An interview I did with FOOOD's Icons for Neowin, 20 years ago this month

[Elliot B.]

In March 2004, I conducted a brief interview with @Jonny Wright of FOOOD's Icons for Neowin. I was 17 years old at the time.

Thought you may all be interested.

Here is it:

Q. First off, I'd like to thank you for taking your time to allow me to interview you. Please introduce yourself.

My ‘real’ name is Jono & I’m from the UK

Q. What methods of promotion did you use to make your icons known, and which proved to be the most efficient?

I started posting them at forums such as Neowin.net, Design Technika² etc. Then deviantART. Then once I had quite a few icons I made a web site & started releasing them there primarily. Now my site has been running for quite a while people know its here it’s become very popular. In fact I seem to be constantly having problems because of the amount of bandwidth it uses. Neowin.net, Design Technika² & deviantART are still very good places to release your work though.

Q. Are you in the process of creating another set of icons?

FOOOD's Icons ScreenshotI’ve just finished an iCandy Junior toolbar theme set for Thunderbird, (Mozilla Firefox’s email software) & Aaron Spuler has created the theme from my icons. It will be released er… now. Then I’ll probably release the toolbar icons from the iCandy Junior FireFox & Thunderbird themes as icons (.ico format) so that people can customise other software. Plus there’s quite a few of the icons in there that can be used for other things. I’m also working on the first iCandy Junior update which should be the next release. There icons for networking, laptops, more drives, folders plus other stuff. Then I’m also working on Urban PPL 2. I already have quite a few, but plan to make quite a lot more before I release them.

Q. What is your favourite set from your own collection?

Er… has to be my latest stuff, iCandy Junior. I soon go off my own icons *blushes*

Q. What is your favourite all-time icon set?

Either the standard Windows XP icons or everaldo’s Crystal icons. Both are excellent!

Q. Do you use your own icons?

No. Well actually I do use all the different folders (Music, Downloads etc.) so it’s easy to recognise the different folders quickly. Apart from that, not really. I keep meaning to change them but never seem to get around to it. I keep meaning to try the iCandy Junior or Crystal Iconpackager themes but I still have the standard XP icons for most things at the moment.

Q. Matt500 asks, "Does you ever feel like not making your icons for free use when he you people using them without permission on web sites or in programs?"

No, It is a problem but it hasn’t made me want to stop releasing for free… Yet

Now for the funky questions...

Q. Spyder (@Malechai) asked, "What is your favourite food?"

Er… now you’re on to my favourite subject! Probably Indian food. No hang on, er… Mexican. It depends on what I fell like at the time. Indian, Mexican & Chinese are probably my favourites (along with Greek, Italian, Spanish…)

Q. Finally, Tapnet asks, "How did you get the nickname Fooood?"

Because it’s my favourite subject! I just love it! (& believe it or not I’m not grossly overweight)

Thank you from myself and the members of Neowin.net!

iGracias, y te hablo luego!

I kept two images with the interview, through the screenshot unfortunately only appears to be 150 x 106

Edited March 29, 2024 by Elliot B.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

This should go in Member Milestones..

 

Anyway, great job!

[Elliot B.]

On 29/03/2024 at 18:32, Mindovermaster said:

This should go in Member Milestones..

 

Anyway, great job!

I was not sure which sub-forum it fit best in, to be honest.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 29/03/2024 at 13:35, Elliot B. said:

I was not sure which sub-forum it fit best in, to be honest.

Least you didn't put it in Windows section or anything weird.

[Elliot B.]

On 29/03/2024 at 18:45, Mindovermaster said:

Least you didn't put it in Windows section or anything weird.

At first, I was considering placing it in the Tips, Tweaks & Customization sub-forum (based on the 'Customization' part) but decided to place it in the General Discussion sub-forum for it to get more traction.

[Elliot B.]

Here is what the website looked like a few weeks after the interview:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040407134654/http://www.foood.net/

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Ah, the 2000's. Bright colours, bubbly icons...the kindergarten years of design. It sure brings back memories!

[Barney T. Administrators]

Moved to Member Milestones. This is certainly an achievement. Congratulations!!

[hellowalkman Reporter]

Nice! Job well done!

[WITHOUT-ME]

wow

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

FOOOD's Icons, now that's a blast from the past. His icons were some of my favourites back when customising every bit of Windows XP was the thing to do.

Believe it or not I actually still use WinRAR and the Jr theme by Foods Icons all these years later:

The theme is still featured on the rarlab website: https://www.rarlab.com/themes.htm

[Elliot B.]

On 03/04/2024 at 11:13, InsaneNutter said:

FOOOD's Icons, now that's a blast from the past. His icons were some of my favourites back when customising every bit of Windows XP was the thing to do.

Believe it or not I actually still use WinRAR and the Jr theme by Foods Icons all these years later:

The theme is still featured on the rarlab website: https://www.rarlab.com/themes.htm

Heritage! 😊

I hope @Jonny Wright sees your post.