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Icon ideas


jamm

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It looks pretty good; but one thing to think about, is that something that looks good at that size is not necessarily going to scale well to the typical icon size.

 

Details like that USB symbol overlay probably won't survive scaling down.

 

Edited by MrFish
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USB actually is not part of RespeQt's functionallity.

 

Yes, it works with USB-Serial-Devices, like the mostly common FTDI232 chip.

 

But, RespeQt also works with a plain classic serial port connected to the motherboard. And of course Blue Tooth if needed.

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2 hours ago, atarixle said:

USB actually is not part of RespeQt's functionallity.

 

Yes, it works with USB-Serial-Devices, like the mostly common FTDI232 chip.

 

But, RespeQt also works with a plain classic serial port connected to the motherboard. And of course Blue Tooth if needed.

 

Yes, but I couldn't think of a clearer way of illustrating the idea of "connecting an Atari to a modern computer" than this.  Do you have any suggestions?

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Well... RespeQt already runs on the modern PC. Showing it on the icon IMO was redundant.

 

The SIO-Plug itself is ok, it represents what RespeQt "looks like" for the Atari: a SIO-device (disk-drive; printer)... and it'd scale well.

Edited by atarixle
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8 hours ago, _The Doctor__ said:

how about a Fuji stylized SIO plug in rainbow Rainbow color...

I agree with The Doctor. I really like the angled SIO plug. Angles always look better to me for some reason. Maybe a small, colored fuji on top of the plug? I'm not certain how it would scale down as a whole though.

 

Either way, I think it looks great.

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... on the other hand: an official web presentation of RespeQt could contain a SIO-plug (the RespeQt Icon) connected to USB and Serial icons.

 

all-in-all, the Atari 8 Bit has three iconic styles we can pick from: XL style, XE style, and Rainbow-style. RespeQt could come with a SIO plug in all three styles and the user gets the choice which one he uses with RespeQt.

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Well, here's another version to try.  Still haven't played with it at normal icon sizes (it'll definitely require some manual tweaking).

 

 

logo2.png

 

Personally, I think the version with the USB logo is more interesting visually, but I can see the arguments against it.

 

Edited by jamm
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2 hours ago, jamm said:

 

 

This might be the best option:

logo4.png

 

 

And this isn't pretty, but it's the most likely to survive being turned into a small icon:

logo5.png

 

I have to say, I love the one on the upper right.

 

And I despise both of the lower two!

 

Thanks for the hard work that is going into designing all these different options though!

 

Edited by bfollowell
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11 hours ago, jamm said:

Still haven't played with it at normal icon sizes

Thank you for all the work you do on the icon.

They all look great, indeed.

2 remarks:

- I really have problems choosing one of them without seeing them at the normal size. I am not a graphic designer so maybe working at very big sizes is the way to go but I need to see the final result with the real size icon on the desktop or even at 8x8 at the top left corner of the window.

- Why not having the bare SIO plug with, maybe, only the little screw in the middle. I have the feeling that an Atari logo, an Atari rainbow or an USB symbol are all redundant. I feel like it is too much and all these additions, even if they look great, thanks to you talent, add no information as the SIO plug on its own IS Atari and only Atari. Any current or past users seeing an SIO plug immediately recognize Atari. Is "Keep it as simple as possible" a best practice also in design?

Just my 2 cents but again, your work is greatly appreciated and other people may have a different point of view about additions.

 

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3 hours ago, ebiguy said:

Why not having the bare SIO plug with, maybe, only the little screw in the middle. I have the feeling that an Atari logo, an Atari rainbow or an USB symbol are all redundant. I feel like it is too much and all these additions, even if they look great, thanks to you talent, add no information as the SIO plug on its own IS Atari and only Atari. Any current or past users seeing an SIO plug immediately recognize Atari. Is "Keep it as simple as possible" a best practice also in design?

I agree with these comments.

 

Although it often seems that the rainbow colours are almost de rigueur for any icon design or user interface (it can be done... so let's put it in!), when we are already confronted with an instantly recognisable connector, I wonder if the rainbow and even the Fuji logo might be gilding the lily, so to speak. If we look at the Altirra icon design, we see the letter 'A' rendered in the Atari font, and overlaid with the rainbow effect. The 'A' on its own is ambiguous, but the fact it sports the rainbow colours suggests (to anyone remotely familiar with Atari computers) that the letter stands for 'Altirra' (and even connotes 'Atari'). The design somehow manages to transcend trends in OS design; it looks good alongside the flatter, modern icons on the Windows 10 task bar, and sits well on the macOS dock if run under WINE. It looked good on the Windows 7 task bar. It has aged well and is eye-catching without being distracting.

 

The purpose of the rainbow effect on the Altirra icon is therefore obvious. It's difficult to infer 'emulation' in a simple illustration. With RespeQt, however, we have a ready-made universal symbol for Atari SIO.

 

I'm still liking the plain, unadorned SIO connector posted my MrFish in the other thread too.

Edited by flashjazzcat
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While I agree that the SIO plug is enough to say "Atari" in users' minds, and I agree that keeping things simple is a good choice, I think a straight SIO plug is too generic to serve as an official icon.  RespeQt doesn't have ownership of the SIO plug, and the SIO plug doesn't identify RespeQt.  The plug by itself does say "Atari 8bit communication", but without any styling at all, it says it in a generic way that doesn't suggest a specific application, use, or - for lack of a better word - "product".  It's like using a floppy disk icon: it makes sense as a reference to a function, like on a toolbar within in application, but as the icon for an application itself it lacks specificity.

 

Altirra's icon is a good example: the letter 'A' in that particular blocky shape is enough to be associated with "Atari", but adding the rainbow effect adds enough to make it reasonably unique to Altirra and not just "an Atari 'A'".  Another way to look at it is that it has a touch of styling - some intent at making it more than just a letter 'A' in Atari's 8bit font.

 

The examples above were an intent to make something that was just a little more than "an SIO plug", because I think that by itself shows no effort and no intent at making something even subtly unique to RespeQt.  The rainbow effect was an attempt to reflect back on RespeQt's current colorful icon.  I personally like it better without it.

 

A great solution would be for someone with more talent and/or time to take the SIO plug 'icon' and stylize it a bit to make it something a little unique, without necessarily mixing it in with any other symbols.

 

Lacking that, I think if you're happy with a plain, unadorned SIO plug, then I don't see any reason why you shouldn't use the one MrFish posted previously.  It's a very nice, clean picture of an SIO connector:

 

 

sio plug - 48x.png

 

 

 

 

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All good, reasonable points. :) I think with Altirra's icon, the final design drew almost unanimous approval. Doubtless through multiple iterations, a similarly popular design will emerge for RespeQt. It's definitely interesting seeing lots of different ideas floating around.

 

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6 hours ago, flashjazzcat said:

I agree with these comments.

 

Although it often seems that the rainbow colours are almost de rigueur for any icon design or user interface (it can be done... so let's put it in!), when we are already confronted with an instantly recognisable connector, I wonder if the rainbow and even the Fuji logo might be gilding the lily, so to speak. If we look at the Altirra icon design, we see the letter 'A' rendered in the Atari font, and overlaid with the rainbow effect. The 'A' on its own is ambiguous, but the fact it sports the rainbow colours suggests (to anyone remotely familiar with Atari computers) that the letter stands for 'Altirra' (and even connotes 'Atari'). The design somehow manages to transcend trends in OS design; it looks good alongside the flatter, modern icons on the Windows 10 task bar, and sits well on the macOS dock if run under WINE. It looked good on the Windows 7 task bar. It has aged well and is eye-catching without being distracting.

 

The purpose of the rainbow effect on the Altirra icon is therefore obvious. It's difficult to infer 'emulation' in a simple illustration. With RespeQt, however, we have a ready-made universal symbol for Atari SIO.

 

I'm still liking the plain, unadorned SIO connector posted my MrFish in the other thread too.

You are on to something, The SIO connector with the rainbow as the backdrop, this avoids issues and makes it work!

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Hello guys

 

12 hours ago, ebiguy said:

- Why not having the bare SIO plug with, maybe, only the little screw in the middle. I have the feeling that an Atari logo, an Atari rainbow or an USB symbol are all redundant. I feel like it is too much and all these additions, even if they look great, thanks to you talent, add no information as the SIO plug on its own IS Atari and only Atari. Any current or past users seeing an SIO plug immediately recognize Atari.

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

Sincerely

 

Mathy

 

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8 hours ago, jamm said:

Lacking that, I think if you're happy with a plain, unadorned SIO plug, then I don't see any reason why you shouldn't use the one MrFish posted previously.  It's a very nice, clean picture of an SIO connector

Exactly.

I like the @MrFish's SIO plug but I wanted to see what it could look in a stylized form.

Again, I am not a designer but starting from your work, I just added the central screw and the grip.

This is just a mockup under Gimp.

sioplug.png.070bb1423f1d4a53adecfd1f3d20079d.png

But I am not sure if I prefer this stylized version or the one from MrFish.

Edited by ebiguy
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2 hours ago, ebiguy said:

sioplug.png.070bb1423f1d4a53adecfd1f3d20079d.png

 

Even with this, I still prefer the SIO plug to be at a 45 deg angle. I'm not sure why, but it just looks better that way to me. Sort of the same way that landscaping that's all squares and right angles don't usually look as good to me I guess.

 

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