Custom Icon Style for MC-Market XenForo 2

[Mick]

Howdy folks,

I'm currently facing a bit of a design-related conundrum and so I figured the best solution would be to try and discuss the issue with a couple of our very talented designers in the community.

As many of you know, we've been working on updating MC-Market from XenForo 1 to XenForo 2 for a very long time. It's an absolutely huge project and we hope to have it finished within the next two to three months but given how large it is we can't give a solid date just yet. We're at a stage where the new board is being set up, a developer is designing the theme and a developer is porting over all of our existing custom addons.

In our new theme, I think that I want to incorporate a unique style of modern icons across the site in a few different places. I've scouted around for off-the-shelf icon sets but none fit my needs and I think that I want something commissioned from our community. I'm posting this in the design forum rather than illustration because I'm confident that some sort of modern vector design will fit the aesthetic we're going for better than drawn icons, but it's possible that drawn icons might work perfectly and it really just depends on the style.

I commissioned Rhos to try his hand at making an icon for our Minecraft Plugins resource category with this as the inspiration and he made these four options:

I'm extremely fond of the fourth one but nobody else in the staff team seems to be. I think that I'm after 3D vector icons but considering nobody else likes them I might just want flat icons or some unique style. I probably want about a dozen or two icons commissioned but we haven't fully decided what we want icons for. We're completely confident that we want custom icons made for our resource categories so we'll probably start there:

1. Minecraft plugins
2. Minecraft builds
3. Minecraft configs
4. Minecraft graphics
5. Minecraft setups
6. Minecraft websites
7. Minecraft models
8. Minecraft other
9. General graphics
10. General websites
11. General programs
12. General discord bots

So why am I posting this thread? I have a few questions for our designers:

1. Do you like the idea of us trying to come up with a style for icons to use across the site? To clarify, we'll still be using FontAwesome for the really small icons, but I'd like larger icons for navigating some parts of the site.
2. Do you have any ideas of what sort of style we should go for if we do have icons such as "something similar to how this website does it is cool"?
3. Do you have a good idea of what we should do and the skills to pull it off? Get in touch and lets work out a commission

Thanks folks, eager to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Mick

 

[Jasmine]

The ones you showed me personally are the best in my opinion. i love the simplicity with the color choices and how easy it is on the eyes. Much much much better than the 3D ones. These looks slightly 3D but not fully 3D but still has the overall vector style with color. My favorite hands down.

 

[Uluro]

You should keep it as it is while transitioning to the new thing.

 

[Ally]

Just keep it how it is and move to the new thingy

For the record, I agreed with you prior to you editing your low quality post

The ones you showed me personally are the best in my opinion. i love the simplicity with the color choices and how easy it is on the eyes. Much much much better than the 3D ones. These looks slightly 3D but not fully 3D but still has the overall vector style with color. My favorite hands down.

Where do these come from? They're quite nice.

 

[Jasmine]

For the record, I agreed with you prior to you editing your low quality post


Where do these come from? They're quite nice.

Mick linked me https://support.overwolf.com/en/support/home. They're ultra nice compared to his original #4 in the post :rofl:

 

[Gunny]

Howdy folks,

I'm currently facing a bit of a design-related conundrum and so I figured the best solution would be to try and discuss the issue with a couple of our very talented designers in the community.

As many of you know, we've been working on updating MC-Market from XenForo 1 to XenForo 2 for a very long time. It's an absolutely huge project and we hope to have it finished within the next two to three months but given how large it is we can't give a solid date just yet. We're at a stage where the new board is being set up, a developer is designing the theme and a developer is porting over all of our existing custom addons.

In our new theme, I think that I want to incorporate a unique style of modern icons across the site in a few different places. I've scouted around for off-the-shelf icon sets but none fit my needs and I think that I want something commissioned from our community. I'm posting this in the design forum rather than illustration because I'm confident that some sort of modern vector design will fit the aesthetic we're going for better than drawn icons, but it's possible that drawn icons might work perfectly and it really just depends on the style.

I commissioned Rhos to try his hand at making an icon for our Minecraft Plugins resource category with this as the inspiration and he made these four options:

I'm extremely fond of the fourth one but nobody else in the staff team seems to be. I think that I'm after 3D vector icons but considering nobody else likes them I might just want flat icons or some unique style. I probably want about a dozen or two icons commissioned but we haven't fully decided what we want icons for. We're completely confident that we want custom icons made for our resource categories so we'll probably start there:

1. Minecraft plugins
2. Minecraft builds
3. Minecraft configs
4. Minecraft graphics
5. Minecraft setups
6. Minecraft websites
7. Minecraft models
8. Minecraft other
9. General graphics
10. General websites
11. General programs
12. General discord bots

So why am I posting this thread? I have a few questions for our designers:

1. Do you like the idea of us trying to come up with a style for icons to use across the site? To clarify, we'll still be using FontAwesome for the really small icons, but I'd like larger icons for navigating some parts of the site.
2. Do you have any ideas of what sort of style we should go for if we do have icons such as "something similar to how this website does it is cool"?
3. Do you have a good idea of what we should do and the skills to pull it off? Get in touch and lets work out a commission

Thanks folks, eager to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Mick

The ones you showed me personally are the best in my opinion. i love the simplicity with the color choices and how easy it is on the eyes. Much much much better than the 3D ones. These looks slightly 3D but not fully 3D but still has the overall vector style with color. My favorite hands down.

Easily like what Jasmine posted here. Gosh those are some gorgeous icons.

That being said, I think having a small demo of the current redesign would be very beneficial for choosing what "fits".

 

[PixelMine]

Personally I love Rhos work and would love to see what he would do for the site. I think adding just a small hilights and slightly broadening the colour palette would give them some extra visual complexity that should improve their appeal.