We all need a recognized icon to represent “translate this.” We’ve got one for feeds and social bookmarking, but where’s our translate icon? A lot of folks simply use flags, but that’s a bad idea because they’re “nationalistic, and represent ideals, boundaries, and political beliefs, but do not represent a language.”
Joe Lee has developed a few icons for use in the OLPC project, and they look good. The only problem I have with them is in trying to make them work at 16×16 pixels. I developed the icon above (and the 16×16 version) to support the new Bookmark Share (& Translate) feature in bSuite (see it at work). It’s simply a mashup of Joe’s work (this) with the feed icon (there’s an Adobe Illustrator version in the developer pack).
This particular icon has a few problems (it could easily be confused with “reload”), and I’d love to see something better. Any suggestions (that fit a 16 x 16 square)?
2 Comments
Wonderful idea! I think the icon might come across a little too feed / computery, Joe Lee’s images have that soft organic quality which relates beautifully translation. I really like the mouth imagery, and without it this might feel like a reload button. Hope that helps.
@Lloyd Budd: that’s exactly my concern. I wish Joe Lee’s icons worked at 16×16.
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