WoltLab – Community Icons 1 (2007)

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Community Icons 1

Pixel Icon Set for WoltLab GmbH (July 2007)

The first official set of unique and special icons for the large software ecosystem and marketing needs of WoltLab GmbH (Berlin/Germany). I started working on this icon set in July 2007 along with the work on the commercial WoltLab Community Software bundle containing WoltLab Community Framework and the discussion board software WoltLab Burning Board 3, and eventually finished in 2010, just before work on the next major version of the software was started.

This icon set was meant to replace the previously used purchased stock icons and to be used intensively everywhere. It was done using Macromedia Freehand 9/10, Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Fireworks and uses a reduced form of Skeuomorphism (which was state-of-the-art back then), trying to maintain a realistic look, while looking slightly playful and cartoonish. Some icons had to be reduced more, depending on their intended use and location.

Each icon was created in 9 resolutions, from the largest with 512 px to the smallest size of 16 px. There were a number of additional smaller overlay icons, to indicate specific functions or information. This allowed the icons and overlays to be combined to create new icons as needed.

Together with the overlays, the set consisted of about 500 symbols, though many of which were never used and some were never completed. When WoltLab Burning Board 4 was developed, we switched to a redesigned, mostly monochrome Icon set in vector SVG format and this icon set was abandoned.