Iconography VIC 107
Photos/Camera roll iPhone. The function of this icon is to hold the photos taken on your iPhone, hence this is why I think apple have chosen the primary and secondary colour wheel for this icon, to capture all the colours in the world. The structure of this icon is in a circle formation and shape; however, it is not a solid circle and is instead composed of smaller ellipses, compassing each colour. Apple iOS apps have a common theme of being relatively simple in design with not a lot of detail or shading. This is something that has progressed over the years, with the whole purpose of icons being simple in design so users don’t have to enlarge them to see the details in them or understand what it is portraying to the consumer. The emotion this icon portrays to me, is a happy feeling, this is because there is no dark/negative colours it is very bright and vibrant, to encompass the happy memories people take from viewing their photos.
Gmail App on Android. The function of this icon is to hold all emails received on your android device. Android have developed and progressed their icons throughout the years, changing from a square design in the past, to now encompassing the design of their icons in a circle shape. In my opinion, this is a step backwards as the circle shape makes the icon look smaller and indistinct on the background compared to the phone. Androids motto “be together not the same”, shows how they are intending to be different by using a different shape, however I feel as though it doesn’t necessarily work, and actually makes the home screen look messier. The design of the icon itself is easy to understand that it is email, as there is a light-coloured envelope in the background, with a prominent red M, portraying importance so you will check these as it stands out amongst the other icons. This is also a symmetrical design, however there is more shading in comparison to the basic iOS icon designs.
This is the reddit icon, and the function of tis icon is that it enables you to open the app. Within the app there are different icons which represent different things – blue microphone meaning someone has commented, a green shield meaning the user is the subreddits moderator and a red alien logo meaning the suer is a reddit admin/someone that works on reddit. Tis icon is composed of a simple ellipse structure for the head of the alien, but however is not symmetrical. The icon is portraying a mysterious emotion by having an alien as the main focal point of the icon, I think this is because reddit is composed of different things on the internet which some viewers may be uncomfortable viewing. There is a positive and negative difference on the colours with a white alien popping from the dark and monotone orange colour.
Armin Hofman is a graphic designer who paved the way for the contemporary design of icons by breaking the composition down into simple dots lines and shape to create a simple design. This represents a simple form of graphic design in an ever changing and advancing technological world. Icons are becoming more and more basic, in terms of colour and shape, so users do not have to enlarge the screen or really focus on what the icon is portraying and is going back to its simplest of forms, taking inspiration from the work of Hofman.