MacThemes: An enormous amount of work goes into icon design, and yet most of it is released free of charge for the multitudes to enjoy. Is it ever a dilemma for you? Do you ever finish something and think, “Maybe I should sell this one instead”?

Jonas: Not really. I love doing free stuff for the community. I’m an icon collector myself, and I know how nice it is when I get new, free goodies. Furthermore, I think that clients who pay for my services deserve better than hand-me-downs that were originally supposed to be released for free. It just doesn’t feel right, you know?

MacThemes: Is “free” merely a case of releasing the stuff you do for you as opposed to the type of work you do for a client?

Jonas: To me that’s exactly what it is. When working with a client, the power structure is simple: The client pays. You deliver what they want. Needless to say, many clients tend to have a completely different take on ideas in regards to visual appearance. That, combined with the aforementioned power structure, limits your own expression, since it is your ideas and concepts being drawn (of course, there are many clients where this does not apply, who give you almost unlimited creative freedom).

When doing your own work, you eliminate the power structure. This results in complete freedom to do exactly what you want, when you want. So anytime you see me releasing something for free it’s merely me doing something that I enjoy- no strings attached!

MacThemes: You went a step further and released an entire royalty-free toolbar icon set that could be used for just about anything. What brought about that idea?

Jonas: Well to be honest, I hate a user interface that doesn’t look at least fairly decent. I think that releasing Danish Royalty-Free was my way of saying to developers, “Here! Take these, use them, don’t give me money, but give me apps that at least looks a little bit as if some effort went into their UI.”

Ever since Leopard came along with it’s metal scheme they have become a bit obsolete though, so I guess I should start thinking about a version 2.

MacThemes: You also did a whole system set based on Leopard’s default iconset, called Maji. Should Leopard be flattered or offended? In other words, how do you feel the Leopard icons need improvement?

Jonas: I really don’t like the Leopard “paper” icons- I think a lot of people agree with me on that. I guess that the beauty of being able to draw icons is that I can create my own replacements as I would like them to look. Taste and preferences are such a subjective matter, so I just try and please myself. If people think I improved something by drawing my own icons, super. If not, then that’s perfectly fine.

MacThemes: Turning to nomenclature, where do the names for your sets come from? Ekisho, Suma…?

Jonas: They come from a lot of places, actually. I can’t even remember where Suma came from off the top of my head. I mostly ask people for names, because I’m fairly bad at it.

Looking to a foreign language for a name is always a solution. Ekisho means Liquid Crystal in Japanese, and David Lanham pointed me to the name “Maji”, which he says (gotta trust him on this one!) means “water” in Swahili.

MacThemes: Your Canon PowerShot folder icon, from your upcoming SiO2 icons, is amazingly photorealistic. Do you ever use photographs as a basis for icons? Is it easier to create something in Photoshop that looks photorealistic than to take an actual photograph and turn it into an icon?

Jonas: Well for icons, I try to avoid tracing as much as possible; for an icon to look good it must be just that - an icon.

I always try to hit that sweet spot between complete realism and cartoon style. It’s something that Dave Brasgalla mastered, and I kinda look at his stuff for tricks in that area. Drawing the icon will always be at least more time-consuming than modifying a photo into an icon.

MacThemes: Is there a “holy grail” for an icon designer? Some monumental achievement that you can or do strive for? Apple Design Award, perhaps?

Jonas: Sure, I’ll take an ADA. I don’t strive for anything in the icon-creation field as such. Having the great satisfaction of creating stuff is pretty satisfactory by itself, though being able to have your icons in a worldwide spread product that people will use on a daily basis would be cool.

MacThemes: Do you ever feel the urge to dive into creating wallpapers?

Jonas: I get that urge once or twice a year, but not really. I like drawing objects- abstract art, like wallpapers, is something I leave up to others. I just love to sit back and enjoy good wallpaper releases. I’m an avid wall lover, but I think I’d better stick to my field as to not ruin the good repository of walls in the world

MacThemes: Panic’s Cabel Sasser warned that “once you tune your brain to the UI channel you become hopeless”. Do you ever find yourself noticing/criticizing the icon design you see in your everyday world? Are you aware of bad icon design on an airport e-ticket machine, for example?

Jonas: It’s funny you should ask that. Just the other day, I found myself looking at some online icons. I saw some very minor flaws, insignificant to anyone but an iconist. I told my girlfriend that sometimes I wished that I could turn back time, so I wouldn’t keep looking for flaws, but instead enjoy the work presented before my very eyes. I guess that ignorance truly can be bliss.

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