Neo-Cubist Skull

Here’s a Shout Out from the Artist at Work

Apple WWDC 2010 Remembered

Does Steve Jobs really look like that? Well… that is how I see him.

Commemorating Google i/o 2010 and the Droid

Neo Cinco Sombrero

Celebrating Mexican heritage.

fm “News” Icon

More neocubist technology.

Note: Copyright ForthMedia, used here by permission.

“Design & Technology” Icon

Let’s call this an elaboration of the neocubist theme I’ve been working on for a while.

Like the cubist style invented by Picasso about a hundred years ago, there is a conscious rejection of vanishing lines of perspective. Perspective is a technique artists use to make things look real. Today, of course, if you want a realistic picture of something, you can take one. With your cell phone.

Gradients aside, these images are pretty flat. To give the image depth, you have to move things around inside the frame. Thank goodness for software with layers.

Using a paint brush to represent design, that’s pretty intuitive. How about that gear for technology? OK, you’re probably thinking: technology means computers, gadgets, the Internet. It used to mean something less knowledge-based. More primal. As Alvin Toffler once said, "Brute technology was designed for illiterates–which most of our ancestors were."

Gracenote, Brush, and Gear

Note: These images are copyright Forthmedia, and used here by permission.

Email

Email originated as a text-only way to exhange digital messages.

The Forthmedia office icons were created to give their web site a unique look. The icons have to scale down, and still convey what functionality they represent. I think the neo-cubist style makes them different from the usual doo-dads you see on the Internet. Whether they work as icons or not depends on whether people click on ‘em.

Computer

The web connects computers, laptops, netbooks, and intelligent devices.

Phone

More and more people are using cell phones as their only telephone.

Camera

Digital cameras have displaced film.

Fax

Businesses still use Fax. Gotta have this icon.

Note: These images are copyright ForthMedia, and used here by permission.

The Blueglow Icon Collection on Facebook

If you’ve been following along, you know these neo-cubist icons were being worked on for the better part of the year. The idea behind the "blueglow" project has been to craft a fresh, contemporary look for Forthmedia, without adhering too closely to what all the best web designers are doing. I did away with those rounded-off corners the day before public beta.

Along the way, social networking and mobile phone apps have become even further entrenched in the current zeitgeist. I’ve been playing with the Facebook app for iPhone, but it keeps telling me "This photo set contains no photos," which it does, so I’ll give you a link.

The Blueglow Icon Collection on Facebook

Anyway, this is what the Forthmedia doodads look like. I hope you can make out what they’re supposed to be. If not, I guess I’ll be tweaking them some more.