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Programmer here, working on an app by myself. I think I'm slowly improving with my images each month, but I've never taken a course in graphics design, so there are elements of professionalism that are undoubtedly absent from my work.

Here is what I've got so far. It's for a camera/food app where you can take pictures of culinary creations and share them. My icon is a camera with a cookie instead of a lens. To me, it looks complete, but I'm sure an expert will have some suggestions I can implement. Thank you!

Also, if there's something I did that's good, let me know so I can continue doing that.

enter image description here

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I'm not a designer so take my advice with a grain of salt: I think there's too much of a discrepancy between both components of your image, i.e. the camera is too simplistic when the cookie is too photorealistic. Maybe you could find a cookie icon that you could use? Also, I would add more border and/or more subtle drop shadows to your camera. – julien_c Jun 8 '12 at 11:48
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I think it looks pretty good - but I wonder what the icon looks like when scaled down. You'll probably never display the icon this big, in fact icons usually are very small. In that case you might not even tell it's a cookie at all! (you should scale it down just to see how that works for you). – poepje Jun 8 '12 at 14:39
I agree with @poepje in that it looks good. Relating to scale, this post by the legend Jon Hicks might offer some useful advice on icon size and the background an icon is mounted on especially if you intend to list your app in the apple store. I would also try other snacks in the lens e.g. nuts, fruit and cakes! – jamesy Jun 12 '12 at 10:09

1 Answer

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Try giving your shutter more depth by making it a bit more cylindrical-shaped. Try and make it appear as though it were popping out. The more "realistic" it looks, the more likely people are going to want to buy it. It gives them a sense that they are buying a "thing" instead of an app. Also add some white transparent glares around sharp edges. Hope this helps, I'm new here!

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Thanks a lot! What do you mean by transparent glare? – Nick Jun 8 '12 at 7:10
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I worded that incorrectly aha. I meant more of a "shiny" gloss effect, similar to the gloss effect that gets added by default to apps in the App Store. For that you will want to create a new filled white layer to the shape you want glossy, and just decrease the opacity. I recommend using the elliptical tool to get the right shape. – Novakedy Jun 9 '12 at 2:02

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