Making an icon is difficult

Typically, if I need (or want) a certain icon, I’ll dig through the tons and tons of free icon libraries to find what I’m looking for. Usually I can alter it from there if need be. But starting from scratch is a different story. I don’t have the graphic talents needed to make icons myself, or really any image that requires working at the pixel level.

Earlier this week I wanted to put an arrow-ish series of images for a “bread crumbs” trail at the top of a page. Getting the appropriate CSS classes on the list items went smoothly (is it the first? is it the first with nothing trailing? is it the last? is it a middle item? etc). But concerning the graphics, nothing looked right. I eventually just accepted my inability to create nice-looking icon-esque images. I’m not satisfied with them, but I’m afraid I’ve done the best I can.

I won’t even go into logos. Not only are they demanding graphically, but defining a logo design is near impossible [for me]. Well, a logo that has actual meaning that is.

So I tip my hat to icon and logo designers—it truly is an extremely challenging part of design.