Interview with Icon Designer Mitch Bartlett (Tron)

Here is an interview with the talented icon designer, Mitch Bartlett (aka Tron or Funk). Hopefully you will find it useful and gain some insight on his work as well as get to know him better.

I stumbled upon Tron's work sometime ago on his old deviantart account, kiwanji. I enjoyed all of his designs and particularly loved the fact that he offered PSD's of his work, not that many people do. I asked him to do an interview for Galaxy GUI and luckily he was more that happy to do so, here it is:

SbuxBlaze: Hey Tron! The first question I have for you, is what is your working process and how do you come up with icons to make?

My working process begins with first being in the right mind-set. I've never been able to create at any given time, I have spurts of creativity 5 or 6 times a week. But, this all depends on inspiration obviously. The sketchbook is always the first thing I occupy myself with, sketching out quick ideas, and then more elaborated ideas. I then move onto Photoshop to create basic elements, adding blending options (effects for those of you who don't know) to certain parts as I go along. After I've got something acceptable, I'll usually start touching up, or even sometimes start fresh. Icons can either be thought of very easily, or it can be a real struggle to think of something to create. My ideas usually come from objects in the household, it also depends on what I'm doing the icons for, obviously. If it's for an application, you've already got the idea, you just need to elaborate and so on.

SbuxBlaze: When did you start designing icons and what inspired you to start doing so?

I was into art ever since I can remember. Naturally, I entered the world of digital art in around 2001. DeviantART was my place of inspiration for years until I finally got a copy of Photoshop. I started to get into the theming scene when I first discovered WindowBlinds on my ancient Windows Dell. I then started to customize my computer myself with sloppy and flat icons. A year of practice gone, I figured I'd put my icon & design services up for the world. I then purchased my beloved iMac 2008 with the money made from various design works, and here I am.

SbuxBlaze: What is your favorite part of making icons?

I've always loved getting near the end result, and touching up elements to make them look pixel-perfect. I also love sketching down ideas, it's pretty enjoyable to sketch icons so quickly and see what you're going to get with ease.

SbuxBlaze: In your opinion, what do you consider a high quality and well designed icon? What are the most important elements?

I used to start at 512px, much like every early icon designer does. When I got my iMac, I started designing in 1024px. It's at this resolution that you can really see where you're going, and adding vector elements is much easier. When I finally scale it down, I'm always pleased with the quality. I guess this is what I like the most in the icon releases I see from time to time. Rich & bold at 512px, and sharp & crisp on the smaller sizes. I think the most important element is how pixel perfect the icon is at the end of your design spree. It's always really nice to see high quality in all sizes.

SbuxBlaze: What was one of the toughest icon design jobs you've ever had?

My toughest design job is actually my current one. I'm designing a 5 pin vault wheel for an iPhone application wisely named "Vault." The reason is not that it's hard to render, it's because at the end of the day, it is just a vault icon. It's hard to add style and originality to it. It really just comes down to making look as smart as I can, and trying to let go of my addiction of customizing almost everything I can. So I guess this is the hardest right now.

SbuxBlaze: Now tell us a little bit about your self, who are you really and where are you from?

My name is Mitch Bartlett, and I'm 17. I'm from Bristol, in the S/W of England. I'm a musician aswell as an artist, and I play jazz & funk bass. I left school at 16 with no plans to continue onto further education. The reason for this being that I wanted to get into freelance design, and didn't want to waste years going to College and University to gain pointless qualifications that wouldn't be much stronger than a good portfolio. I've travelled a lot in my short life, and I plan to again very soon on a break from design work. Right now, I've been lost in client work for a month or so. My last client work is almost to an end, and I plan to take a small break and get back to offering free releases to the customization community. I have plans to create an application for Macintosh in the near future, aswell as endless releases and ideas to execute. You'll be seeing more from me now.

Thanks for this interview, Alex. It was a great pleasure to reveal myself a little more.

Subscriber From : UK OS : Windows 7

This was a good read, good job Tron smile

Administrator From : England OS :  Leopard 10.5.6

I always enjoy reading interviews with designers as it can always help you and you get to know them a bit better. I hope to go down a similar route as Mitch and its good reading behind the scenes of an icon designer.

Resident Artist From : Devon, England OS : Vista

Awesome read, thanks a lot guys smile

Regular Visitor From : South Germany OS : WinXP SP3

randomus_r wrote:: Awesome read, thanks a lot guys

+1
we need more interviews like this wink

Coffeeflash wrote:

randomus_r wrote:: Awesome read, thanks a lot guys

+1
we need more interviews like this wink

+2

Administrator From : England OS :  Leopard 10.5.6

Can we stop the +1 posts please. If you have something to say along with it, that is fine post ahead but when you just post +1, +2 whatever by itself I shall consider it as spam.

I'm New From : Melbourne, Australia OS : Windows XP SP2 :(

love it, does he still have a deviantart, i would really love to see some examples of his work smile

Kid Sister From : NYC OS : Mac OS X

Great interview! thanks for sharing with us.
Aydinz: http://kiwanji.deviantart.com/ (Tron's DA) thumbs up

Great read, its always interesting to get some insight like this....thanks for the interview.