Serendipity35

Studies show that you actually spend about 75% of your time online reading. Hurray for the printed word - even if it's in pixels instead of ink. However, a portion of that time is spent in reading icons, buttons, charts, captions etc.

Eye-tracking software shows that viewers of a web page are drawn first to an image, then the caption, tagline or headline nearest to the image, and finally (if ever) to the text.

Icon and logo design is a field in itself because of the web. One site I've come across and can recommend is Icon Buffet at
iconbuffet.com

Though they sell icon sets, you can also register and get free sets to use. These are full sets of many icons (enough to support a site) in a particular style and color. Their "Free Delivery" icons are made available for no charge, but they are protected by copyright, so they ask that you not resell or redistribute the icons on their own and ask that you credit IconBuffet for the use of the icons in certain situations (like use in commercial software). Read up on our Terms of Service for more information.

I also came across some information on Dennis Hwang. He's the guy who, since 2000, has been creating the Google logos on their home page. He calls them "Google doodles." He has done over 150 versions already. Sounds like a cool job, but actually he is their international webmaster (managing international site content) and the doodles are a sideline.

There are some great ones he has done and I would post a few here but their rights & restrictions sound pretty tough, so I'll be safe and just tell you to look at them yourself.

I like these three "birthday" versions: Louis Braille's birthday, Edvard Munch's Birthday & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

There's a whole page of them at http://www.google.com/customlogos.html

Finally, try out your logo knowledge at Guess the Logo. These are familiar logos you see online a lot and you might be surprised how unobservant you are when faced with multiple & subtle variations on them.