Have you seen the getting-prettier-all-the-time menus in 2.7-almost-beta? They really are. Getting prettier all the time, I mean. Once we drop in the fonts and do a little brushing up of edges and colors, the menu system is going to be smooth. The last thing we’ll need to do to is replace the icons we’ve been using as placeholders. Currently, the menus are using icons from Crystal Project, which is perfect because they’re released under LGPL (yay for open source!), but less perfect in that they don’t quite fit with the new visual style of 2.7, so we’re thinking custom icons.

I’m always meeting people at WordCamps or via email who say they wish they could give back to WordPress, but that since they aren’t PHP developers, they feel like there isn’t any opportunity for them to be a part of the open source project. Well, here’s a golden opportunity. Want to design the new WordPress icons?

The icons:

We’ll need icons for each of the main navigation sections, plus a matching pair of list/excerpt view icons for the table screens like Edit Posts. That’s a total of 13, and for the navigation icons we’ll also need a larger size for use in the screen headers. Some of the sections have natural iconography, while others may be more challenging. The sections are: Dashboard, Posts, Media, Links, Pages, Comments, Appearance, Settings, Users, Plugins, Tools.

The style:

Icons should be subtle, with a classic/designed look, nothing cartoonish. Thin lines. Maybe a little old-fashioned looking. They’ll be grayscale by default, possibly with a color version for active menu items.

The timing:

Fast, fast, fast. 2.7 is due to release on November 10. That means icons need to be ready within two weeks, give or take.

The required experience:

To be taken seriously, you’ll need to show a background in icon design. It’s a different skill than web site or application design, and given that there’s not much time before the 2.7 launch, someone with experience (and possibly existing work they can leverage) is going to be the best candidate.

Interested? Send us an email and tell us why you want to design the icons, and include a link to your portfolio. How we wind up choosing an icon designer will depend on how many people respond, but we’ll keep you posted on the process. For now, send in portfolio links by Saturday night, October 25, 2008. We’ll review them over the weekend and get in touch with people on Monday. Hopefully we can be designing by early next week.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Email

