How to design icons
Icons are made in sets, which means they need to work well together and belong to a group. To do this, it's important to start with simple shapes – an icon should be drawn using circles, triangles or squares before being refined.
Starting designs within a set grid and a dedicated border means that each icon will have the beginnings of a uniform look. Then it’s a case of bringing your paper–based sketches to life using design software. Consistency is key. That means adding a small feature such as corner cut out or curve to each icon so that they are obviously related. It’s worth avoiding hand drawn curves, instead relying on software to add them into designs to ensure they are perfect every time.
Because icons tend to be small, especially on smartphone screens, it’s essential to keep pixels aligned. Any angles on an icon that hasn’t been aligned properly may appear out of shape and poorly put together.
As with all good design, simplicity is essential, even more so with icons. Flourishes and overly illustrated designs will be hard to discern and make icons look overly fussy.
