8/19/2023 0 Comments Intricate snake sketch![]() ![]() Complementary colors are a good choice because they provide great contrast.Īnother challenge is finding the right balance. If all objects in an icon are in the blue-scale range, there is a possibility that they will wash into each other in small sizes. The right color contrast also plays a major role here. This way, you can evaluate quickly which colors are more suitable. It‘s a good idea to simply test different color combinations against each other on different backgrounds. In many cases, people place icons on colorful backgrounds, which is already a challenge. Likewise, it’s not always easy to hit the right color palette. To counteract this problem, I constantly test and view the icon at small sizes throughout the process.Īs an icon designer, your aim is to depict something in a universal language, that everyone around the world can understand. Even on Retina displays or 5K monitors, an icon can look blurry and simply ‘wrong’ at small sizes. What looks good in full screen on a 27” screen does not necessarily translate to 64 × 64 pixels. ![]() One of the biggest challenges is understanding the size an icon will appear when it’s finished. Also, icons are the first touchpoint of an app and give off an initial impression. As an icon designer, your aim is to depict something in a universal language, that everyone around the world can understand. Icon design takes place on a very different level of communication compared to other design fields. What are the challenges involved with developing these icons? Once the icon is ready, I can easily render it in the different sizes required by Xcode thanks to the Export Presets. It allows me to fine-tune and make the icon shine. With Symbols, I can edit the main object and see my changes in real-time across various mockups - such as the macOS Dock or the App Store product page. This is important to be able to assess whether the contrast of the final result is sufficient - which Sketch helps me with, too. I always test the icons in their real environment or look at them in their actual size. The wonderful thing about Sketch is that it helps me with the entire icon design flow, so it’s really easy to work with. The truth is it’s mostly just a mash-up of various shadows, blend modes, and blur effects. I’m often asked how I create these 3D-like effects. The manipulation here isn’t only deforming layers but also applying more complex layer effects. This feature, combined with the Scale function, allows for outstanding manipulation of the layers. Since all objects are vectors, I can easily scale them up, down, or distort them without becoming blurry. From this, the final result crystallizes more and more, until it feels ‘right’. ![]() Piece by piece - or rather Artboard by Artboard - I then work my way forward iteratively. When it comes to beginning a project, I always start with the basic shapes, without color, light and shadow. And I don’t even mean technical performance, but rather how fast you can move and how easy it is to think in. The interface was similar to Keynote, there was a separate column for layers, and best of all, I could apply inner shadows! I was in love from the first second. When I opened it for the first time, everything immediately seemed logical to me. One day around mid-2011 I was browsing the Mac App Store, and Sketch caught my attention. As an interim solution - this may sound a little surprising now - I used Keynote. To use anything, you had to watch endless tutorials. I was in love from the first second.Īt that time, there was no design tool that could really convince me. When I opened Sketch for the first time, everything immediately seemed totally logical to me. This excitement drove me to design app icons myself. I really wanted to use icons I had designed myself, so I started drawing little rectangles on a 16 × 16 canvas.Īround the same time, I was fascinated by the artistic app icons of my iPod Touch’s home screen. I was working on a website redesign and I got the idea to use little pictograms for a sidebar. When I was about 13 years old, I loved building websites with iWeb, which was part of Apple’s iLife bundle. Can you tell us a little about how you started in icon design? We sat down with icon designer Yannick Lung to walk us through the challenges he’s faced while designing many of his app icons and icon packs - and why he used Sketch to do it. You need to pack a lot of key information into a small, sharp image - and it has to look appealing, of course. Designing great, easy-to-understand icons is a real skill. ![]()
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