Icons and individuality

[norwich36]

I was thinking of doing that meme that's been going around, where you ask people on your f-list to post pictures of people to represent their mental image of you, but then I thought that since something like 70% of the icons I use on a regular basis (including my default) are of Chloe Sullivan, that's probably the mental picture most people have of me.

And then I saw this interesting post linked on metafandom, in which the poster talks about getting confused when different people on her f-list used the same icons, and it reminded me that I wanted to do a poll on people's different icon philosophies, because I am curious.


[Poll #816425]



I've had some conversations in the past with various folks, especially bop_radar, about how I never used to really see icons. That was largely due to the fact that I still have dial-up at home, and my desktop computer has a very slow processor, so I often read lj with the graphics turned off, for better speed. But even when I did have the graphics turned on, I was still rather text-centered rather than picture-centered. I would occasionally notice really cool icons, but mostly I didn't notice icons at all, and I remember being very confused about how many interesting discussions would get sidetracked by the discussion of someone's icon.

When I delurked, I wanted an icon that was not particular fannish, that I could use for any type of post and that people would automatically associate with me. The icon I chose was based on this painting by Corot, which is one of my favorites:



For some reason, when I was first making icons and really didn't understand how file size worked , I thought that the image was too big for livejournal specs, so I made it grayscale. (I now think this icon is hideously depressing, but at the time I was very proud of figuring out how to make an icon all by myself).




It wasn't until sometime last year that I decided to switch over to a more fannish default icon. I can't remember when I chose Chloe as my avatar, precisely, but I assume it was around last February or so, when I finally broke down and got a paid account and got more interested in icons because I was learning how to make them.

In all those years of lurking and having only one icon, I somehow never learned there were icon communities on lj, but I think I wouldn't have used them anyway, because it has always been more important to me that my icons are unique than that they be really beautiful. (I have about 80 icons now, and I think 5 of them were made by other people, and a couple of those are gifts). Maybe that's because I'm not as visually attuned as other folks, so for me the "branding" function of icons is more important than "ooh, pretty"?

I do notice the pretty a lot more, now that I'm making them for myself, and I'm more likely these days to check out icon journals and look at other people's icon sets, because I have a lot more appreciation for beautiful icons now that I'm making icons myself. For the most part I just go to look and admire, however. I still prefer a mediocre icon that I made myself, that is unique in some way, to a really gorgeous one made by someone else that might be used by another person. And I'm likely to stop using icons I make myself if I realize that the image source is a populare for other people's icons. I had this as a default icon for a while:




Even though this picture of Allison Mack is definitely my favorite, I stopped using this icon because so many other people use this picture as an icon base. I started worrying that I was inadvertantly stealing someone's favorite icon, since I had no way of knowing who used the picture as a base first--and even if I was the first to use it, I want my icons to be immediately recognizable as mine. They may not be quite as pretty as other people's, but they're mine!

But enough about me. What's your icon philosophy?

Comments

[lastscorpion.livejournal.com]

Huh. Before I read your poll, I thought that I didn't care at all about people having the same icons -- not that I'd ever take one of somebody else's without permission, because that's just rude. But thinking about it, I realize that the vast majority of icons I've ever used as my default have been ones that I made myself, despite how crappy they are. So apparently it is kind of important, and if somebody else started using Mrs. Lovett rejoicing about pie, I'd undoubtedly switch my default back to one of my older ones.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

Nobody better steal Yay!Pie, or we'll have to go all Sweeny Todd on them! (Though until you said this I didn't realize who that was in your icon. Omigod, I had no idea exactly how hilarious that icon was! Hee hee hee! All these levels of nuance I have been missing!!)