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As a designer, I just want to say that if your instinct is to rag on these symbols for being incomprehensible, go ahead and try your hand at one or two. It may

As a designer, I just want to say that if your instinct is to rag on these symbols for being incomprehensible, go ahead and try your hand at one or two. It may be humbling. Illustrating abstract concepts that are similar to other, related abstract concepts is extremely difficult. Remember that it's got to be legible in a footprint of a couple dozen pixels on a side. When you're done, make sure it isn't close enough to any other AWS product symbols that customers would get confused. Also, run it by a committee of people who aren't designers, and are proud of that fact. If they are in a senior position, attempt to integrate their feedback, no matter how idiotic, into your design, because nobody's going to fight for a little thing like an icon symbol. I stopped making logos, it's a really difficult and thankless job. Designing apps for complex use cases is way simpler.

xuhu 3y ago
Not a fan of either, but Azure icons look like actual things: http://code.benco.io/icon-collection/azure-icons/ http://code.benco.io/icon-collection/azure-icons/ The AWS icons seem procedurally generated based on a hash of each concept's name.
- paulddraper 3y ago
  Yeah, limiting yourself to minor variations of a 3x3x3 cube is pretty rough. GCP shows you can have strong brand consistency (even a limited color palette) while still having decent illustrations [1]. [1] https://www.turbogeek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/word-image-4.png https://www.turbogeek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/word-...
  - bravura 3y ago
    I didn't expect this when I clicked on the comment thread, but yeah, GCP has the best icons and its design element is the secret hero of the story.
racked 3y ago
> I stopped making logos, it's a really difficult and thankless job. Just ask more money for it then :-)
myaccountonhn 3y ago
But in the case of aws it’s so bad, why even have an icon at all?

xuhu 3y ago

Not a fan of either, but Azure icons look like actual things: http://code.benco.io/icon-collection/azure-icons/ http://code.benco.io/icon-collection/azure-icons/ The AWS icons seem procedurally generated based on a hash of each concept's name.

paulddraper 3y ago
Yeah, limiting yourself to minor variations of a 3x3x3 cube is pretty rough. GCP shows you can have strong brand consistency (even a limited color palette) while still having decent illustrations [1]. [1] https://www.turbogeek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/word-image-4.png https://www.turbogeek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/word-...
- bravura 3y ago
  I didn't expect this when I clicked on the comment thread, but yeah, GCP has the best icons and its design element is the secret hero of the story.

racked 3y ago

> I stopped making logos, it's a really difficult and thankless job. Just ask more money for it then :-)

myaccountonhn 3y ago

But in the case of aws it’s so bad, why even have an icon at all?