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 worksText Elements refers to icons where textual components are prominent visual pieces, including phrases, names, signs, and short captions. Sparse graphics plus hearts and punctuation let typography do much of the composition work while still staying readable in tiny resolution.
![Red background with black text and symbols: 'sam' above a plus sign, then 'josh', date '[12-1-07]', and '<3'. A heart symbol appears next to 'sam' in the first frame.](/image/e21bd6bee3659ee0f149a79d4dd846a655d4b3c45da5a7238608061f858c3694){kind=small}
![Pixelated yellow cheese wedge with holes on white background, below which is text reading 'I [heart] cheese!' in gray and yellow pixels.](/image/e60592d2be3a684b80ddd6d5f079609992d4947368d5f544b3c7fd0ad87ce0f2)
