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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
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 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).
    – paddotk
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 14:39
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    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
    Commented Jun 12, 2012 at 10:09
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    At icon size, the text will be unreadable and I'd worry that the cookie would be indistinguishable as well. Be sure to preview at actual size.
    – DA01
    Commented Mar 9, 2014 at 5:41

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This is not much of an icon to me. A good icon should be more graphic; this image relies on illustrated and photographic elements which are not consistent in style.

The camera looks flat, the shadow is too spread-out and not realistic.

"SnackShot" text is too small compared to the whole image. The kerning of the text needs improvement.

I feel the whole thing needs to be redesigned.

Sorry for being harsh but I am just trying to be honest and helpful with my feedback.

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i like the idea, and I am pleased with the subtle flash.

I second @conceptoftheday This is not very useful as an icon if you are going to use it as a tiny application icon. Think mobile. Here it is in 40, 80 and 120

enter image description here

enter image description here

enter image description here

The text in not visible in either, but this may not be a problem, depending on use. You then have to teach your users first, but people are pretty good at that.

An alternative would be to add the text underneath the camera, and loose the shadow.

I think you could make the cookie bigger, the idea of "camera" is obvious, you do not have to have the lens quite as thick.

The drop-shadow is a little on the heavy side, and considering the camera is very stylised, adding much depth is a little odd.

The cookie is, I think, a little too photographic in relation to the rest. Try searching for "cookie drawing" and see if you can find inspiration in simplified cookies.

Maybe a better idea would be to use something else entirely; something with simpler shape and bright colours and something easier to stylise. First springs to mind is a sliced kiwi or orange. Excuse crude mockup; this orange would have to be more stylised.

enter image description here

Anything round-ish would work, I think. Olives, fruit, berries...

(Here is a wacky idea.. if you use a fruit of some sort, you could have another fruit beside the camera. This might give a subtle 3D feel without that slightly heavy shadow).

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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. I mean 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.

Hope this helps, I'm new here!

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Boblet makes great points, particularly about losing the drop shadow. I beg to differ about using fruits as the snack, the cookie and orange are hard to decipher at small size. I suggest a doughnut...mmmm. Think of the archetypical doughnut, as seen on The Simpsons. Round, brown, with delicious pink frosting. Mmmmn. Definitely snack-y. You could drive the snack point home by taking a virtual bite of the doughnut.

enter image description here

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  • I hate to rain on the parade, but doughnuts do not look like that in all countries... and I found the slight perspective on the doughnut a little odd against the flat camera.
    – benteh
    Commented Mar 9, 2014 at 20:00
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    Definitely a quick hack job on my part...and I have a problem with doughnuts. Nom, nom nom aarrggh.
    – Ray Mitchell
    Commented Mar 10, 2014 at 2:27
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I thought instead of getting caught up in the types of snacks to show (because they vary in each location or culture) focus on portraying the "feeling" snacks give people when they desire a snack. Of course You want a camera to be readable in your icon so I kept that and I added a symbol of some smiling woman's red lips with her though licking ready to SNACK! lol - I did a ruff image for you to play off of. Of course this is just a real ruff idea, but since you want help, I hope this gives you some good ideas and gets you out of the box a little.

enter image description here

Enjoy! T

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    That is terrifying.
    – plainclothes
    Commented Aug 21, 2014 at 16:02
  • HAHAAHA! Yes it is HUNGRY!
    – tony.stack
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 15:43

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