From the archivist
It started with a game that needed a few authentic AIM icons. Then I had 1,000. Then 10,000. At some point, I had a buddy icon problem.
Read how this happenedYou made it this far
You have scrolled past 1,024 buddy icons, so I have some suspicions. My blog is where the other shiny digressions end up.
Subscribe to Shedletsky.comA language of tiny pictures
A picture barely 50 pixels wide, sitting beside an AIM screen name, could announce a mood, a fandom, an inside joke, or who someone wanted to be that day.
Read the short historyRecovered from the early web
Buddy icons survive in old directories, fan sites, downloadable packs, and web archives. The archive preserves the original files, groups known copies, and records where each one was found.
How the archive worksBlocky Text buddy icons use heavy square letterforms with high edge contrast, designed to stay visible in small message-size graphics. They often show short phrases in repeated patterns, and shifts in fill color across identical text can carry the visual emphasis.
![Pixelated black-and-white text blocks on a light brown background, each reading 'My [noun].' with varying nouns.](/image/1ceb0945dbeab749bf1d2ee43d5669181bd83852c5e5dcc3b06dbed164721edd){kind=small}
![Purple background with cyan decorative borders and repeated green text reading "I LOVE DAVII WAHA!! =]" in four quadrants.](/image/1d4d07da9b266639f27068a73721984557482751e4f7df0f0c39d569ee97db00){kind=small}
