Why are icons addictive?

[conuly]

You'd think 50 would be enough for anyone, but now I want more. Maybe 100... Hm. I'm hardly about to reiterate the oh-so-popular suggestion, but any chance, do you think, of people being able to buy ever more icons... *plots and schemes*

Yes, I know, this is pathetic. Sorry. While we're on the subject, why do so many people make icons that all look alike? Is it just that they all decided that they like this one style, so they're only going to make icons in that one style, even though it's virtually impossible to distinguish one from another? And what's with the tiny text? If a person with normal eyesight is unlikely to be able to read the text, don't you think it should be made a little larger? Maybe?

Comments

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Your icon inspired the one that I'm using in this response, even though I won't actually be metaquoting this particular post.

As to why we do it? I think I have to chalk it up to human nature.

[hopefulnebula]

"but it's just for decoration: you're not supposed to read it!" Grrr. I hate that.

[conuly]

If it's just for decoration, don't put fucking text there. Put a random squiggle and call it a day.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

BAH.

...I need a new icon.

*sez the one with only 3 icons. woe, o woe.*

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

I'd like to redo my icons so that they all look quite similar, follow a theme or a style just to tie them all together because then they look like a nice set and things that match are good.
But it would not be the same as everyone else's style because everyone on LJ having exactly the same blueish muted icons because it's apparently the In thing is ridiculous.

Also, tiny text = fucking stupid. What does it say? A picture is worth a thousand words, why did you choose to make a mess with both?

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

I really don't get the whole decorative text thing either. I mean, it's text right? That says something? What's the point of having it there if I can't see what it says?

I was under the impression that the picture part of the icon was the decoration part.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that the picture part of the icon was the decoration part.

Heeheehee! Totally.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

One of us should post that to OI at some point.

I hate unreadable text so much. But not as much as I hate text brushes. Of course, anyone who has ever heard me talk about icons should know this already.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Text brushes make me roll my eyes. If you have a program that can use brushes, you could also, I dunno, write your own text!

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

You know, I found a community for them when I was looking for an example for Uly. I thought that they couldn't get any worse, and then I saw improperly aliased text brushes! (http://www.livejournal.com/community/touchoftext/11040.html). Which just goes to show that one should never think to themselves that it couldn't possibly be worse.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

hahahaha!

A sad thing for the world of icons.

[conuly]

What's a text brush?

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Behold the horror of text brushes. (http://www.livejournal.com/community/touchoftext/)

Brushes are things that one can download and use to decorate an icon. In the beginning, icon brushes were used for textures and borders, but lately the big craze has been to take a line from songs, poems, or greeting cards and turn it into a brush. It would kind of be like taking a block of text and making it into a stamp. I HATE icon brushes. They take away the last vestige of originality -- the text content and placement -- from the sheep among the icon makers. I realllly wish they'd never been thought of. It doesn't take THAT much effort to pick a font and a line of text and put it on, and it is one of the areas in which you can exercise the most control and creativity. Icons aren't really all that original to begin with; after all, you're using somebody else's picture, someone else's brushes, and usually someone else's words. It's how you do it that pushes the activity close to being "art," even if it is a kind of bastardized form. Text brushes take away the creativity, and make the process into mass production more than anything. I would even say that they degrade the activity as a whole, even if there are a lot of people who don't use them.

[/rant]

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Brushes are pre-made shapes that you can load into PS or PSP, and pick a color, and paint them on. They come in all sorts--some make it look grungy, some make it look patterned, or textured, or brighter, or darker.. And there are brushes that people have made by typing something in, like "sadness is a color" or some other poetic thing, and then post it for the world to download and paste on instantly. So there's people running around with icons that have the same phrase in the same size and same font.

Hm, I ramble. That might have made sense, though.

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

If a person with normal eyesight is unlikely to be able to read the text, don't you think it should be made a little larger? Maybe?

...and I'm on 1600*1200 with a 19" monitor so I have even less chance of reading'em, even the supposedly normal-sized ones. meh.

[leora.livejournal.com]

They use small text because they hate me.

[thetwistedsista.livejournal.com]

I wish I had more icons-but if I want a piad account-I need money. A month and bit's pocket money..but I think I have some birthday money owing still. Or I need to get a job which is difficult until next year, when I turn 16. ((All the jobs they advertise here are for 16+-something with insurance))
I don't like icons that look alike. There's this annoying style around...with light blue gradients, unreadable text, all in the same font ((I don't like the font they do those ones is. As much as Comic Sans)) and mainly Harry Potter ((the movies-never the books)) but it's speading to other fandoms. I dislike that style of icon anyway. Or people should try using more different styles. Originality is power, I say. And so if trifle!

[absurdixie.livejournal.com]

On my little free account, way down here, I can only have three icons. I feel your pain, I have SO many ideas and picture I want to use. I'd pay for a paid account but what with me hardly updating my journal I don't want to risk wasting my money. I'm a money-hog.

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever actually seen a tiny-text icon. I'd like to, just to see what all the hubbub (hub bub?) is about.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/archangel02/sexualtension.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v665/snowrooster/modernmafia.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/hadria25/CSI/Two/ot3_01.png

There, I went to a random community that allows anyone to post and pulled those out of the first few entries.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

(And I figure linking directly doesn't hurt anyone, because people simply viewing the community page take up more of their bandwidth than this does.)

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

Wow... That's far more annoying than I had originally figured.

[phibby.livejournal.com]

That CSI one...oh man.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

hey! all my icons look alike...then again, they are all the same twerp...

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Your icon inspired the one that I'm using in this response, even though I won't actually be metaquoting this particular post.

As to why we do it? I think I have to chalk it up to human nature.

[hopefulnebula]

"but it's just for decoration: you're not supposed to read it!" Grrr. I hate that.

[conuly]

If it's just for decoration, don't put fucking text there. Put a random squiggle and call it a day.

[lakidaa.livejournal.com]

BAH.

...I need a new icon.

*sez the one with only 3 icons. woe, o woe.*

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

I'd like to redo my icons so that they all look quite similar, follow a theme or a style just to tie them all together because then they look like a nice set and things that match are good.
But it would not be the same as everyone else's style because everyone on LJ having exactly the same blueish muted icons because it's apparently the In thing is ridiculous.

Also, tiny text = fucking stupid. What does it say? A picture is worth a thousand words, why did you choose to make a mess with both?

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

I really don't get the whole decorative text thing either. I mean, it's text right? That says something? What's the point of having it there if I can't see what it says?

I was under the impression that the picture part of the icon was the decoration part.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that the picture part of the icon was the decoration part.

Heeheehee! Totally.

[feathered.livejournal.com]

One of us should post that to OI at some point.

I hate unreadable text so much. But not as much as I hate text brushes. Of course, anyone who has ever heard me talk about icons should know this already.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Text brushes make me roll my eyes. If you have a program that can use brushes, you could also, I dunno, write your own text!

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

You know, I found a community for them when I was looking for an example for Uly. I thought that they couldn't get any worse, and then I saw improperly aliased text brushes! (http://www.livejournal.com/community/touchoftext/11040.html). Which just goes to show that one should never think to themselves that it couldn't possibly be worse.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

hahahaha!

A sad thing for the world of icons.

[conuly]

What's a text brush?

[feathered.livejournal.com]

Behold the horror of text brushes. (http://www.livejournal.com/community/touchoftext/)

Brushes are things that one can download and use to decorate an icon. In the beginning, icon brushes were used for textures and borders, but lately the big craze has been to take a line from songs, poems, or greeting cards and turn it into a brush. It would kind of be like taking a block of text and making it into a stamp. I HATE icon brushes. They take away the last vestige of originality -- the text content and placement -- from the sheep among the icon makers. I realllly wish they'd never been thought of. It doesn't take THAT much effort to pick a font and a line of text and put it on, and it is one of the areas in which you can exercise the most control and creativity. Icons aren't really all that original to begin with; after all, you're using somebody else's picture, someone else's brushes, and usually someone else's words. It's how you do it that pushes the activity close to being "art," even if it is a kind of bastardized form. Text brushes take away the creativity, and make the process into mass production more than anything. I would even say that they degrade the activity as a whole, even if there are a lot of people who don't use them.

[/rant]

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Brushes are pre-made shapes that you can load into PS or PSP, and pick a color, and paint them on. They come in all sorts--some make it look grungy, some make it look patterned, or textured, or brighter, or darker.. And there are brushes that people have made by typing something in, like "sadness is a color" or some other poetic thing, and then post it for the world to download and paste on instantly. So there's people running around with icons that have the same phrase in the same size and same font.

Hm, I ramble. That might have made sense, though.

[prezzey.livejournal.com]

If a person with normal eyesight is unlikely to be able to read the text, don't you think it should be made a little larger? Maybe?

...and I'm on 1600*1200 with a 19" monitor so I have even less chance of reading'em, even the supposedly normal-sized ones. meh.

[leora.livejournal.com]

They use small text because they hate me.

[thetwistedsista.livejournal.com]

I wish I had more icons-but if I want a piad account-I need money. A month and bit's pocket money..but I think I have some birthday money owing still. Or I need to get a job which is difficult until next year, when I turn 16. ((All the jobs they advertise here are for 16+-something with insurance))
I don't like icons that look alike. There's this annoying style around...with light blue gradients, unreadable text, all in the same font ((I don't like the font they do those ones is. As much as Comic Sans)) and mainly Harry Potter ((the movies-never the books)) but it's speading to other fandoms. I dislike that style of icon anyway. Or people should try using more different styles. Originality is power, I say. And so if trifle!

[absurdixie.livejournal.com]

On my little free account, way down here, I can only have three icons. I feel your pain, I have SO many ideas and picture I want to use. I'd pay for a paid account but what with me hardly updating my journal I don't want to risk wasting my money. I'm a money-hog.

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever actually seen a tiny-text icon. I'd like to, just to see what all the hubbub (hub bub?) is about.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/archangel02/sexualtension.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v665/snowrooster/modernmafia.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/hadria25/CSI/Two/ot3_01.png

There, I went to a random community that allows anyone to post and pulled those out of the first few entries.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

(And I figure linking directly doesn't hurt anyone, because people simply viewing the community page take up more of their bandwidth than this does.)

[firingneurons.livejournal.com]

Wow... That's far more annoying than I had originally figured.

[phibby.livejournal.com]

That CSI one...oh man.

[lizziey.livejournal.com]

hey! all my icons look alike...then again, they are all the same twerp...