes interesting reading and sets a firm premise for initial ideas, which I didn’t find to be formally written about in this manner. (This was written and researched in 2004). So, please feel free to have a read. I am not the best academic writer, so please don’t be too harsh. I just tell it as it is, or at least how I interpret it! In fact my tutor’s comments were that it was more like an educational piece than a dissertation. I was happy with that comment as it means it’s accessible for all. I hope it gives you new ideas to take away with you when designing icons or other creative materials you might be able to apply the methods to.

Download “Computer Icon Design Evaluationâ€? PDF – 1.1mb

You will need Adobe Acrobat to view this file. It’s free to download.