Icon design

Make a recognizable object at its actual viewing size. Preserve the editable design decisions and prove the delivered resource matches them.

Start here

1. Identify the role: app identity, document/file type, interface symbol, or customization artwork. Record the app's human purpose, audience, recognizable anchor, platform, minimum OS, current Xcode, appearances, and exact deliverables. Infer routine choices; ask only for missing decisions that affect direction.
2. Read Concept and judgment. For premium craft or reference-led work, read Premium reference review. Produce two or three materially different silhouettes when the direction is open. Use SVG roughs; do not perfect three cosmetic variations of one idea.
3. For style direction, modernization, or dimensional artwork, read Evolution and future. Separate depth, perspective, tilt, and rendering ownership. Select the delivery route before adding effects. Read Apple delivery: clean layered art for Icon Composer; painted masters for static illustration/asset catalogs; separate symbol conventions for UI. OS-dependent facts are dated and must be refreshed when shipping.
4. Build named geometry, then value hierarchy, material, and restrained detail. Read Construction and, for dimensional illustration, Materials and light.
5. Review early at intended size. Read Optical sizes and families. Author smaller compositions when scaling loses identity. A 16-point @2x resource and a 32-point @1x resource can need different artwork despite both being 32 pixels.
6. Render and inspect using Tooling. Use a new output directory each build. Exporting must never replace an authored optical source. Verify receipts after edits.
7. Read Review and delivery. Inspect actual renders, alpha, light/dark/busy backgrounds, peers, and target application. Record source, raster, package, OS-context, and human acceptance separately.

Non-negotiable craft

• One recognizable idea leads. Detail earns its place by improving identity, depth, or material.
• Optical balance wins over numeric symmetry. Metrics identify questions; they do not grade beauty.
• Preserve identity across sizes and appearances; simplify geometry and redistribute contrast.
• Keep authored surface shading distinct from system-owned effects. Avoid double shadows and baked glass in Composer inputs.
• Preview every new rendering technique before scaling up its use. An SVG that parses can still render differently across engines.
• Treat current Apple masking as a delivery contract. Do not bake today's app-icon outer mask into Composer layers.
• Do not extrapolate 2000s desk perspective, tilt, color-depth tables, or mask conventions into current requirements.
• Never declare a static browser preview equivalent to Icon Composer or a shipped-device render.

Progressive disclosure map

Working outputs

Keep a brief, concept sheet, editable masters, explicit resource manifest, render receipt, inspection sheet, and delivery notes. Add .icon or compiled packages only when that route has actually been executed. Start from the original example when a deterministic tool smoke test is useful; do not turn its identity into the user's design by default.

The skill is an original operational synthesis of the locally studied Icon Resource course, associated Iconfactory manuals, and dated Apple documentation. It contains no course videos, transcripts, PSDs, or extracted course artwork. The separately attributed course study is independently redrawn. See the learning ledger for provenance and coverage limits.