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Favicons, Episode 8
Every now and again we showcase beautiful favicons, tiny pieces of art you’ll find in your browser’s address bar or when searching through your bookmarks. Favicons are important because they provide visual indicators to visitors and help them easily associate content with a bookmark in their browser. Besides that, favicons are just nice to look at, and there are way too many websites that don’t make use of them. We want to change that, which is why we are presenting the 8th episode of our favicons series — for a change, a small article with very small images and a quick loading time.
We’ve written enough about favicons in the past. If you’d like to find out more about them, feel free to look at our previous posts:
- Part 1: Inspire Yourself: 50 Remarkable Favicons
- Part 2: Inspire Yourself: More Creative Favicons
- Part 3: Creative Favicons: When Small Is Beautiful
- Part 4: Creative Favicons: Tiny Artwork
- Episode 5: The Delicate Beauties
- Favicon Episode 6: Black, Abstract and Hand-Drawing
- Favicon Episode 7
Notice that these favicons were chosen not simply for their beauty; it’s been important to us that the favicon fits perfectly with the overall website design. Pay close attention to the small details of the design. All favicons are linked, of course, to the websites where they are used (if they still exist) — click on them to get more insight into how favicon design relates to overall layout design. The favicons are listed in no particular order.
 | Notifu |
 | Celsius Compile |
 | Derek Allard |
 | Typo3 Switch |
 | Tajloro |
 | Nicole Bauer |
 | Computersight |
 | Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Hong Kong |
 | Sodevious |
 | Inspired Buddy |
 | Digital Camera Resource Page |
 | Accessites |
 | Creative News |
 | Bed and Breakfast Brescia |
 | Web Urbanist |
 | LoupDeLou |
 | Vida Comunicação |
 | Clay Ant |
 | Patrick Monkel’s Karma |
 | Designspotter |
 | Train 1 on 1 |
 | Turism Point Romania |
 | Heartprints |
 | The Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans |
 | Burrow Physiotherapy Pontefract |
 | Dean J. Robinson |
 | Salt Solutions |
 | Lyte Byte |
 | Foxycart |
 | Notified |
 | Evoluted |
 | Lifesize |
 | Iconified |
 | Kidsmodern |
 | Knoxville Tourism |
 | Etnies |
 | Max Voltar |
 | we:presenter |
 | Scrumy |
 | Stefano Verna. (Yes, a simple idea, but very effective in a bookmark list.) |
 | Web Magazine |
 | My Bank Tracker |
 | Get a Freelancer. (Reminds me of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.) |
 | Scinexx |
 | Diplod |
 | Strands |
 | Custom Canvas |
 | I like to Design. (Last but not least, a very animated one.) |
The Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine. Former writer, web designer, freelancer and webworker. Author of several books. Runs the business.
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November 20th, 2008 3:37 pmI love Patrick Monkel’s Karma and Evoluted mainly because I’ve always been a fan of natural/leaf designs.
I also like Tajloro, but feel the enlarged version of the favicon appears too many times on the actual site. Shame.
Brilliant post yet again! You’re the only magazine that I read every post, instead of skipping 90% of the content, like usual! - 3November 20th, 2008 3:58 pm
When I realized that favicons were sticking out to my mind, it made me realized that I needed one, so in my recent design update, I included one: http://www.tammyhartdesigns.com
- 4November 20th, 2008 4:05 pm
and what about this favicon > http://www.weblogr.fr :)
what do you think about animated favicon?
- 5November 20th, 2008 4:11 pm
Some fantastic favicons. Just goes to show how good you can make them.
- 6November 20th, 2008 4:12 pm
The one listed for CodeIgniter is derekallard… CodeIgniter’s favicon is the little flame.
- 7November 20th, 2008 4:17 pm
Hey, nice to see us up there! Just one thing though- it’s “Scrumy”, not “Scrummy”, damn domain squatters. Proof: scrumy.com
- 8November 20th, 2008 4:43 pm
I think Patrick Monkel’s Karma, Designspotter and Evoluted have done great job to get their Favicons that great
- 9November 20th, 2008 4:54 pm
You forgot to mention smashing magazine favicon.. simple and effective. I think I have a good one too…what do you think? [www.bimaltailor.co.uk]
- 10November 20th, 2008 5:30 pm
The very best, most practical use of favicons that I’ve seen the WC3 orgs validation pages. When you’re validating your markup or CSS, you don’t even need to wait for the page to load, just watch the Favicon. A green Favicon means your markup passed validation, a Red Favicon and you know you’ve got more work to go.
- 11November 20th, 2008 5:55 pm
Beautiful set !
I would like to know, what are your favorites tools to make yours favicons ?
(to draw, and to generate).
Thanks - 12November 20th, 2008 6:30 pm
Wow, this post is littered with misspellings.
- 13November 20th, 2008 7:40 pm
Indeed a fantastic article… thanks! Just FYI, the third icon down (robot head) is labelled “CodeIgniter”, but it’s actually the favicon for my personal site, DerekAllard.com.
- 14November 20th, 2008 8:09 pm
the etnies favicon links to maxvoltar.com
- 15November 20th, 2008 10:16 pm
Thanks…
- 16November 21st, 2008 12:20 am
I love the new wipeelist.com favicon! sexy and transparent yum
- 17November 21st, 2008 12:37 am
Hi, is there any palce to submit favicons? Nice Greetings from Germany :)
———
no chance! (Sven) - 18November 21st, 2008 1:06 am
This is a nifty idea! Favicons are like a black art and can sometime be more recognizable / memorable than the site itself!
- 19November 21st, 2008 1:27 am
A great list. Thanks!
It’s probably worth noting that animated favicons like the last one on the list won’t display in IE… - 20November 21st, 2008 1:44 am
Nice list. I love looking at favicons and seeing how people have re-interpreted their branding for such a small space. Check out this one I did here Link .
- 21November 21st, 2008 2:28 am
Does smashing magazine have a copy editor? I only skimmed this article and still noticed a good few mistakes. It’s disappointing that the decent content on this site is let down by bad attention to detail in the copy.
- 22November 21st, 2008 3:27 am
The animated one is more disturbing than useful, as a page, that plays sound on load.
- 23November 21st, 2008 3:28 am
Nice list, although the one about CodeIgniter is wrong… It shows the favicon of Derek Allard… the one from CodeIgniter is a black flame on a white background (www.codeigniter.com)
- 24November 21st, 2008 4:29 am
thanks for the mention!!!
- 25November 21st, 2008 5:11 am
Nice source, thanks!
- 26November 21st, 2008 6:35 am
@25
dereks website is called “codeigniter…”
will change it nevertheless to avoid further misunderstandings. - 27November 21st, 2008 7:33 am
Thanks Smashing!
i love favicons – i used them to design my personal homepage of frequently visited sites.
If you want to see it – http://www.andyhowes.com (don’t worry – not spam) - 28November 21st, 2008 8:56 am
I change mine with the seasons… I think it gives the site a more personal and “with it” feel. Right now it’s the same as my gravatar… Web Major
- 29November 21st, 2008 10:33 am
Any recommended tutorials out there to create favicons? Best practices? Tips?
- 30November 21st, 2008 8:30 pm
favicon is the most things in website..it’s like a core of website…
- 31November 21st, 2008 10:41 pm
Chinese characters are sometimes a very good choice :)
- 32November 22nd, 2008 10:44 am
How about a nice set of iPhone icons/bookmarks?
- 33November 22nd, 2008 10:54 am
What’s with the Magen David for Salt Solutions?
I have never understood when companies choose a religious symbol for their business but then neglect to mention anywhere why they did so.
In this case, as a Jew, I would expect to visit Salt Solutions and see some evidence of their faith, but no.
Qoui? - 34November 22nd, 2008 1:01 pm
i love favicons – i used them to design my personal homepage. If you want to see it amir.org
- 35November 22nd, 2008 11:16 pm
Not to toot my own horn, but I dig my pocket protector for the “nerd” in http://www.journerdism.com :)
- 36
- 37November 23rd, 2008 8:35 am
Nice Collection! Especially the animated ones are interesting.
Another nice favicon under blog.janorth.de - 38
- 39November 23rd, 2008 10:57 pm
I love it.
- 40November 24th, 2008 12:11 am
very nice collection! thanks
- 41November 24th, 2008 1:45 pm
Based on our new logo, we designed this on-off button style favicon.
http://www.compubase.nl - 42
- 43November 26th, 2008 3:28 am
hmm, nice collection … i have got one too a molecule like favicon
- 00
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Great post. I love favicons. Im inspired now. My fav is computersight from this list. Nice post thanks.