What's in an icon?

Pot calling the kettle black? I see the latest update to the Frenzic app has a SALE banner emblazoned across it...

An icon makes or breaks an app.

As a graphic designer, and someone who has made a countless amount of application icons, I'll say this:

1. Especially in the Jailbreak community, icons are very important. I can't tell you how long I put off downloading some of the old school emulators because the icons were just bad.

2. Putting the title of your application IN YOUR ICON, is a huge faux pas. Not only is the application name right underneath the application on the spring board, the small fancy font never looks right, and always subtracts from the icons over all aesthetics.

3. Applications that have icons resembling the actual application are a lot more appealing than ones that have a random cropped picture slapped across a gradient background.

4. And finally, it's like people. Guys will look at a girl and see a pretty girl. We will like how that person looks, and even if we get to know the person and they turn out to be a blood sucking demon, they will probably still be physically attractive.


I have applications on my iPhone that I no longer use, if not because I sunk a few cents into them, because they just look pretty sitting there.

I agree with the people who are saying ugly icon = ugly app. If u've built a great app, why not spend a fraction of the time it took to write the app to put a bit of effort into the icon too.

One example i can think of today was WiFinder, which was updated. In the update release notes they said the icon had been updated, which i though was cool because the old icon was pretty... err crap.

To me amazement the new icon is probably worse! they have just zoomed in on one bit of the icon and therefore looks very low quality (low res) and looks worse now.

The real outrider for Icons are Susan Kare with the first icons for the first (commercial) GUI and Cesar Carrera with his original OS X icons.

Only one pic from C. Carreras 3D design:
http://blog.tice.de/beitrag.php?file=2005_11_30_2304&sprache=englisch

... and lots of his work (but also from others:
http://blog.tice.de/icons.php?sprache=englisch

Susan Kare's website (Mac portfolio):
http://www.kare.com/portfolio/03_apple_macicons.html

With regard to the iPhone specifically, to my eye the name of the app is of almost equal importance. Not just for how it relates to the app itself (that's always the case), but in terms of it fitting neatly underneath the icon as is it's displayed.

The dotted center (ex: "MyApp...ere") or otherwise abbreviated name look is pretty lame, and could otherwise ruin a decent looking icon.

Frenzic got it right in both cases.

I think the Frenzic icon is spot on. It makes the app easily identifiable. That's not to say bright colors are the way to go, though. The pie shape and techno background all add in to the identity. So many icons are heavy-handed with the glossy highlight, forcing the identity to the back. I look through my screens to find something and see shinyapp, shinyapp,Calendar, shinyapp, iPod, shinyapp...

I prefer the ones that are solid color with a white picture. Adds a bit of a universality to it.

iPod, Phone, Text... Facebook, TwitterFon, BeejiveIM.

I only download apps with nice icons too. The only App I have with a crappy icon is Jaadu VNC because I can't live without that app. Some apps used to have crappy icons, but updates fix those. I also hate icons that have a black background.... those ones look weird on my black screen. I also hate icons with weird shapes or 3D icons that look out of perspective compared to the rest of them (Delivery Status, File Magnet, Pennies)... these icons would look good in OS X, but they don't match the iPhone icons.

I agree with the above poster. Usually if the icon is ugly, the App will be ugly or cheesy. I wish people would take more care in the design of the icon. Ugly interfaces also turn me off too. I want my 3rd party apps to feel as if they were made by Apple (Such as Wallet or Things).

usually the apps with the uglier icons are pretty bad. its all about presentation. if you're app is shit at least make it look nice. it you half ass icon it seems to me that you don't care.

that being said, some of my favorite icons include duckshoot, newssrand, ocarina and delivery status touch.

Kiwi may not be the best Wikipedia app available, but damn, does it have a nice icon!
http://redromelogic.com/kiwi