Standing in the Drop Shadow of Usability

Khoi Vinh on iconography:

By contrast, I like incredibly abstract and minimal graphical elements. For me, a simple, one-pixel straight line is practically a revival of the Rococo style. If I had my way, the only pictorial components of my design work would be the pictures: photographs or illustrations. Everything else would be simple and elementally native to the browser, or whatever other rendering mechanism I’m working with. Which is to say, you’d only ever see lines and boxes — and flat ones at that. No shading, please, and no three-dimensional modeling.

Whole-heated agreement from this front.

Rare is the design element I use that’s not typographic or photographic. Aside from the light use of my logo, my site is currently icon free.

This may be a direct result of my sucking at icons and other abstract elements.

# 2007 Sep 27