Little did I know what an absolutely massive amount of work this was going to become. I don't think Steve, or our lead designer Soren Johnson, did either. The list just kept growing. Some 1400 icons later, it was perfectly clear. We laugh about it now. The only was I could survive this task was to make these little images packed with visual interest so that I felt each one to be its own special story. Each icon concept was simple, but I tried to make it epic. Many hours were spent painting in photoshop, taking reference photo's inside and outside the studio, and assembling what ended up being more of a digital collage.
Probably not the best way to go from an interface design perspective. A bit more exploration could have been made into how to make these things read as simple graphics without so much detail, and artistic noise. Though they do have their charm, and they do brighten up the tech tree. Hopefully putting a smile on someone's face when they see all the awesome stuff they have discovered. Remember, I was trying to keep from going crazy!!
Here are some of the more interesting ones I dug up. I think the promotions atlas is the closest to good interface icon design, but they were all fun to make.
