
I like to think that every detail in an icon creates a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts, which means creating a great icon comes from challenging yourself to really nail every little highlight, shadow, color choice, etc. Even after making tons of app icons, I still hit new challenges trying to execute the idea, especially when going for a more skeuomorphic, lifelike style.

This is where I turn to 3D tools and Sketch to create the final piece. The technical rendering itself is the second phase. You can do a beautiful, detailed rendering of a poor idea for an icon and it likely just won’t be that great of an icon. This can be a challenge for a whole variety of reasons, but in some ways, it’s the most important part of designing an icon. The first phase in my process is a lot of sketching, ideating and researching to get a few good concepts for the composition of the icon. When I zoom out a bit from the details and look at the challenges of the whole process I generally see my work in two overlapping phases: There are many little creative challenges involved in icon design, which is why it can be so fun! Icons should be a recognizable symbol for your app, give a good first impression, scale well to different sizes, have good contrast ratios, and more - all unique challenges. What are the challenges involved with developing these icons? Indirectly, studying existing icons, recreating them, and working with 3D tools have fundamentally changed the way I think about the details in icon design when I do get into Sketch to start drawing the final version. I’d say the largest change in my approach and techniques came from learning the basics of 3D design.Įven though I still render most of my final icons in a vector format in Sketch, having a 3D reference for perspective and lighting has directly helped me compose icons. I’m always trying to make incremental improvements and learn something with each icon I make, which has resulted in a lot of tiny changes to my approach over time. How has your approach to icon design changed over time? I’m currently working as a product designer at GitHub on mobile apps and still love making app icons all these years later!Īs a personal project, Gavin redesigned the Things icon for macOS. And after graduating from college, where I focused on Human Computer Interaction, I began working as a product designer and making icons for fun as well as for freelance projects. I very quickly became obsessed with figuring out this world of Photoshop and vector graphics and trying to make my own app icons.įrom there, my interest in product and icon design turned into a passion.
COLIC HOLD SKETCH ICON MAC
I had this moment where it clicked that the icons I was looking at on my Mac were hand-drawn by designers. I remember first becoming interested in design through app icon design when I stumbled upon MacThemes back in high school. I’m a product and icon designer currently living in San Diego, California. You’re about to get a close look at Gavin’s approach to icon design, his love for skeuomorphism, and his creative tips for others in the field.

We knew we had to reach out for a conversation. *Copic Wide is only available as an empty marker which you can fill with your choice of Copic Ink.When we saw Gavin Nelson’s skeuomorphic mobile icon designs on Twitter, we loved how realistic the stitched-leather effect looked. Available in 214 colors and used mainly in architecture, design and graphic illustrations. Features the same nibs as Sketch and is available in 180 colors.Ĭopic Classic: the original model created in 1987 with an iconic square design and color coded caps, features a broad nib and a fine nib. It has a simpler design and a lower quantity of ink. Available in 358 colors and is the preferred choice among many creative professionals in design, illustration and Manga.Ĭopic Ciao: an introductory marker with a more accessible price point.
COLIC HOLD SKETCH ICON FREE
Feel free to choose the type most suitable to your creative needs.Ĭopic Sketch: our global bestseller with an oval ergonomic design and color coded caps, comes with the flexible super brush nib and a medium broad nib. Copic Sketch and Classic are compatible with the Copic Air Brush System. What differs is the overall design, colors available, the type of nib used and the amount of ink in the markers. All our markers are made in Japan and evaluated against the highest quality standards, they are all refillable with Copic Ink and feature replaceable premium quality nibs. There are 3 types of Copic markers*: Ciao, Sketch and Classic.
