They are struggling to raise enough money for a proper memorial, can you please help?.
A fifth gross of icons listed in the order in which I found them. If you’ve come across any icons in your travels, please send ’em to me.
alexisbarbosa.com
This favicon is the first letter of the baby’s name, using the same font and color as the masthead. At first,
I thought the letter was a bit too fuzzy, but then thought that was pretty appropriate for a baby’s site! :)
sizes: 16
wellsfargo.com
I think you’re pretty fortunate when your corporate colors fit within a 16 color palette. This favicon picks
up the two key letters from the logo rather than trying to squeeze the entire name into an icon. The colors keep
the associate back to the real icon.
sizes: 16, 32
beemo.org
For being just a single, blue line, I like this one. The blue color ties in very nicely with the strong blue
used on the site. If I use my imagination, I can actually make out each letter in “beemo” within
the icon shape…I wonder if that’s intentional…
sizes: 16
barney-thomson.com
This one is spooky! Reminds me of Hitchcock for some reason. Given the subject matter of these books, an eye wide
open in fear is a perfect icon. It looks great in 32px and reduces to 16px in the browser quite nicely.
sizes: 32
bluesnews.com
I really like the logo for the site; the shades and goatee fit the image of the site well. Unfortunately, I think
too much of the logo was brought into favicon. Specificially, the border around the face makes the icon too busy
especially when you see that it’s trying to convey the same tilted look as the main logo. Leaving that out
would have allowed the facial image to stand out more, maybe even be a bit larger.
sizes: 16
drakemusicscotland.co.uk
A music–oriented site gets a musical note, right? Well, this one makes even more sense. The note is used to
spell the name in the logo and the great orange color comes from the site masthead. Nice job.
sizes: 16
johnwesleybarker.madasafish.com
The site is a lot of black & white, so this image of the horse fits right in. I’m not sure how the horse fits
in but, being a personal site, I’m sure there’s a story in there somewhere. The horse image is recognizable,
but a little blurry for my tastes.
sizes: 16
pbs.org
I can remember seeing the PBS logo all the way back to my Sesame Street days as a kid, very memorable logo. It works
just as well on a white background or a black background, so I don’t understand why they tried to squeeze it
into a black circle for their favicon. Sticking with a white background would have let them avoid the circle image
and left more room for the logo itself; as it is, there’s only 8px of room for the logo. Just makes it too
blurry, in my opinion. And then there’s the 32px version…it looks like they took the 16px version and
stretched it rather than going the other way around. Lots of jagged edges.
sizes: 16, 32
washingtonpost.com
I’m not really sure where this “w” comes from; it’s not really used on the site anywhere
as a logo. Regardless, I think this is a little too blurry and nodescript. A simple grey circle would have worked
better than the 3D sphere effect they tried to create.
sizes: 16
freelance.com
These folks have a pretty interesting logo, but I think most of it gets lost as it gets reduced to the favicon. The
lines are just so thin it’s hard to distinguish anything; the contrasting orange color almost disappears
completely.
sizes: 16
ficml.org
For a site that provides XML tools, the image works out well. The colors match the overall color scheme and have a
nice contrast. I like the dotted border around the icon as well; adds a nice subtle edge.
sizes: 16
ccad.edu
A portion of the school’s “C” logo makes for an interesting favicon. The site has a nice, rich
red color as the background, too bad it wasn’t used for the icon color. Definitely a favicon that stands out.
sizes: 16
itcfonts.com
I have no idea where this favicon comes from, nothing on the site looks similar, but I like it a lot! The deeper
shades of the colors are nice and the quadrant layout adds some visual interest. I’m not sure where the
20px icon size comes from, but I’m glad the 32px version was included. They did a nice job of utilizing
the larger size well.
sizes: 16, 20, 32
visualthesaurus.com
This favicon shows a great method of making something look 3D without using drop shadows, which don’t
usually work in a small favicon. The colored balls look as though they are floating above the surface with the light
grey border. Having the colors interrupt the grey line give it a great 3D look.
sizes: 16
lukew.com
The site uses these pixel–people as a common theme throughout the site and the favicon made sense, but it
just didn't grab me that much. And then I saw the alternate sizes…very cool! Each icon takes advantage
of its size up to the 48px version which takes the image from the site logo.
sizes: 16, 32, 48
comics.com
I like the idea of using a talking “bubble” just like they do in the comics. This is an adapted
version of their logo with just the letter “c” instead of trying to spell out the entire name, smart
choice. The colors are really nice and bright. I just don’t understand why the larger size icons use so
little of the space available and present just a 16px image. The 16 color versions are pretty messy and the
colors could use a little touch up.
format: ICO
Design Principles (resource.reh3.com)
A nice favicon that uses the first letter of the site name and the background color used on the site. Another nice
dotted border adds a little flair. The curved part of the letter is a little blurry, especially when
compared to the strong vertical line.
format: GIF saved as ICO
rasterweb.net
The site uses an interesting italics-like, pixel font for the name in the masthead, and the first letter is used
for the favicon. On it’s own, I wouldn’t know that it’s the letter “R” because of the
slanted effect, but that doesn”t really matter. It translates well as a favicon because of the pixel–based
design.
format: ICO
cercleweb.com
I know this is a web design company and they use people as the main image on their site, but I’m not sure why
they are using a woman’s eye as their favicon. Having said that, the image looks great and is very clear.
Almost looks like that eye is staring right at you.
format: ICO
greens.org.nz
This favicon is an adaptation of the logo and leaf image used throughout the site. I like they way they used just
the leaf image as the favicon; it left the leaf large enough to be recognizable. If they had tried to incorporate
the letter “G” and the leaf image it would have been ruined.
format: ICO
moodle.org
The first letter of the site’s logo, complete with mortar board on top of the “m”. The letter has
clean edges and looks good. I’m amazed that the mortar board is recognizable after being srunk this much, but it
is. The transparent background is a nice touch as well.
format: ICO
iblog.chubzz.com
This site’s logo is just a bit too busy to make it as a favicon. The shape and color are cool. But I think
either eliminating the white writing or including just the first lowercase “i” would have worked
much better.
format: ICO
gracenotworks.com
A miniature version of the site’s sheep logo. A good example of not trying to bring the entire logo over as a
favicon. Notice how the circle has dropped from the logo? If they had tried to include that as well, it would have
been a mess. Instead, they selected the main component, the sheep, and it works great. The green background ties
well to the rest of the site, whith some nice rounded edges and shadow effect.
format: ICO
altavista.com
Alta Vista’s logo, which is pretty cool itself, in miniature. They eliminated the 3D shading effect,
which is good, but the lines are so thin they end up a bit fuzzy/jagged.
format: ICO
alltheweb.com
I like this one! They’ve taken the colored circles from the site logo and rearranged them to fit into a
favicon. The darker border around each shape is a nice touch and makes them look like much more than just plain
circles.
format: ICO
ebgames.com
To fit their logo into a favicon, they put the image on an angle. Unfortunately, I think it’s still trying
to do too much in such a small space. Actually, if they had dropped the colored edge around the letters, it might
have worked much better. Looking at the site, it looks like their logo might have changed recently. The new logo
might translate better.
format: ICO
onpaintball.ca
When I first saw this favicon, it looked pretty cool; good colors, interesting shape, etc. And then I saw the original
logo and I was surprised that it turned out so good. The original is a pretty complex image, with a white maple leaf
in the center and borders around the colored shapes. They all translated reasonably well to the favicon without
making the result blurry or difficult to see.
format: ICO
computertime-az.it
format: ICO
pixeltable.com
format: ICO
davextreme.com
format: ICO
furl.net
format: ICO
bullterriers.maratz.com
sizes: 32
maratz.com
format: ICO
webdesign.maratz.com
format: ICO
01b.com
format: ICO
biroco.com
format: ICO
blueplaidshirt.com
I had my fingers cross when I saw the name of this site, hoping that there would be a good favicon…I
wasn’t disappointed! If I had done this icon, I would have messed it up by using a complicated plaid pattern
with very straight lines. By keeping the pattern simple the color blue is emphasized, which is important. Also
by adding a slight wrinkle or wave to the pattern, it actually looks like part of a shirt. Very nice!
format: ICO
buttonmonkey.com
format: ICO
atomicmedia.net
sizes: 16
digitalwind.com
I like the way this icon carries off the site name in a very different way. Adapted from the dandelion image in the
masthead, you can almost see this seedling blowing in the wind. The image has been simplified to work as a favicon
yet still retains enough detail to be interesting. Background color also matches the site masthead. Wish there
was a 32px version to go with it with either more details or a second seedling…
format: ICO
pustekuchen.de
I’m not really sure what this site is about (I had horrible German teachers in college), but the icon images
are very familiar. The arrow is a little thin and gets lost at smaller sizes. The background is white, but
doesn’t fill up the entire icon space, so background colors sneak through on the sides. I think the orange
color along the left edge is from some text that didn’t survive the transformation to an icon. If the color
needed to be there, I think a solid line would have worked better.
sizes: 16, 32, 48
aplus.co.yu
Taken directly from the site logo, this favicon is used throughout the site (header, bullet list, etc.). Clean,
simple and easy to read with a nice transparent background. It would be interesting to see how this would look if
it were larger (very little of the 16px space is used) and if it used the color scheme from the site instead of
just black & white.
format: ICO
vkl.de
This favicon suffers because the logo itself is crowded to begin with and uses very thin lines. The
full 32px version isn’t too bad, but is still rough around the edges due to the limited 16 color pallette.
Once the logo shrinks to 16px, however, it’s not readable at all. Maybe the red background with just a white
triangle would have worked better for the smaller size.
sizes: 32
minimal8.co.uk
This site emphasizes minimalist design and, therefore, has a pretty minimalist favicon. Just a simple number 8,
using the same color the site uses to make things stand out. The site uses a different font for the logotype; I
wonder if the favicon would have looked using that font? Would have given it a bit more character, but that may be
against the minimalist approach.
format: ICO
strandheiraten.de
This site documents a couple’s journey through their wedding and honeymoon, so the favicon is…wedding
rings! The rings look good, especially given the intricacy of the image. A little fuzzy, but not bad.
format: ICO
audiomensch.com
The hip, shades–wearing, upside–down musical note is the company’s logo. In its large form for the
site masthead, it looks good. But I think the color is just too pale for it to work well as a favicon. The note
tends to blend into the white background quite a bit. It works, just a stronger color would make it better.
format: ICO
chantalstainedglass.50megs.com
I love this one. Really captures the essence of stained glass. The colors are really bright with nice variation in
each color (much nicer than just uniform colors), especially against the black borders. My only disappointment is that
there isn’t a 32px version; it would be nice to see what could be done in a slightly larger size.
format: ICO
classicmotorsports.net
The magazine uses a pretty distinctive font for its logotype and the arrangement of the 2 letters is nice. The
font uses too many thin lines to translate well into a favicon.
format: ICO
wilwheaton.net
A self’portrait drawing of Wil Wheaton; is his forehead really that big? :) The background color from the
site to frame the picture. Very recognizable, not from the sense that it really looks like him, but that it’s
easy to pick out when displayed in the browser.
format: ICO
carlbanks.triplehelix.info
Beaker! My favorite Muppet growing up has a prominent place on this experimental site. He also makes an appearance
as the favicon. On its own, it would be hard to tell it’s Beaker; the image is just a little too small and
a little too blurry.
format: ICO
mathibus.com
This favicon is great because it picks up 2 strong design elements from the masthead. The yellow flower contrasts
well against the strong, dark blue background. Very nice.
format: ICO
flummel.com
Another nice flower favicon. The colors are nice and look like they match those used in the site design, but
otherwise it doesn’t really connect to anything else on the site. I really like the way it’s cropped
on the left and top. A good clear image and nice job overall.
format: ICO
goatrance.de
The site appears to be about some sort of dance/rave thing and the favicon of people dancing is a good choice. The
32px version is great with some really interesting colors; almost a gradient effect. The 16px version is a good
reduction, but I think it would work better if the “Go” lettering was removed from the background.
Notice how the person on the left almost disappears into the letter? Those letters are fine in the 32px version,
where there’s more room, but I think it clutters up the smaller version.
format: ICO
goatrance.de
I’m never a big fan of trying to fit entire words into a favicon. There just usually isn’t enough
room to end up with something legible. This one is half–and–half. The “GOA” works out
okay, but the bottom half just isn’t legible. The colors are nice choice and there’s even a gradient
background, but you just can’t see it with everything else going on.
format: ICO
fuerboeck.at
This is a good example of using a cultural symbol for a site. According to the site owner, this letter “L”
is the symbol used for all Austrian driving schools. It’s incorporated into a few places in the site, but is
really indedpendent of the design for a reason. Good use of a meaningful symbol to communicate purpose.
format: ICO
elfshot.com
I’m not quite sure what this is depicting, however, it works well as a favicon. The green color matches the
logotype from the site and the dark background comes from the dark background on the site. The icon also has a nice
transparent background.
format: ICO
linus-im-web.com
At its full 32px size, I think this favicon works out okay. It’s still a lot of text to fit into 32px, but
it’s legible. Once the browser reduces it to 16px, however, it’s no longer readable and gets too messy.
The icon isn’t reinforced by anything on the site either, to improve recognition.
sizes: 32
knightriders.de
An adaptation of the group’s logo, emphasizing the year they were founded. Although some detail is lost
when it’s reduced to 16px in the browser, it still is very recognizable and legible.
sizes: 32
bike-and-music-weekend.de
A person on a motorcycle, capturing the purpose of the site, with a nice homemade feel to it. Some of the colors are
lost when it’s reduced to 16px in the browser, but the picture is still very clear. Nice transparent background.
sizes: 32
gapersblock.com
A small red star with black background taken from the colors used on the site, which has a very newspaper feel to it.
There are red stars in the masthead, but they have 6-points rather than the 5-points used in the favicon. I like
the icon with its stark red-on-black colors, I wish the star was a bit bigger, though. It’s only 8px tall
and there’s a lot of space left around it. There’s also a white border around the icon, which reduces
the amount of space available for the primary symbol.
format: ICO
squidfingers.com
At first I thought this was a fish, but after thinking about the site name, realized that it must be a squid. I like
the bright blue against the black background. The blue is similar to the bright color used on the site itself; the
site switches to a brown background instead.
format: GIF
iliveonyourvisits.com
This bare–bones favicon matches the bare–bones feel of the site with grey–on–grey colors. The
site throws in a splash of bright pink for contrast; might have been nice to see that show up in the favicon as well.
format: GIF saved as ICO
waferbaby.com
format: GIF
cookiecrook.com
This looks like it might be 2 letter c's surrounding each other, with some interesting cropping. The end result is a
pretty cool visual effect. Looks like it’s using a key color from the site, but the favicon itself doesn’t
show up anywhere else.
format: GIF
skinnyj.com
Living up to the site name, this is definitley a skinny, little letter “J”. A great color and nice
border effect with some rounded corners. One of the better uses of a transparent background that I’ve seen. The
area between the outside grey border and the red square is transparent. Very cool! The red color is nice as well.
Unfortunately, looks like the site has gone through a redesign recently and has lost its favicon. Too bad.
format: GIF
larsholst.info
The main site has an airline/airport theme with various shades of blue. This favicon is a perfect match. Nice dark
border around the favicon as well.
format: GIF
larsholst.info
This one is pretty interesting. The site has a lot of subtle, vertical lines running throughout the background image.
Looking closer, you can see that the lines could be a barcode, which is what the favicon looks like to me. Pretty
interesting to use the theme from the background without actually using the background image.
format: GIF
bensaunders.com
Ben is an an athelete, adventurer and motivational speaker. The site masthead has amazing photography of Ben’s
adventures, and the favicon is taken from one of those pictures. Perfect choice. The file is a PNG graphic saved
with a .GIF extension; I think IE users will miss out on this great image as a result.
format: PNG saved as GIF
blurbomat.com
I don’t know what it is about this dingbat, taken from the site masthead, but I really like it. Nice shades
of green, used in the site design as well.
format: GIF
overcaffeinated.net
A reduced version of the logo from the site using the nice brown colors from the site. The favicon is a pixelized
version of the logo, which makes it a little rougher than the original.
format: ICO
skyzyx.com
The first letter of the site name with an interesting font. The font comes from the site’s “classic”
theme, so you may not see it when you first visit. The letter is a little blurry, but not bad. I wonder if using
inverse colors would have allowed more room and clarity for the letter. Regardless, it’s a nice, distinctive
letter to use as a favicon.
format: ICO
oswego.edu
A great favicon for a university: a mortarboard! This one uses the school colors and looks nice.
format: ICO
charlottesweb.nl
It’s a little, purple shoe! Shoes must be something that Charlotte likes; there are shoes in the site masthead
and shoes in the favicon. The favicon is a little on the fuzzy size, but is still easy to recognize. The purple
color matches the site name in the masthead as well.
format: ICO
london-underground.blogspot
A nice homemade favicon for Going Underground's blog that fits the homemade feel of the site. The letter “U”
looks a little cut off as they ran out of room. Maybe eliminating the shadow would have allowed enough room for
both letters. The colors don’t really match anything on the site.
format: ICO
smudo.org
format: ICO
novell.com
Novell’s single letter logo, the big N. Good use of a transparent background behind the simple shape. A 32px
image is defined in the ICO file, but it’s blank.
format: ICO
redhat.com
Redhat’s great logo highlighting their namesake. This is one of those icons that I’m amazed that it
can look this good with just 16 colors. Wish they had included a 32px version as well, would have looked great.
format: ICO
codeproject.com
sizes: 16, 32
quotationspage.com
format: ICO
rocketstarcafe.com
This is a very cool icon of a rocket moving through space. As cool as it is, though, I think a lot of the
image is lost in the 16px version. There’s just too much detail in this icon to survive the transition.
The colors are awfully similar as well, which leaves the 16px kinda blurry. Despite that, the larger versions are
awesome!
sizes: 16, 32, 48
screenz.de
format: ICO
tmxcommunications.com
format: ICO
danesp.dk
format: ICO
execit.dk
format: ICO
starwood.com
format: ICO
newstoday.com
format: ICO
pixelplain.com
format: ICO
pillowhead.net
format: ICO
addict.hu
format: ICO
blogpocket.com
format: ICO
almaren.ch
format: ICO
fs.fed.us
format: ICO
circuitcity.com
format: ICO
infosion.de
format: ICO
monster.com
format: ICO
noscope.com
format: ICO
rhapsodic.org
format: ICO
sporkle.com
format: ICO
stundesign.net
format: ICO
wrensoft.com
format: ICO
jasmeet.net
format: ICO
icelandicnationalteam.com
format: ICO
badnarik.org
format: ICO
en.helldesign.pl
format: ICO
sonnenvogel.com
format: ICO
plaxo.com
format: ICO
blastradius.com
format: ICO
bernzilla.com
format: ICO
natural-nutrition.me.uk
format: ICO
ithium.net
format: ICO
netfirms.com
format: ICO
blangstrup.org
format: ICO
blangstrup.org
format: ICO
frozencherry.de
format: ICO
georgehernandez.com
format: ICO
autos.msn.com
format: ICO
defencemechanism.com
format: ICO
nolimit-studio.com
sizes: 32
hill-kleerup.org
format: ICO
stefanbucher.net
format: ICO
thetalentshow.org
sizes: 16, 32
drweb.de
The site’s logo with the colors inversed from the site design. It’s a simple graphic that translates well
to a favicon, but I think I like the yellow graphic on the black background better. By the way, thanks to the
site owners for linking to the gallery…the number of hits from this site has been amazing!
sizes: 16, 32
godaddy.com
Go Daddy’s icon does much better as a 32px icon than it does as a 16px icon. The face is still pretty
legible at the small 16px size, but the extra graphical elements coming off of the head just get too blurry
and confuse the picture too much. It’s a cool icon, it just doesn’t quite look as good when it
shrinks to the favicon size.
sizes: 32
squarespace.com
Reminicent of Stopdesign’s original logo, Squarespace has 2 interwoven letters, tilted for a nice
effect. I really like the use of a transparent background for this icon, it really makes it look nice. The 32b
color scheme version even has a nice shadow effect. The green colors also tie in nicely to the colors used
throughout the site.
sizes: 16
faithink.com
The site’s logo looks like a wax seal or a hand drawn circle with a cross in it. I like the logo; it has a
distinctive look and gets the point across. The cross gets a little lost in the favicon, though, because it’s
so small. The real thing I’m curious about is the choice of gray as the favicon color. The site has a great
use of purple throughout and is used for the site logo; I think purple would have worked better.
sizes: 16
sequenz.ch
sizes: 16
maurobartoccelli.com
sizes: 16
mozillanews.org
sizes: 16
discuss.pcmag.com
sizes: 16
forumad.net
sizes: 16
iosart.com
sizes: 16
tabasco.com
sizes: 16
newbeetle.org
sizes: 16, 32, 48
design-kulture.ro
sizes: 16
alexisrael.com
sizes: 16, 32
baltimoresun.com
sizes: 16, 32
ferrydust.com
sizes: 16
forrestwalker.com
sizes: 16
seattletimes.nwsource.com
sizes: 16
sensitivelight.com
sizes: 16
aclusc.org
sizes: 16, 32
asotavento.com.ar
sizes: 16, 24, 32
first-insight.com
sizes: 32
tradehero.com
sizes: 16, 32Comments to follow soon…so many icons, so little time.
© 2005 Michael P. Pierce. The creators of each favicon retain all rights and copyrights for their work.