Launching “The iOS App Icon Book”

Over three years ago I wrote about some of the work I was doing on The iOS App Icon Book.

Since then, I’ve had a few things happen in life: became a first-time homeowner and moved cities, added a third child to the family, and lived through a global pandemic—to name a few.

And that book? It’s still there. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Today is a big milestone: we launched the Kickstarter and have begun taking orders!

What’s the book? Here’s Michael, from the Kickstarter:

[This beautiful artbook exists to] celebrate the craft, inspire new work, and preserve the history of the art that has lived on our mobile devices.

A history that is quickly fading. Many apps featured in this book aren't around anymore or have evolved — which means the work we've been doing to capture this artwork have bordered on internet archaeology. If we don’t preserve these things now, while we still have the opportunity to, they will be gone forever.

What’s my involvement? Again, from the Kickstarter:

Jim Nielsen runs and curates a range of icon gallery websites (e.g. iosicongallery.com) and has been instrumental in the creation of this book, through several years of long video calls, editorial decisions, and thousands of emails. A lot of the content in this book builds on his many years of dedicatedly running his icon galleries. Jim has been an invaluable sparring partner in all things related to the book, right from the start.

As you might well know, I’ve been diligently collecting and preserving great icon artwork for over ten years on iosicongallery.com and while I’ve taken a long view in how I build and maintain that website, a book is a whole other level of archival.

I know the price of the book might be steep. It’s definitely a niche book intended as an artifact of craft. It’s no paperback.

But if you’ve any interest in the history and craft of iOS icon design, check out The iOS App Icon Book on Kickstarter.