Universal iOS app icon

Technology

We make simple and functional iOS apps for a wide, global audience.

Hi there. I'm looking to have a new app icon designed for T—, a simple countdown timer app for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. THE APP & AUDIENCE T— is designed to be familiar and easy to use while providing lots of functionality. It achieves this by using native controls and following the interaction patterns found in Apple's built-in apps. It's used by a people of all ages and demographics: students timing their practice sessions, teachers in classrooms, parents with their children, athletes timing their workouts/game penalties, and people cooking, doing chores, taking medications, napping, brewing tea, meditating, etc. It has users from all around the world, particularly in the US, Europe, and Asia. REQUIREMENTS The app icon should be simple, attractive, and universally recognizable across different cultures as a countdown timer. See attached images of countdown timers in real life for inspiration. If you know of other archetypes of a countdown timer, please let me know in the comments! I'd like the icon to have a clean, understated design with a small color palette and subtle gradients and textures. It should match the look and feel of the app's UI. ICON STYLES THAT I LIKE Here are some icons with "clean, understated design with a small color palette and subtle gradients and textures" that I like. - Twitter (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitter/id333903271?mt=8) - Foodish (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foodish/id432295282?mt=8) - Reeder (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reeder/id325502379?mt=8) - RunKeeper (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/runkeeper/id300235330?mt=8) - Path (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/path/id403639508?mt=8) - Apple's icons for Clock, Stocks, iBooks, and Remote. I also like visually rich, high-fidelity icons, such as the icons by by sophiestication.com, tapbots.com, taptaptap.com, Seamless (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seamless/id420768433?mt=8), and Apple's Compass and iWork suite of apps. However, I don't think T— could handle that much flair since the its UI is understated, though the final icon could incorporate some elements from them, such as Seamless's vantage point of an object on a table. Put another way, the abstraction level for the icon should be between Apple's Clock icon and about half way towards Seamless. Wait, that did not make anything clearer. I trust you as a designer. Go nuts sketching out what you think might work.

* Must look clean, friendly, and universally recognizable as a countdown timer. * Must be consistent with the look and feel of the app (—). Launching into the app by tapping your icon should feel seamless. * No text. Numerals might be okay, but try to avoid it as it doesn't scale well. * Must look great small (29x29) to large (512x512). It would be nice to have more detail in the larger sizes, but at least optimize for the app icon sizes (57x57, 72x72, 114x114). * Must deliver PNG files optimized for the following sizes, per Apple's recommendations (http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/IconsImages/IconsImages.html). - iPhone icon: 57x57 & 114x114 (Retina) - iPad icon: 72x72 - iPhone/iPad settings: 29x29 & 58x58 (Retina) - iPad spotlight: 50x50 - App Store: 512x512 * Must supply vector artwork (RGB) in their original .PSD/.AI formats.

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