A Showcase of Beautiful Mobile App Icons

by Dan · April 11, 2013

Before Apple released the iPhone, well-designed mobile software was a rarity. User interfaces were awkward and clumsy, and web and desktop software design was light years ahead. The iPhone changed all of this – with Apple’s obsessive focus on gorgeous design, people’s standards for what they expected out of their mobile device were raised. Beautifully designed mobile interfaces and aesthetics were no longer noteworthy – they were to be expected.

And beautiful software design isn’t just expected within the main core of the app itself anymore. Everything needs to be intuitive and thoughtfully crafted – whether it’s the settings page, the sign up and login pages and even the icon for the app itself. If you’re designing a mobile app, keep in mind that, in many ways, the icon can make or break the app’s success. The app icon is often the first thing a potential user will see of your brand – and it needs to make a good impression. The icon will be what identifies your software on the app store, and a nicely designed image can help to show off the fact that the program itself is also, most likely, well designed. It can inspire trust in your app and help to show off it’s professionalism. Ultimately, of course, it can encourage more downloads and sales.

And the benefit of a nicely designed app icon doesn’t end there. If it’s well designed, it may earn a place on the coveted home screen, rather than relegated to several pages back. When your app sits on the home screen, it could be seen hundreds of times a day, and can encourage people to use your software more often.

To help give you some ideas around mobile app icon design, we’ve brought together a showcase of some of the very best. An incredibly talented designer has carefully crafted each one, and each one would earn a spot on the home screen. We hope you find the showcase a useful source of inspiration for any future app design projects you have.