When Flat was Phat

Remember when Web icons were small, flat, elegant little beauties, as opposed to today’s syrupy sweet jelly beans? These were the days of tiny GIFs that had to convey so much with so few pixels  (and they were usually limited to 216 Web-safe colors, to boot)?

Years ago I bookmarked 300 Images from 1800 Sites as a handy reference tool, and today while cleaning up my bookmarks I learned the site still exists!

According to Ro London, the site’s curator, “I visited only Fortune 1000 company sites, major online retailers, well known blogs, top advertising, publishing, and design agencies, technology and software industry leaders, and the very largest online news publishers. Approximately 1800 web sites later, I have this collection of 300 of the most interesting, unique, and beautiful formations of pixels to display.”

He categorized them, quite helpfully, by type: Arrows, Posts, Comments, Mail, Bullets, Print, and of course Carts and Bags!

So, if you want to take a trip down icon memory lane, visit now before this little museum of the ancient Web goes the way of the lovingly crafted, 256-square-pixel icon.