I have opened up shop! Icon Kitchen is my pet project. Mmh…finger-lickin’ good STOCK ICONS at palatable prices.

I am finally unveiling my pet project for 2010: Icon Kitchen.

Everybody seems to have a pet project these days. Many have started a “xxx a day” type of blog (a logo a day, a drawing a day…) but that’s something I couldn’t keep up for sure.
It seems natural for an icon designer to open a stock icon store so I did it.

I worked real hard to create the first icon set, SEO Icons. Creating 100 icons, optimized for 7 sizes and packaged in 3 formats (.ico, .icns and .png) is quite an undertaking. I am mostly satisfied with the result and I learned a lot about icon sets. The next ones will be better and better (stay tuned).

Then it was time to make the website.
I tinkered around with it for a while but the design coalesced quite fast. Thankfully!
What you see now is only a temporary static page to cover me while I work on the WordPress version. For now it serves the purpose as there’s only one icon set to buy. In fact I am forced to say that the whole e-commerce stuff is quite new to me and I haven’t been able to implement the real-time delivery of the icons. I will process each order as soon as possible and I apologize in advance if any of you will have to wait a few hours to receive your download.
When the website runs on WordPress I’ll be sure to activate a proper e-commerce system which will immediately send each customer the download link. For now bear with me as I learn the ropes.

The portrait

Back to the design. I knew I wanted to depart from Cute Little Factory’s polished style while keeping key elements to reinforce my brand. I took my controversial caricature and added some more real-life garments to turn myself into a Chef:

Do I really own an apron like that you ask? Of course! I am wearing it right now.
The toque was painted with my trusty Intuos tablet (I hope you got one for Valentine’s Day).

The background

Second graphic element: the tablecloth.
I want my kitchen to be friendly, warm and affordable. None of that fancy schmancy cuisine crap. If you know what a trattoria is you know the kind of place I was aiming to emulate.

I didn’t want to overdo the soup kitchen graphic metaphor so there’s no real tablecloth, just a background pattern. The same goes for any kitchen utensils I might have included: they would have been too literal.

I wanted the icons to take the stage so the graphics had to be as subdued as my flamboyant style would allow. I had lots of fun painting the scroll of parchment.

The header

The header is an experiment: whereas all the other stock icons stores have a clean, company-like look, Icon Kitchen immediately establishes a friendlier, more reachable image.
I tried to create a clear reading path. From the title (1) you go to my portrait (2). Then the arrow points to the preview of the current icon set (3). Its background color and width match the tagline next to the title: Mmh…finger-lickin’ good STOCK ICONS by ANDREA AUSTONI (4).

I’m quite proud of this header. I think it’s fun and clever. I also love the copy. Whatever…

The typography

The typography is not elaborate because the main typeface is so striking that it does all the work: the Phaeton font by Kevin Cornell & Randy Jones.
This font reeks of old restaurant menus. I had to use it! Look at those wonderful swashes. Awesome work guys! (Read more about it)

The body is set in Palatino (Linotype), a good old serif that doesn’t look as good as Georgia on screen but doesn’t look as modern either. I love Georgia, you see it everywhere here on CLF, but Icon Kitchen called for a more quaint-looking typeface.

The layout

Aside from the header, which is final, the rest of the website is still up for grabs, in a way.
I don’t really like how the content is stacked up plus the menu scroll is boring placed like that. I don’t know what I will eventually come up with for the WordPress version.
I know this header will only appear on the homepage so I have to figure out a way to register another header for the internal pages. They will have to include a home link for sure (you can click on the title but it’s better to be explicit).
I will try to avoid the sidebar but actually it can be useful for storing a bunch of links to secondary pages like terms of agreement, post lists and so on. I am open to suggestions and any WordPress and e-commerce related help is appreciated.

Conclusion

All in all I’m quite happy to have gone this far with this project. It’s not complete and it’s not smooth but it was important to ship it as soon as possible.
Header over to Icon Kitchen and download the SEO Icons sampler: you’ll be able to enjoy some of the icons in your personal projects and of course you’re welcome to buy the whole set anytime.
My intention is to always offer a sampler to go with the full set so you can try out my icons before you buy them. What if they don’t work in your project? It would be stupid to buy them.

Now it’s your turn: do you have a pet project?