Famfamfam Redux
Okay, before I say anything, let me tell you that I do like the design of the Famfamfam Silk icons and I will be using them (as sparingly as possible) in my design. Now that I’ve said that, I can rant without any fear of being labelled a hypocrite later. But I have dabbled in using something else (despite being unable to find any other icon sets that are of as high quality as Famfamfam - for free).
But some web developers use famfamfam quite irresponsibly. In fact, they use it ALL over, including places where it just isn’t needed. True, the famfamfam icon set has 1,000+ icons - but do you REALLY need to find a way to use them all? Just a thought. But there is one other thought more scary and it doesn’t involve web developers, web designers or people who know anything at all about our industry.
What if the myspace crew finds them? You know, the people we all know that are not in the field of web design, claim to have “a non-ugly myspace layout” and like to put a million YouTube videos, coupled with background music in their profiles (one of the reasons why I love Facebook more). Well, THAT would be scary for the famfamfam crew. Since I joined the Open Directory Project, I have been seeing the kind of web design that takes place when people who don’t know what the hell they are doing.
Does this mean that I have considered other icon sets to use in my design? Yes. I’ve considered David Shea’s Chalkwork icon set, but US$125 is too rich for my blood. So I am going to continue using Famfamfam silk icons for now. But I will do so in a way that is responsible and not as tacky as some web developers use it.
Tags: Design