A specific colour palette, composition, or the choice of a particular typeface are parts of a visual identity that we tend to recognise immediately. We can often identify a brand without even seeing its logo or wordmark. I think icons have the potential to play a larger role accompanying typeface, colour palette composition.
Yet icons are often approached as a necessity. Something that helps us navigate an interface, understand an action or replace an image. Often already existing icon libraries are used. But what if icons were considered an equal part of a brand’s visual identity from the beginning, just like the typeface?
Actually icon system and typeface have have quite much in common like stroke weights, proportions, corner, radi, spaces, negative spaces, and relationships between geometrical and organic forms. All of these These contribute and shape a visual language that is being communicated and ideally recognized and associated with the brand.
Much like a custom typeface, a carefully developed icon system can communicate a brand’s character without relying on its logo. ALso, company-specific niche icons are often non-existent in standard libraries, offering a perfect opportunity to craft them from scratch alongside the system.
Taking a look at Uber’s recently redesigned icon system, rooted in its custom Uber Move typeface, gives a good example of this approach. The new icons feel lighter and friendlier, using consistent stroke weights, more generous negative space and distinctive curves.
Their use of whitespace is particularly interesting. The reduction creates clarity while emphasising rounded forms that already appear in the typeface, bringing both elements closer together.
OpenAI takes a slightly different approach. Its icons bring their identity directly into the smallest details, translating complex technical functions into small visuals to harmonise perfectly with their typeface, adapted by ABC Dinamo. all this while simultainisly contribute to the character and identity of the product.
Both examples show how iconography becomes part of what makes a brand recognisable. For many people, the first interaction with a brand happens through an app, the website or a digital platform as these are, where people mostly experience the brand.
Yet iconography doesn’t have to remain limited to interfaces. The same visual language could also be implemented into packaging, print, physical controls, wayfinding as well as spatial or product communication. A shared design language could allow them to work together across digital and physical touchpoints. This would create consistency without repeating the same visual elements everywhere.
Of course, recognisability should never come at the expense of clarity. An icon still needs to communicate its intended meaning.
Considering icons from the very beginning alongside typeface selection, or adapting icons to already established components of the visual identity, reusing existing proportions, geometry and details to create a coherent and recognisable system. Maybe sometimes a missing pice of a cohesive identity are icons, as they are simply overlooked as design component.