Brand Identity Designer - App Icon

To apply, email "[REDACTED]" with the three items listed at the bottom;

Identity and icon work. Not illustration — please read the constraints before applying.

I need an app icon, a wordmark lockup, and a small mark system for an iOS product launching next year. The mark will be filed as a registered trademark.

THE CONSTRAINTS

Primary use is a 40-pixel app icon. Everything else is secondary. If it doesn’t hold at that size, it doesn’t work.

It must read in a single color. No gradient, no color dependency, no detail that collapses in monochrome.

Two states, distinguishable structurally. The mark has an open and a closed form, and the difference between them cannot rely on color — it has to survive in a one-color icon at small size. This is the hardest part of the job.

Layered vector delivery, strict naming. Individual elements named to a convention I’ll provide (petal-01…petal-21, etc.). The mark animates between its two states, which is impossible from a flattened file. A flattened delivery is unusable.

Trademark-grade distinctiveness. The mark has to be ownable, not a template silhouette. It will be examined.

THE SUBJECT

A sunflower. I’m supplying seventeen of my own photographs as reference — the mark comes from a specific real flower, not stock. Style note: I’ve already rejected symmetrical geometric versions as generic, so I’m looking for irregular, drawn character executed with vector discipline. That’s a constraint on the drawing, not the job description.

STRUCTURE AND TERMS

This is a single-designer commission in two phases. No competitive round, no spec work.

Phase 1 — $1,500. Discovery and three developed directions, with real iteration between us. At the end of Phase 1 either of us can stop. If we stop, you’re paid in full and the work is assigned.

Phase 2 — $5,500. The selected direction taken through all eleven deliverables: both states, the full layered build, the wordmark lockup, small-size and single-color variants.

Full IP assignment required. Agreement drafted by counsel and provided before any work begins.

Warranty of originality — not derived from stock, not AI-generated. Non-negotiable. The mark is being registered, and work without human authorship cannot be assigned.

Portfolio display permitted, scoped.

TO BE CONSIDERED, SEND THREE THINGS

One mark you’ve built, shown at 40 pixels and in a single color. The small version, not the hero render.

Three explorations from a single identity project, including directions the client didn’t choose. I want to see how you work a problem, not just where you landed.

One line on your role in the work you’re showing — did you originate the direction, or execute it?

Applications missing any of the three won’t be reviewed.