How to Create Icons for iOS

Get Creative with Icon Design

Geometric Grids Made Easy

Course Summary

A three-part technical course taking you through the process of brain-storming icon ideas and developing them through to completion. 

  • Discover how to use Apple's icon grid to lay out your icon ideas.
  • Build your own original reference collection of icon designs.
  • Apply the Golden Ratio to your icons, even if you don't know what the Golden Ratio is.
  • Overcome the guilt of not being able to draw on paper. Rough sketches are fine!
  • Feeling scattered? Bring focus to your creativity with a grid.
  • Waiting for the motivation? Action leads to motivation; not the other way around. Get Sketching!
  • Develop a constantly exploring attitude, even if your attention feels too splintered to be effective.
  • Discover how to move on, even when you are too attached to an idea or concept.
Part One is available now. Parts Two and Three are on the way. Buy Part One now for $37.00 and receive Parts Two & Three for free when they are released. This is a limited offer. The price for this course will go up each time new lessons are released.

Part One - Sketch

You Don't Have to Get it Perfect; Just Get it Going!

The purpose of sketching is to come up ideas. Your sketch can be rough; it really doesn't matter. This is because you will be vectorising and refining your design on the computer later on. We will be moving quickly to capture those fleeting thoughts before they evaporate from our brains.
  • How to sketch your designs without caring whether they are perfect.
  • How to draw by hand, even if you like to get saved by the pen tool.
  • How to develop one of many iterations, even if you are struggling to pick the strongest one to develop.
  • How to improve your technical skills, even if you only want to be creative and come up with ideas.
  • How to come up with ideas, even if you don't know where to find them.
  • How to rapid-fire your creativity and discover happy accidents.
  • How focusing on quantity will lead to quality. The more you draw, the better you get at it.
A creative approach to icon design leads to many happy accidents that seemingly come from nowhere. Learn to love the freedom of thought that comes from using a grid – to not only focus and guide the size and location of your icon's parts, but to uncover a cornucopia of creative ideas.

Part Two - Vectorize

Hello Beautiful!

It's time to elevate your sketches into something you can be proud of.

  • How to make the most of artboards.
  • How to automagically align and snap the elements in your design.
  • How to use the pen tool to create graceful curves.
  • How to simplify your workflow with pro-end parametric shapes.
  • How to standardise and simplify your colours and gradients.
  • How to add effects and refrain from going over the top.
No Vector Drawing Skills? No Problem
In this part of the course we will focus on the basics of vector drawing, step-by-step, so you can perfectly emulate some of the icons that you see here.

Part Three - Refine

Maximise Recognition & Legibility

With icons being displayed on different devices and at different sizes discover:
  • How to refine your design so it looks crisp and clean.
  • How to simplify your design so it looks its best at smaller sizes.
  • How to master the nodes that define the curves in your design.
  • How to pick one of many iterations, even if you are struggling to pick the strongest one to develop into a finished design.
  • How to show off your technical prowess, even though all you thought all you had was creativity and ideas.
Your Eye
Depending on your skill levels, the process of balancing the elements and white space in your design may be a quick or a slow process. It's also possible that while you might be happy with the finished design, it may still not be ready for the big wide world.

In Part 3 we will focus on developing the skills required to thoughtfully refine your icons into something beyond your initial expectations.
"I love how Chris Heath makes icon/logo design simple, fun, and beautiful. Learning about "the grid" helped me know why some designs feel "off" to me while others really resonate. Now I can design my logo with confidence knowing it will look balanced and beautiful whether it's simple or complex."
Shereese Alexander

Entreprenuer

Course Curriculum

Chris Heath

Chris is a writer and designer with a serious interest in geometry and design. In the 1990's Chris completed his Masters Thesis on 'The Geometric Laws and Principles in Ornament'. Chris lives in the sunny Art Deco city of Napier, New Zealand.

Course Pricing

  • One Time Purchase
  • $37 USD

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