App icon, launch screen, and branding
Give your app a real identity — an icon and launch experience — using AI image tools and Xcode's asset catalog.
An app without an icon looks unfinished and won't pass review looking like a template. The good news: you can design a clean, distinctive icon with AI image tools and drop it in without any graphic-design background.
Designing the icon
- 1Use an AI image generator to create a 1024×1024 icon. Prompt for something simple and legible at small sizes — icons are often shown tiny.
- 2Avoid text in the icon (it becomes unreadable) and avoid fine detail. Bold shape, limited palette.
- 3Export a flat PNG with no transparency and no rounded corners — iOS rounds the corners for you.
Design a minimal iOS app icon for a journaling app called DayOne. A single bold symbol suggesting a new day or a single written line, flat design, two-color palette on a warm gradient background, no text, centered, clean, legible at 60px. 1024x1024.
Simple + legible-when-tiny is the whole brief. Iterate a few times and pick the clearest one.
Adding it in Xcode
- 1Open Assets.xcassets in your project and select AppIcon.
- 2Drag your 1024×1024 PNG into the single icon slot (modern Xcode generates the other sizes automatically).
- 3For the launch screen, keep it minimal: a background color and maybe the app name. In the app's Info settings, use a simple launch screen — a plain branded color reads as more polished than a busy splash.
No transparency, no pre-rounded corners, and don't copy Apple's own iconography or another app's look. Reviewers reject icons that are placeholder-looking, misleading, or infringing. A simple original mark sails through.