An iPhone Icon Apart
We like to think that every damn element within Postman is beautiful, starting with the gorgeous user interface designed by David Lanham and Phill Ryu, to the amazing icon design by Na Wong. I’ve run out of adjectives to use, but we are pretty happy with the whole Postman experience.
An inviting icon is the key to any successful iPhone app, along with it being a good app and all. I know I base a lot of my purchasing decisions on the App Store depending on it. If your app has an icon that makes me furiously tap back to the App listings, it’s not right. After all, when you’re in the mist of categories on the App Store you see nothing but a name and an icon.
An icon for your app isn’t the cheapest initial investment you’ll ever make and you will never find out if it’s paid for itself. But, even though I have approximately zero evidence for this, it will pay for itself and more. An icon is more than just a 57×57 branding. If you are looking for an icon designer, you should check out one of these guys, stat:
If you think you’ve got the skills, or want to recommend a designer, send an email and I’ll add to this ever-useful list.
If Apple is going to promote your app in any form other than a listing on the App Store, they will expect high resolution art to use. Don’t have any? Tough, they need it. Getting any sort of exposure in television or print is one sure route to pay back that icon ‘debt’. Frankly, I’d have paid Na ten times what he charged for the icon I got. It’s amazingly detailed and works all the way from 57×57 to 512×512 and most importantly, people are purchasing Postman based on it having that icon (and for other reasons too, we hope).
So how did the Postman icon come to be? Na sent me the initial sketches on the 13th May, a full one day after I had emailed him asking if he would be interested in creating an icon. These guys don’t play around.
It’s safe to say that I loved the concept, so much so that I eagerly emailed Na back demanding he goddamn accept payment for the icon now. He set to work on creating it in Photoshop and this was the result:
Again, I loved where Na was heading. The style of the whole thing was pretty much exactly what I had wanted. The starfish and shell were especially awesome. However, it felt like something was missing below the Postcard. It looked empty and dare I say it, lonely. I had an idea for it to include a pencil, generic I know, but it served the purpose of conveying the fact we are creating and editing Postcards. We also had the potential lawsuit of using the Apple headquarters as the ‘From:’ address (we joke, perhaps?).
This was the final result and we could not have been happier. I added the Freeverse stamp myself for branding reasons. The icon is now pretty famous, thanks to that little television ad Postman was featured in.
Icon designers don’t get anywhere near as much credit as they deserve. It’s easy to see just from browsing the App Store that a lot of developers decide to go rogue and try their hand in Photoshop, only to create a truly terrifying and avoidable icon. To be blunt and to the point, if you want your app to be a success you need a damn good icon to go with it.
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