Yes, icon trends change and generally aren't confined to a particular fandom, though some are (the Disney fandom, in particular, has its own subset of trends which usually don't follow the larger currents). I find less that trends are specific artist related and more related to a group of people, or, often, something that is a trend in advertising at the moment, which leads me to believe that the trendsetting iconmakers either work in advertising (which I know some of the big trendsetters from 2003-2005 did) or are very cued in to the graphic design community in other ways. There are a lot of differences between that community and this one, but enough of the broad trends are similar for me to see linkages.
Most people who've been around for a while can pinpoint icons to within a year or two (sometimes a particular season of the year) based on what particular fandom they are in and what trends they exhibit (trends sweep through different fandoms at different times - what starts out in, say, Stargate Atlantis, will leap quickly to Stargate SG1, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, and other scifi shows, and take a longer time to propagate through to Gossip Girl, The OC, Desperate Housewives, pop music, etc, and vice versa). For instance, anything with a dark blue exclusion layer is probably from 2003-2005, and anything with a dark blue exclusion layer AND pink lightblobs is totally 2005, especially if it comes from VM fandom. Circles, especially circles within circles, are 2006. That's also around the time borders fell out of favor. Super-saturated reds and blues with a shallow color depth are pretty 2006/2007, as is a certain kind of texture overuse, and the white outline around a figure like in the icon I used (that may be a little more 2006 than 2007). It's a little harder to figure out trends (other than the obnoxiously ugly ones I don't use) the closer you are to them, so I can't really tell you what the most recent ones are. Well there's the composition trend that came into vogue about two years ago where you meld people's heads together, which often produces monstrously ugly creations... We also started going through a "make everything pink!" phase followed shortly by a "make everything orange!" phase, especially in teenybopper kind of fandoms.
As well, just like with fashion, trends you thought were long gone will pop back up, like zombies.
Generally I watch trends by following icontests, lims, icon_tutorial, ugly_icons, and by what the iconmakers I have friended are doing.
This is a great summary and as someone who has only been making icons for about eighteen months, it is fascinating so see it laid out like that.
I'm really interested in the link with advertising. Previously I would have assumed that it was related to the ubiquity of advertising images in out lives and that icon makers couldn't help being influenced (I know that I frequently see a technique in an advert and want to try it out in a icon) but from what you are saying, does that mean that the similarity of trends appear earlier in the process i.e. before the advertising trend hits the mainstream?
Most people who've been around for a while can pinpoint icons to within a year or two (sometimes a particular season of the year) based on what particular fandom they are in and what trends they exhibit (trends sweep through different fandoms at different times - what starts out in, say, Stargate Atlantis, will leap quickly to Stargate SG1, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, and other scifi shows, and take a longer time to propagate through to Gossip Girl, The OC, Desperate Housewives, pop music, etc, and vice versa). For instance, anything with a dark blue exclusion layer is probably from 2003-2005, and anything with a dark blue exclusion layer AND pink lightblobs is totally 2005, especially if it comes from VM fandom. Circles, especially circles within circles, are 2006. That's also around the time borders fell out of favor. Super-saturated reds and blues with a shallow color depth are pretty 2006/2007, as is a certain kind of texture overuse, and the white outline around a figure like in the icon I used (that may be a little more 2006 than 2007). It's a little harder to figure out trends (other than the obnoxiously ugly ones I don't use) the closer you are to them, so I can't really tell you what the most recent ones are. Well there's the composition trend that came into vogue about two years ago where you meld people's heads together, which often produces monstrously ugly creations... We also started going through a "make everything pink!" phase followed shortly by a "make everything orange!" phase, especially in teenybopper kind of fandoms.
As well, just like with fashion, trends you thought were long gone will pop back up, like zombies.
Generally I watch trends by following icontests, lims, icon_tutorial, ugly_icons, and by what the iconmakers I have friended are doing.
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I'm really interested in the link with advertising. Previously I would have assumed that it was related to the ubiquity of advertising images in out lives and that icon makers couldn't help being influenced (I know that I frequently see a technique in an advert and want to try it out in a icon) but from what you are saying, does that mean that the similarity of trends appear earlier in the process i.e. before the advertising trend hits the mainstream?
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