We know we’ve been a bit negligent when it comes to updating the front page lately, but the customizing scene has been a little slow. However, we thought it would be fun to give our visitors a preview of icon artist Jonas Rask’s new set, entitled SiO2. SiO2 will be his first icon release to contain Leopard-ready 512×512 states and features slick aluminum folders with delicately crafted overlays, bringing you one of the most diligently designed iconsets to date. On top of that, Jonas’s work will also be the focus of this month’s Insider, which should be published in the coming weeks. So take this article as a taste of things to come!

MacThemes: What inspired you to make this set? What are your goals for this project?

It came out of the blue really. I had just bought the new Apple Wireless Keyboard and I was amazed at how slick it was. If you turn it upside down, the top curve becomes the bottom curve of the folder. From there I just gave it a classic, and probably overdone, foldertab. I have been really busy lately with my studies and client work, so I haven’t really had the time to “be inspired” by anything, but Apple’s recent move away from white in their “i” products towards the aluminum look is something that I have been wanting to incorporate into a design since the new iMacs were announced. Back in the day, when the Power Mac G5 came out, I couldn’t draw anything, and everyone and their grandmother were spitting out aluminum folders. But now some time has passed, I can finally do my own aluminum folders. I also started a glass version which I’m still not sure I wanna finish; again inspired, this time by Steve’s “aluminum and glass” statement back at the iMac launch. We’ll see how that goes.

MacThemes: What’s it like moving from the 128px canvas to the Leopard-ready 512px canvas?

Well, I think most designers have been making 512px icons for a while now, I know I have, so the move from 128px to 512px wasn’t totally sudden for me. It has been more of a process, where some clients have requested icons in high res, gradually getting me used to the bigger canvas size.

A big difference for me is the amount of time spent. I, like many others, do my icons strictly vector-based, so when doing them at 128, blowing them up only takes an extra 15 minutes to correct the small flaws. This is the correct way of doing it for resolution independence, because you upscale everything 4:1, just like your physical pixel density will increase 4:1 from 72 PPI to 288 PPI eventually. The problem with this method is the loss of detail at 512. Your 128 px version might contain a 1px stroke, which at 512px will look like a chunky 4px stroke.

The way Leopard is using the 512×512 icons for now is of course in the Finder’s Coverflow, so that kind of simple upscaling won’t work. You need to design these at 512px, and fill up that canvas with sweet eye candy details that makes this particular icon appear amazingly clean and detailed. Then downscale to 128×128 and take out all of those extra details. These extra details takes time, so hence the biggest issue in going from 128px to 512px icon design is the time spent. Just make sure your clients pay you by the hour! But looking at glorious, high-resolution, 512×512’s makes you never want to use 128’s again, am I right?