Every now and then, you run across something that is truly amazing. This happened to me today as I was looking for icons for the Dynamics CRM tablet application (also known as the MOCA app).
There are several icons that I wished to reference in another mobile application. In the MOCA app, we have an interface that looks like this:
Part of the Dynamics CRM SDK, is a collection of all (or at least most) of icons used by the Dynamics CRM application –including all platforms.
I was quite surprised when I found the icons shown above. You will find these icons in the CRM SDK installation folder, in this sub-folder:
SDK\Resources\Images\mobile\entityimages
The most fascinating thing about these icons, is how they are constructed. The only thing in the icon file, is the image in white. Each image has a transparent background with some of the inner parts of the icon transparent as well so that you have a bleed-through effect of the background, through the foreground image.
This is significant because as a designer, you do not have to worry about changing the background color of the icon. You just change the background color of the cell in which it resides and the effect to the user is that have a white and {whatever] color icon.
I am sure this is not an new technique, but I have never seen it used like this before and I think it is quite brilliant.
Hat’s off the the Dynamics CRM UX design team.