The iOS App Icon Book hands on impressions š
I canāt remember how I discovered the iOS App Icon book, but Iām glad I did because the book was delivered to me this past week. So I thought Iād write a small post about my impressions with it (as I am incredibly busy with other things right now that are happening in my life).
The book is written by Michael Flarup, who announced the project in 2018 and brought the project to Kickstarter in November 2021. I thought it was an interesting project so I backed it! And a few weeks ago, my copy arrived!
If you think about it, when youāre viewing applications on the App Store, Google Play Store, or even on the Home Screen on your phone, one of the first things you see is the application icon. Itās important that the icon stands out and looks beautiful (because you're going to spend a lot of time looking at the icon once the application is installed).
So letās dive in!
Quality of the book
This book was printed and bound in Denmark by Narayana Press and the quality is fantastic.
The front and back cover and the spine feel great in the hand and the shiny application icon on the front completes the look. In my view, the cover represents the possibilities and hard work of people who work on icons. The cover is printed on 150g heavyweight coated paper with holographic diffraction silver embos.
The paper is printed on 170g heavyweight coated silk and you can feel the quality with every page turn of the book and all the icons just pop off the page. Itās a really good quality paper.
The icons
The book does an excellent job of showing off the amount of detail that goes into each icon. To be honest, you probably spend a lot of time looking at the application icon on your phone, tablet, Mac etc. So the next time you look at your phoneās home screen, take a good look at the icons!
Some applications will change their icon (or even allow the user to change the icon), and the book shows how icons have changed (for some applications) over the years and itās good to go down memory lane on some classic icons (especially the early days when icons had a 3D look instead of being flat and minimalistic)
Each icon in the book looks great and you should take the time to look at each one. You might spot a few details that you hadnāt seen before!
I also view the book as a source of inspiration on what colours work together, whatās on the icon, etc.
The interviews and content
This isnāt just a book about showing application icons, itās also about the process of creating them and getting an insight into the people of how they create icons, how they got started and what their thoughts are on the process of creating an icon. It's great to see people from different parts of the world interviewed for this book.
Getting an understanding of how people create icons is an eye opener. Itās an opportunity to learn and get inspiration in design.
Michaelās introduction on how to get started with designing icons and core aspects is well written and inspiring. It gives you the push in wanting to pick up designing icons yourself.
The extra swag!
There were a few extra goodies included as well:
- A thank you note
- A sticker (which looks great)
- And an application icon stencil!
The stencil is my personal highlight, it has a solid feel and can even work with the Apple Pencil!
Here's a quick demo of using the stencil with Pixelmator Pro, where I have mirrored the display onto my iPad (I am no means a professional icon designer!)
Itās a really nice touch for the stencil to be included in the book (I may even take a stab at designing an icon myself!)
I have yet to decide on where I will place the sticker.
Should you get it?
If you have an interest in software, iOS or UX/UI then you should get this book. The amount of care and attention can be felt in every page of this book, and that alone is why itās worth considering buying a copy.
Disclaimer: I bought this book by contributing to the Kickstarter project. All my views in this post are my own. Photos were taken on a Panasonic Lumix G7 camera and edited in Pixelmator Pro.
