Title: 5 Confusing Icons and Their History
Context: The meaning behind an icon is very often in the eye of the beholder.
Synopsis: Designers of all stripes have a love/hate relationship with iconography. A good, clear icon communicates succinctly, saves on interface real estate, localizes well, and should look pretty darn attractive to boot. Unfortunately there are only like 3 out of the millions of icons in all of existence that can tick each one of those boxes. No, for the most part, iconography is a visually cryptographic crapshoot. There are design biases to account for, cultural quirks to consider, individually prejudicial predilections that find their way into the final product; none of which help lend universal clarity to a tiny pictographic representation of an oftentimes, very abstract concept. Yet we press on against the headwinds of certain failure and try and try again to encapsulate ideas such as random activities, object types, and technical methodologies into a handful of pixels. What is the icon for “insanity”?
Best Bit: The story behind the Bluetooth icon. Danish royalty, addiction to fruit, and ancient runes FTW!
via placeit.net
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