iOS App Icon Creation
Budget / Salary£250–750
TypeFreelance project
LocationRemote
Posted1 hour ago
APP ICON BRIEF
WHAT WE WANT
A new app icon for an iPhone app that keeps score at board, card and dice games. Keep the idea of today's icon: a white meeple wearing a gold crown on a purple background (purple #6C3DF4, gold #FFD426). You can refine the shapes, proportions and colours, but keep it simple: just the meeple and the crown, with no app name or other text.
The icon must be built for Apple's Liquid Glass style (iOS 26 and iOS 27), where the system adds the glass, highlights and shadows itself. That changes what you deliver: layered flat artwork plus an Icon Composer file, not a single finished picture.
WHAT I'LL SEND YOU
• Today's icon as a SVG.
• The colours above.
TOOLS AND TEMPLATES
• Draw in Figma, Sketch, Illustrator or Photoshop, using Apple's app icon template from Apple Design Resources (developer.apple.com/design/resources). It has the icon grid.
• Assemble and preview in Icon Composer, Apple's free icon app for Mac (developer.apple.com/icon-composer). You will need a Mac for this step.
• Guidelines to follow: Apple Human Interface Guidelines, App icons (developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/app-icons).
HOW TO DRAW IT
• Canvas: 1024 × 1024 px, square. Do not round the corners or mask the edges; iOS does that, and pre-rounded layers spoil the glass edges.
• Keep the meeple and crown centred and inside the grid so nothing is cut off.
• Use bold, filled, simple shapes with clean hard edges. No thin lines, sharp spikes, fine detail or feathered edges.
• Do not paint in highlights, shine, drop shadows, bevels, glows or blur. The system adds all of these and moves them with the light.
• No text or letters.
• Background: a solid colour or a simple gradient, set inside Icon Composer rather than drawn as an image.
• Keep some of the foreground white or near-white, so the icon still has contrast when people tint their Home Screen.
• The gold crown and the white meeple are both light colours, so they can blur together at small sizes. Leave a clear gap or a strong edge between the crown and the head, so they read as two shapes even at the smallest size.
LAYERS
Split the artwork into separate layers, each exported at the full 1024 × 1024 canvas so they line up when imported:
1. Background: purple, set in Icon Composer.
2. Meeple: white, in its own group.
3. Crown: gold, in its own group, above the meeple, so it gets its own depth from the glass.
Use transparency only where it helps the sense of depth, and set it in Icon Composer rather than in the drawing. The meeple should still read as white: if it is too see-through, the purple shows through and it turns greyish.
Format: SVG for each layer (outline everything). PNG only for any part that is raster or uses a mesh gradient. Colour space sRGB or Display P3.
THE SIX LOOKS
iOS shows every icon six ways: default, dark, clear light, clear dark, tinted light and tinted dark. In Icon Composer you set up three of them and the system makes the rest:
• Default: the full-colour icon.
• Dark: same design, more subdued colours, nothing too bright. Please try two backgrounds, a deep purple and a near-black, and show me both.
• Mono: a grayscale version with strong contrast (deep darks, bright highlights). iOS uses it for the clear and tinted looks. Give the crown a clearly different grey from the meeple, so the two don't merge into one white shape.
The meeple and crown must stay the same in every look; don't add or remove elements between them.
VARIATIONS
As well as the main icon, I'd like up to five variations that people can switch to inside the app. Each one is the same meeple and crown, changed only in colour or finish, for example a green felt and gold version or a neon version on deep purple. They must stay clearly the same app. Ideas for others are welcome.
• Apple treats each variation as a full icon, so each one needs its own Icon Composer file with default, dark and mono set up, made the same way as the main icon.
• Keep the same layers and shapes as the main icon so they all match; change the colours rather than the drawing.
• Please price the variations per icon, so I can choose how many to order.
HOW WE'LL WORK
• First, 2–3 rough ideas for the main icon, so we can pick a direction.
• Then the finished main icon, with two rounds of changes included.
• Variations follow once the main icon is agreed.
• Please tell me in your quote how long each stage takes, how many rounds of changes are included, and how and when you'd like to be paid.
CHECKS BEFORE HANDING OVER
• Preview every look in Icon Composer, at its smallest size, in a Home Screen folder, and beside other apps.
• Check it on iOS 26 as well as iOS 27, since some people will not have iOS 27: in Icon Composer's preview if your version offers it, or on an iOS 26 iPhone or simulator.
• Make sure it still reads for people with colour blindness: the meeple and crown should be told apart by shape, not only by colour.
WHAT TO DELIVER
• AppIcon.icon: the finished Icon Composer file, with default, dark and mono set up. This is the file that goes into the app.
• Each layer as SVG (or PNG where needed), at 1024 × 1024.
• The working file from your design tool.
• A flat 1024 × 1024 PNG of the default look, square corners, no transparency, for the website and store listings.
• Optional: flat 1024 × 1024 PNGs of the dark and tinted looks, for the website and press.
• For each variation ordered: its own .icon file, its layers and a flat 1024 × 1024 PNG, as above.
• Optional, for later: Android versions (below).
ANDROID (QUOTED SEPARATELY)
The app is iPhone only today, so this part is for later. Please price it separately from the iPhone work. Android's adaptive icon needs:
• A foreground layer and a background layer, each 108 × 108 dp (432 × 432 px at the largest density), with the meeple and crown inside the central 66 dp circle, since phones crop the edges to different shapes.
• A monochrome layer (one flat colour, transparent background) for Android's themed icons.
• A 512 × 512 PNG for the Google Play listing.
RIGHTS
All work original to you, with nothing from stock libraries, other artists or icon sets. I own the finished icon and the source files, and I'm free to change, adapt and reuse them later, including in marketing.
WHAT WE WANT
A new app icon for an iPhone app that keeps score at board, card and dice games. Keep the idea of today's icon: a white meeple wearing a gold crown on a purple background (purple #6C3DF4, gold #FFD426). You can refine the shapes, proportions and colours, but keep it simple: just the meeple and the crown, with no app name or other text.
The icon must be built for Apple's Liquid Glass style (iOS 26 and iOS 27), where the system adds the glass, highlights and shadows itself. That changes what you deliver: layered flat artwork plus an Icon Composer file, not a single finished picture.
WHAT I'LL SEND YOU
• Today's icon as a SVG.
• The colours above.
TOOLS AND TEMPLATES
• Draw in Figma, Sketch, Illustrator or Photoshop, using Apple's app icon template from Apple Design Resources (developer.apple.com/design/resources). It has the icon grid.
• Assemble and preview in Icon Composer, Apple's free icon app for Mac (developer.apple.com/icon-composer). You will need a Mac for this step.
• Guidelines to follow: Apple Human Interface Guidelines, App icons (developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/app-icons).
HOW TO DRAW IT
• Canvas: 1024 × 1024 px, square. Do not round the corners or mask the edges; iOS does that, and pre-rounded layers spoil the glass edges.
• Keep the meeple and crown centred and inside the grid so nothing is cut off.
• Use bold, filled, simple shapes with clean hard edges. No thin lines, sharp spikes, fine detail or feathered edges.
• Do not paint in highlights, shine, drop shadows, bevels, glows or blur. The system adds all of these and moves them with the light.
• No text or letters.
• Background: a solid colour or a simple gradient, set inside Icon Composer rather than drawn as an image.
• Keep some of the foreground white or near-white, so the icon still has contrast when people tint their Home Screen.
• The gold crown and the white meeple are both light colours, so they can blur together at small sizes. Leave a clear gap or a strong edge between the crown and the head, so they read as two shapes even at the smallest size.
LAYERS
Split the artwork into separate layers, each exported at the full 1024 × 1024 canvas so they line up when imported:
1. Background: purple, set in Icon Composer.
2. Meeple: white, in its own group.
3. Crown: gold, in its own group, above the meeple, so it gets its own depth from the glass.
Use transparency only where it helps the sense of depth, and set it in Icon Composer rather than in the drawing. The meeple should still read as white: if it is too see-through, the purple shows through and it turns greyish.
Format: SVG for each layer (outline everything). PNG only for any part that is raster or uses a mesh gradient. Colour space sRGB or Display P3.
THE SIX LOOKS
iOS shows every icon six ways: default, dark, clear light, clear dark, tinted light and tinted dark. In Icon Composer you set up three of them and the system makes the rest:
• Default: the full-colour icon.
• Dark: same design, more subdued colours, nothing too bright. Please try two backgrounds, a deep purple and a near-black, and show me both.
• Mono: a grayscale version with strong contrast (deep darks, bright highlights). iOS uses it for the clear and tinted looks. Give the crown a clearly different grey from the meeple, so the two don't merge into one white shape.
The meeple and crown must stay the same in every look; don't add or remove elements between them.
VARIATIONS
As well as the main icon, I'd like up to five variations that people can switch to inside the app. Each one is the same meeple and crown, changed only in colour or finish, for example a green felt and gold version or a neon version on deep purple. They must stay clearly the same app. Ideas for others are welcome.
• Apple treats each variation as a full icon, so each one needs its own Icon Composer file with default, dark and mono set up, made the same way as the main icon.
• Keep the same layers and shapes as the main icon so they all match; change the colours rather than the drawing.
• Please price the variations per icon, so I can choose how many to order.
HOW WE'LL WORK
• First, 2–3 rough ideas for the main icon, so we can pick a direction.
• Then the finished main icon, with two rounds of changes included.
• Variations follow once the main icon is agreed.
• Please tell me in your quote how long each stage takes, how many rounds of changes are included, and how and when you'd like to be paid.
CHECKS BEFORE HANDING OVER
• Preview every look in Icon Composer, at its smallest size, in a Home Screen folder, and beside other apps.
• Check it on iOS 26 as well as iOS 27, since some people will not have iOS 27: in Icon Composer's preview if your version offers it, or on an iOS 26 iPhone or simulator.
• Make sure it still reads for people with colour blindness: the meeple and crown should be told apart by shape, not only by colour.
WHAT TO DELIVER
• AppIcon.icon: the finished Icon Composer file, with default, dark and mono set up. This is the file that goes into the app.
• Each layer as SVG (or PNG where needed), at 1024 × 1024.
• The working file from your design tool.
• A flat 1024 × 1024 PNG of the default look, square corners, no transparency, for the website and store listings.
• Optional: flat 1024 × 1024 PNGs of the dark and tinted looks, for the website and press.
• For each variation ordered: its own .icon file, its layers and a flat 1024 × 1024 PNG, as above.
• Optional, for later: Android versions (below).
ANDROID (QUOTED SEPARATELY)
The app is iPhone only today, so this part is for later. Please price it separately from the iPhone work. Android's adaptive icon needs:
• A foreground layer and a background layer, each 108 × 108 dp (432 × 432 px at the largest density), with the meeple and crown inside the central 66 dp circle, since phones crop the edges to different shapes.
• A monochrome layer (one flat colour, transparent background) for Android's themed icons.
• A 512 × 512 PNG for the Google Play listing.
RIGHTS
All work original to you, with nothing from stock libraries, other artists or icon sets. I own the finished icon and the source files, and I'm free to change, adapt and reuse them later, including in marketing.
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