An icon, to be precise, is a graphic image, a small picture or object that represents a file, program, web page, or command. In fact, icons help you execute commands. Icons, however, are not so difficult to design, provided you follow some guidelines that are given below.

A Holistic Approach Will be More Appropriate

Even though icons are often liked for their aesthetic appearance, in realty they do not function as individual entity, irrespective of whether they are designed for desktop applications or websites. You should, therefore, evaluate your icon designs in the light of the graphic system you are trying to use them . In other words, icons should sync perfectly within the relative graphic systems.

Think of Your Niche Audience

One of the most crucial considerations, when designing an icon is the cultural issue. When you are designing an icon for a product that sells in any geographic region, say in Arabian countries, an icon representing a oasis would do the trick. However, when you are designing an icon for a product that sells all over the world, you need to give it a common touch that will be appreciated and accepted by people all over the world. Take the case of mailbox icons that differ from country to country. But what happens when you use a postage stamp as an icon? This, no doubt, will be universally recognized and accepted. Apple’s mail icon incidentally has this form and so is globally accepted.

Keep it Cool

Try not to over-complicate icon designs. If you take a look at some of the popular brand of consumer goods icons, you will understand the issue. None of them are overly illustrated or complex in design. Take another look at RSS icons. Some icons border on illustrations but they still maintain the strong symbolic qualities that are so evident in popular icons. Remember, overly illustrating and dressing up icons will invariably result in lower recognition while at the same time display poor taste.

Give Due Importance to Lighting and Shading

In the Windows Vista User Experience Guide, there is a section on icon lighting and shading which provides some specific rules for Vista icon set. This gives more exacting standards for icon designers while ensuring an unified and justifiable icon system. Here is an example: “Use shadows to lift objects visually from the background, and to make 3D objects appear grounded, rather than awkwardly floating in space. Of course, there are many more such rules in this guide that prove invaluable for most icon designers.

Create Consistent Icon Set Styles

Lighting and perspective no doubt contribute to the style of an icon, though there are so many other factors that can lend to the style as well. If, however, you are attempting to fit your icon into a grunge-style website design, you would surely be implementing texture to the icon’s design style.Icon sets, incidentally have unique features that make them stand out . If you take a peek at the Echo icon Guidelines, the set is elucidated as “a new set of icons proposed for inclusion in Fedora. Designed with a dynamic perspective, Echo icons aim to appear more realistic while still maintaining a clean and simple design by way of utilizing high contrasts and spots of vibrant colors.