Design
New one-size-fits-all Ovi icons
By Mike on 09 September 2008
GLOBAL – In the land of technology it’s often the smallest detail that can attract great attention, and the newly fashioned Ovi icons are case in point – well internally at least, with their arrival sparking heaps of interesting comments and discussion. Designed from the ground up by the Service User Interface Design (SUID) team within Nokia Design, headed up by Daniel Peterson, these new icons debut in today’s video demos of Ovi found at http://events.nokia.com.
But what’s most significant is that this fresh collection of crafted pixel art won’t be shackled solely to Ovi – this new icon style will ripple across to Nokia devices, and begin to appear on handsets and platforms of all shapes and surprises. But a one-size-fits-all approach to a fine detail such as this, across a company with so many people and products as Nokia, requires serious collaboration and shared visions.
Then there’s the challenge of designing a set of icons that are instantly recognizable on any digital canvas and in any country. Not that our brains in England are wired any differently from those in Egypt, however our cultural programming means we inevitably interpret things in a slightly altered way. No? The SUID team responsible have been working closely with the Ovi team to ensure the icons are as universally friendly as possible, and to my eye they look pretty sharp. What do you think?
Getting these icons established as universal within Nokia products and services isn’t going to be easy. Aapo Bovellan, one of the key members of the Ovi team, is one of many within Nokia ensuring this a pixel perfect vision becomes a reality, rallying internal troops to ensure anything in development is born with these icons integrated, whilst at the same time encouraging existing services to adopt these bright new badges. It’s amazing to witness the amount of collaboration required to deliver the tiniest detail, but the results are worth it. Aren’t they?
Of course, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of the design process it goes much deeper than this. With that in mind we’ve arranged to chat with Daniel Peterson later this week to find out how he and his team go about overcoming the design hurdles faced in a project such as this. Watch this space for a video interview, which we’ll set live early next week.
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Tags | conversations, Icons, Nokia, ovi, SUID
September 10th, 2008 at 11:16 am
The icons are a great step forward. Nokia phones specially need this kind of specially crafted visual look throughout. But I do think the general feel is quite playful and sort of “Fischer Pricy” in contrast to a perhaps more contemporary and sleeker tone of some other icons we’ve seen.
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September 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Hmm. i was expecting a new style from Nokia to be slightly more professional looking. While these will look good at small size’s. At larger sizes these will look really too basic and to be honest, rather unattractive. I know it’s a big job replacing *all* the icons on a mobile phone, but simplyfying this much is a bit of a joke in my mind. Come on Nokia, you can do better!
Where is the identity? where is the Nokia DNA? These could be any company’s icons. Not impressed.
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September 24th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Another Nokia style BIG bullshit marketing attempt.. – Fresh icons, don’t you think? – NO! – I DON’T think so! They look like crap!
These look more like a children drawings to me rather than professional icons. – C’mon, it’s the 2008 we’re living. Seems like poor design management.
About the style or identity. Why does some of the icons have gradients and others just solid colors with diagonal dividers (not all)… Hmm.. The key word is CONSISTENCY!!! Or rather lack of it!
Compare iPhone icons style with this set. Which of the set has personality, identity and modern look to them? Hmm.. – A tough one…
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September 24th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Ok, What ore the metaphors on these Icons?
Phonebook? Navigator? (Polaroid) Camera? Puzzle? Audio Book? Games? Picture folder?
Any other interpretations?
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September 25th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Any news on when the interview will be available?
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October 1st, 2008 at 12:25 pm
“we’ve arranged to chat with Daniel Peterson later this week to find out how he and his team go about overcoming the design hurdles faced in a project such as this. Watch this space for a video interview, which we’ll set live early next week.”
Where’s the link?
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October 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
For certain reasons that will be clear tomorrow, the interview goes live, uh, tomorrow (Friday).
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October 3rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Top Nokia designer talks icons, devices, and freedom
ESPOO, Finland – We finally managed to sit down with Daniel Peterson, Head of Digital Identity from Nokia Design’s Service UI Design group. His team deals with the user interface graphics across Nokia’s software, services, and devices. The bulk of
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March 21st, 2009 at 4:47 pm
if there’s one reason i hate this fone, it wud be its weird icons.. i was already too disappointed to see 5800’s icons n n97 makes me more disappointed.. it luks like more than a decade old..
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