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 worksSnowflakes are buddy icons built from crystalline snowflake motifs with pointy, branching geometry radiating from a center. Useful detail is the preserved symmetry and crisp edge rhythm, which often remains clear even when the background is mostly color fields, text, or gradients.
![Pixelated blue text on light blue background reads "brunnetts are the new blondes =]" with white snowflake symbols, animated to shift positions.](/image/c6afe42eba12587ce21993e89584e0ad5cb820917004c5ab0164e25dbdc4f26d){kind=small}
