1. Start with what the app does
Name the project and write one sentence about the problem the app helps solve. Add the intended audience and the impression its icon should convey. Those three notes are more useful than a list of styles with no connection to the product.
- Purpose: what can someone do with the app?
- Audience: who is that action for?
- Perception: what character should be clear at a glance?
2. Choose a direction, then compare it
The Iconise workflow turns this brief into a sequence of visual decisions. It starts with the project, its identity, and preferences, then offers three creative directions to compare. After you choose one, the Exploration step presents nine interpretations of that direction.
- Describe the project and its identity.
- Add useful preferences, or skip this step if you have none.
- Compare the three creative directions and keep the one that fits the brief.
- Review the nine interpretations of that direction side by side.
Refine without losing the brief
After exploration, the steps for shape and proportions, colors and finish, and background and contrast are optional. Return to the purpose and perception you wrote down at the start: a more decorative variant is not automatically a better fit.
Illustrations from Iconise’s public SVG gallery. Their presence does not establish the brief, prompt, or workflow that may have produced any individual file.
3. Choose how to explore
The free manual workflow prepares a prompt that you copy into an image generator of your choice; you then import the options into the workshop to compare them. Integrated generation depends on the active access mode and offer. It is not required for the decision method in this guide.
4. Select a direction and prepare the files
Compare silhouette, legibility at small sizes, contrast, and fit with the product. Iconise’s final screen offers a PNG export, SVG vectorization, and a ZIP of web favicons. That favicon pack is not a set of App Store or Google Play integration assets.
Common mistakes
- Starting with a popular style without naming the product’s purpose.
- Changing the metaphor, palette, and shape at once, which makes it hard to tell what improved the option.
- Choosing from a large preview alone without reducing the artwork or checking a contrasting background.
- Confusing a final image with a set of assets configured for a platform.
For a reusable brief and small prompt iterations, continue with the prompt guide. Platform file requirements come next, after you have chosen a direction.