DailyUI 005 – App Icon

This was a fun one. App icons are something I’ve been trying to get better at so this one was enjoyable. The big question would rather be an icon for what? It’s either think of a random app with a function, or just make an icon for the sake of it. I was leaning more to the latter.

Lunar New Year was on my mind most of the day and the very first thought I had was to make an icon related to that. However, when I sat down to actually start making something I did something completely different. I was about to make an icon based on the Alarm app redesign we’re doing at school at the moment. As I was tinkering and going through it in my head I realised it wasn’t really what I wanted to do, and it would feel like it wouldn’t really be mine either, as the design would be based on someone else’s work.

That, and I really wanted to make a monkey. So I did.

My first thought was, since the Lunar New Year is based upon the Chinese lunisolar calendar system, to make the icon look more like a calendar app icon. Inspiration was drawn from both Google’s own Android Calendar icon as well as Jack Underwood’s Today Calendar.

The monkey head was the first thing I did, and I already had the specific style in mind as I was making it and I’m pleased to say I managed to succeed in recreating my thoughts fairly well. But it felt a bit empty with just the monkey, so I added the moon in the background, referencing the Lunar. I was debating whether to make moon completely round or a crescent, but the crescent wouldn’t look as good with the different shades in my opinion.

I also had the Chinese character for “luck” in there, but it felt way too out of place no matter where I put it so I decided to omit it completely. And I think it’s better off for it.

Going over it now I notice that the shade split on the monkey head isn’t fully centered. Tells me I need to detail check more before uploading these. New learning every time.