I've been really fortunate this month with all the icons jobs that have come my way. I really like working on icons. Producing icons has been a welcome change of pace from my normal routine of web/template design.
Icons require creativity within a strict set of established norms. While that sounds confining, it's not. Plus, discovering the proper metaphor to convey what an application or buttons does is an interesting process, that requires a lot of imagination.
This weeks IpodderX icon was a good example of metaphor and design gelling into a cool icon. When that happens icons can be very fun to work on.
Whereabouts
So I was glad when Jeff Hokit of Recurring Dream asked me to rethink the icon for his Whereabouts application. His previous icon was cool, but didn't convey what the application did, which is best described as "iSync" for Vcards (contact info).
Whereabouts helps you share address cards on the Internet. Friends and colleagues can automatically keep up-to-date with changes to each other's address, email, and phone numbers.VCards already have an established icon in Mac OS X, so making making a Whereabout icon that conveyed the refreshing of Vcards was an almost automatic process. I like it when that happens.