Since recently, Google has a new favicon, a small icon that appears in the address bar of the browser, that's shown if you've added Google to your favorites. It seems a little clumsily designed and there's been quite some debating on the web. Now Google has invited people to contribute themselves: design the Google Favicon!On top of that Google also gives you a few concrete tips on how to design your favicon:
Here are the technical requirements for your submission:
- resolution: 16 pixel x 16 pixel image
- format: .png, .gif, or .ico
- size: 5 KB
- transparency: 32 bit alpha transparency
After hundreds of iterations, our design team reached the following insight: creating a favicon is really difficult. Here is some of the related wisdom we’ve acquired that might help you create your own successful design.
- Make the shape and profile visible. We’ve found that semi-transparent graphics, specifically 32-bit alpha transparency, work best. Incorporate some or all of the letters in “Google.”
- Utilize the primary colors that are used in the Google logo. We’ve found that monochromatic designs tend to work best with blue; yellow is too light and doesn’t provide enough contrast, and red looks like an error.
- Avoid being product specific. The favicon should apply well to many different Google products and devices (e.g., mobile, PC).
- Be timeless. The favicon shouldn’t date itself or be time-specific. Send us a design that you think will last.
Future Vision by Erwin Van Lun on this article
The favicon is becoming an increasingly important element of the visual brand identity. Once a window is opened to the brand, but you’re active in a different window, often you’ll only see that site’s favicon. Furthermore the favicon is shown on many more places, like in RSS readers. And the use will only increase, for example for mobile applications for which the screens are already small and they can give you an overview of your favorite pages (brands) with their favicons.
Today the favicon is receiving relatively little attention. Too often the favicon is a shrunken version of the brand’s logo with horrific results. Because the logo isn’t designed for 16x16pixels. The earliest Google favicon was pretty strong (just the G in the typical Google colors), but maybe they deliberately chose such an ugly favicon to create some buzz.
By letting users design with them, Google increases their involvement with the brand. People feel flattered that they’re allowed to send something in at all, especially if it’s treated seriously thereafter. That person will be given eternal fame. Online-only brands like Google are at the forefront of this development.
This is how brands can involve consumers with the development of their visual brand identity. Now for something as small as the favicon, but in the long term also with other elements. Logo not excepting. The head office will facilitate rather than dictate. It’s part of the brand coming out: the decay of barriers between producer and consumer that every brand has to deal with and has to find a good mode for.