A Showcase of Creative iOS App Icons

Design work comes in all shapes and sizes. When you’re designing software, it’s all too easy to forget that great design doesn’t just end with the UI of the software itself – it should also be present in absolutely everything else that the end user sees.

That includes the landing page of the site that promotes the app, any marketing materials that a potential customer might see (like banner ads) and the icon of the app itself. The icon is especially important because it becomes what defines the app to the user. After all, if they download the app, they’ll see the icon more than they do the visual interface itself, as it appears on their home screen. It’s also shown on the app store, which means that an icon that stands out and grabs a casual browsers attention has a chance of making your software even more successful.

I wanted to bring together some of my favourite examples of interesting, unexpectedly fantastic iOS app icons. Some of these are concept icons that have been designed just for fun, while others are for existing apps that are out there in the wild. Each of these examples has been designed brilliantly, and I hope that you find the collection an interesting and useful source of inspiration.