Icons have been used throughout church history to open windows into God's presence, and point us to eternal things. Icons are also miniature images used to represent a computer's functions, for example.

Combining these two, I had the idea to create a set of modern icons for Advent, to open windows into the mystery and wonder of Advent from different viewpoints, as a gateway into worship, prayer and meditation, but using simple icons to represent each of these viewpoints or aspects of Advent.
The latest design trends in computer software and operating systems are very flat. Gone are the gradients and chunky glassy buttons, and in their place are flat panels of colour with a simple, minimal appeal. I've aimed for this, partly because it echoes something of our wider culture, and this might help communicate with all kinds of people. You might spot a similarity to a recently released operating system - this is no accident :-)
There are ten icons (see examples below), each done in three visual styles: colour, black on white and white on black to fit a range of different visual styles and contexts.

The images are all 1200x900 pixels (4:3 ratio) in PNG format (best for flat colour) so they should work well with most projection systems and can easily be imported into Powerpoint and similar packages to create a rolling presentation.

License
All artwork is offered on a Creative Commons 3.0 Non-Commercial Attribution license (with exceptions). In other words, no commercial use is allowed. If you would like to include any of these tracks, in whole or part, in a commercial product, or for any non-worship use, please contact me at craftycurate@gmail.com. Attribution is not required if using the images "live" i.e. in public worship, but if you want to use it for a presentation or something else, please include the following information on screen:
© 2012 Richard Lyall
Also, please don't upload the files anywhere, but point people back to EngageWorship, or to my own blog https://craftycurate.blogs.com.
Apart from that you're free to use them as you wish, and I hope you will find all kinds of creative ways to use them this Advent season, for AdventChristmas worship and outreach and so on. And if you use any of these, I'm always interested to know what you did with them. Please drop me a note at craftycurate@gmail.com or leave a comment at EngageWorship.
May the Lord bless you this Advent season.
Richard Lyall
Advent 2012
In association with Engage Worship: www.engageworship.org