Icons work hardest when the logo, colours and type were designed to the same rules. Our brand identity service sets those rules, and brand guidelines record them, icons included, so the next designer draws new ones that match. If you only need the mark itself, start with logo design.
Icon design
Small pictures, read in an instant.
Icon design gives your website, app and documents one family of small pictures that read instantly and match your logo.
Kinds
What kinds of icons do we design?
UI
Website and app icons
Menus, buttons and feature lists, drawn on one grid and supplied as SVG so they stay sharp at any size.
App
App icons and favicons
The one mark that stands for you on a phone’s home screen and in a browser tab, exported at every size the stores and browsers ask for.
Service
Service and feature icons
The row of icons on a services page or in a company profile, each standing for one thing you do.
Signs
Wayfinding pictograms
Symbols for buildings, events and packaging, drawn to be printed large or cut from vinyl.
Why custom
Why custom icon design instead of a free set?
Free icon sets are drawn to someone else’s rules: a stroke weight, a corner radius and a mood that won’t match your logo. The same icons also turn up on your competitors’ websites. Custom icons borrow their geometry from your mark, so the set looks like it belongs to you before anyone reads a word.
A custom set also covers what you actually do. A stock library offers a hundred shopping trolleys and nothing for the specific service you sell, so the gaps get filled with icons that almost fit. Ours are drawn for your list.
Formats
Which icon formats will you receive?
| Format | Used for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SVG | Websites and apps | Scales to any size, tiny files, colour can be changed in code |
| PNG | Documents, email and slides | Exported at 1x, 2x and 3x for ordinary and high-density screens |
| Favicon set | Browser tabs, bookmarks and home screens | ICO and PNG at the standard sizes, plus the touch icons |
| EPS and PDF | Print and vinyl cutting | Vector, with strokes outlined so nothing shifts |
| Sprite or icon font | Older websites | Only where your developer asks for it |
Process
How an icon set is designed
List and group
Every icon the site or app needs, grouped by meaning so related things end up looking related.
Grid and style
One grid, one stroke weight, one corner radius, filled or outlined, tested beside your logo.
Draw and test
Each icon drawn, then checked at the smallest size it will be used and in a single colour.
Export and name
Exported in every format, named consistently, with a sheet showing the whole family together.
Branding & merchandise
Related services
Questions
Questions about icon design
Question not here? Send it to us and we will answer it directly.
Ask a questionHow do we start an icon design project?
Send the list of icons you need and your logo files through the project form or email hello@redfoxbranding.com. If the list isn’t settled, send the website or app screens they will sit on and we draw it up with you. You get a fixed quote in GBP, USD or ZAR before the first icon is sketched.
How many icons should a set have?
As many as there are distinct things to show, and no more. A services page may need six; an app may need forty. We ask for the list first, group it, and often find that two or three items can share one icon. If the set grows later, the grid and style rules mean a new icon takes far less time than the first batch did.
Can the icons match our existing logo?
That is the point of a custom set. We measure your logo’s stroke weight, corner radius and angles and draw the icons from them, so they sit beside the mark as if they were always there. If the logo only exists as a low-resolution JPEG, we redraw it in vector first, which you will need for signs and print anyway.
Do you design app icons for the Apple and Google stores?
Yes. An app icon is one bold shape that survives being shrunk to a thumbnail, and each store sets its own sizes and shapes. We follow Apple’s app icon guidance and Google’s adaptive icon rules, and supply the master artwork, every required export and the favicon set for your website.
Icons are one part of the system
Get a quote for icon design
Send your logo, the list of icons you need and where they will appear: a website, an app, a profile or a sign. We come back with a fixed price and a style note showing how the set will relate to your mark. Approve that, and the icon design begins.