<div id="maincontent">
<h1>The Iconfactory</h1>
<h3 class="first">Links / Help</h3>
<ul id="helplinks">
<li class="infolink first"><a href="http://www.iconfactory.com/help/help_icontainer.html">How to use iContainers</a></li>
<li class="infolink"><a href="http://www.iconfactory.com/help/help_mac.html">How to use Mac icons</a></li>
<li class="infolink"><a href="http://www.iconfactory.com/help/help_win.html">How to use Windows icons</a></li>
<li class="infolink last"><a href="http://www.iconfactory.com">The Iconfactory</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>From the Artist</h3>
<p class="date">October 2000</p>
<p>
<em>Smoothicons</em>
by <a href="mailto:corey@iconfactory.com">Corey Marion</a>
</p>
<p><strong>A long time coming…</strong></p>
<p>I have wanted to expand my SketchCons sets for quite a while now but was always sidetracked by this or that and never got around to it. Mac <span class="caps">OSX</span> was the perfect oportunity to create a new breed of SketchCon taking full advantage of the massive 128×128 pixel icons in the new operating system. The debate has been raging recently about illustrative versus photorealistic (photocons we like to call them) “icons”. The SketchCon style was conceived well before the advent of the thumbnail icon but its inherent simplicity and bold style help support our philosophy that even at large sizes simple can be better. I decided to add subtle gradients and details and polish them up a bit for <span class="caps">OSX</span>. I was thinking as I was creating the set that they were straying a bit from the original formula and this feeling was reinforced by a review by Sam Rae over at the IconCow. I decided to rename the set Smoothicons (10.10.00) to create a new identity for this series and also leave the the SketchCon series open for future developments. Where to start? Obviously the latest Mac hardware. Please enjoy these and let me know what you think.</p>