I need an app icon that closely follows Apples guidelines here, please read the section “Platform considerations” → “macOS” very closely and follow all points mentioned there, including the icon grid with the right placement and angle for the tool:
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/foundations/app-icons
I want an app icon created with their official template (this is really important in order to have the right rounded corner and right shadow). You can find the official template here:
https://developer.apple.com/design/resources/#macos-apps
For the “familiar tool” in the app icon, I need something related to “translations” or “languages”. My only two ideas are a “flag on mast” and a “magic wand” so far. If you have another idea for the “familiar tool”, please tell me up front before booking the package with a link to an image of the tool so I can confirm that it’s fine to use. I’d love to hear other ideas for the tool, I’m not 100% happy with mine.
I would love to have a design concept for each “familiar tool” so I can make a Twitter survey with the different variants and let my audience decide which one they like better. So I’m expecting to get at least 2 different designs (one for each tool).
As Apple mentioned, the background should “portray the tool’s environment or the items it affects”. My app is an extension for Xcode, which is a programming tool. So the background should be something related to programming or Xcode. You can find the Xcode icon here:
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/foundations/app-icons/images/app-icon-realistic-materials_2x.png
Please do not use the “A” shape of Xcodes background. Xcode works on “apps” and therefore this “A” shape makes sense for Xcode. But my app works on “Xcode projects” so it doesn’t make sense to reuse the background of the Xcode icon as my app is not related to “apps”.
Idea A: Instead, you could use the foreground “hammer” tool used in Xcode as a background and you could outline it similar to how Xcode outlines the “A” shape. You could reuse the “sketch” kind of look and feel if you go this route.
Idea B: Another approach for the background could be to use a “code” inspired background. One way of doing that could be to use the idea of the Matrix film and make it look something like this:
https://unsplash.com/photos/iar-afB0QQw
Idea C: You could also simply use actual code, maybe also in the “sketchy” style to give a feeling of “building something” or “engineering something”. But if you do, please make sure to use code in the Swift language – most such images online are written in JavaScript or some other unrelated language to my app. If you need some sample Swift code, you can find it in these places:
https://docs.swift.org/swift-book/GuidedTour/GuidedTour.html
https://github.com/FlineDevPublic/OpenFocusTimer/tree/main/Sources/MainFeature
