Hey Do You Know Much About Creating Icons? I Was Just Wondering How I Could Make My Own And How People

hey do you know much about creating icons? i was just wondering how i could make my own and how people get the cool mildliners and notebooks as their icons

I’ve been getting asks about how I make my icons, so I figured I’d make a mini masterpost on it. These are the basic steps I go through when making an icon

there are tons of different icons you can make: check out my icons tag for inspiration!

what I use: Adobe Illustrator canva. If you’re broke or too scared to torrent this is probably your best bet. You have to sign up, but it’s completely free

Create your document: any size bigger than 400x400px is probably fine, but make sure that it’s a square shape (do this by going to create a design → use custom dimensions)

a ‘lil note: canva does this annoying thing where if you’re zoomed in or out all of the shapes will be slightly off. Unless it’s at 100%, the preview you see won’t be accurate, which is annoying when you’re making something with a lot of shapes

find a reference image: whatever your icon will be, a pen, a book, a calculator, a reference image will help immensely with accuracy and amount of effort going into your icon (I used this photo for the leuchtturmicon)

background color: I usually start with a light grey so that it contrasts with al the color I’m using in the icon, then I change it at the end if i need to (do this by going to background → document colors)

create your icon!: easier said than done, obviously. canva doesn’t have a pen tool, so you have to take the shapes they give you and build on them. Notebooks are probably the easiest; just use rectangles, and you’re good. For more complex shapes, you have to take several shapes and put them together. If I was making a notebook with rounded edges on one side, I would use a rectangle for the base then put a rounded rectangle overlapping one side that makes no sense I’m sorry It’s often really tedious and a bit complicated to test with different shapes, so message me or send an ask if you have any specific questions. (shapes and things are in elements → shapes)

logos and things: because canva is so limited with shapes, theres basically no way to make company logos. What I do is google search the logos then drag them into the uploads box on the left side of the screen. Then I just add them to the icon (that’s what I did on the rhodia and muji notebooks in this and the kanken in this). If you can’t find the icons in the right colors or with transparent backgrounds, put them in LunaPic and go to edit → transparent background and adjust → color changer.

color scheme: I’m super lazy about color, and I usually use the extension Palette Creator to create a palette for my reference image and I use those. Tip for lazy people: light/low saturation colors are basically foolproof

add shadows: if you want to. Shadows add dimension, but they are also very tedious to do if you made your icon with lots of different shapes. There are two basic types of shadows you can make (these or the book icon in this).

add any other details you didn’t add before-compare your reference image and your icon

save your icon!!

and thats it! hope this helped at least some of you, and message me or send an ask if you need any more specific help

Some Unnecessary Study Necessities

A Good Place To Work:

1. Starbucks. The smell of coffee and the quiet chatter make it very peaceful while working. It provides some nice white noise and you can get coffee and tea. Perfect.

2. The library. Known for being quiet which can help with focusing. They also usually have printers and you’re surrounded by books for researching if need be.

3. My backyard. Not my backyard specifically, but sitting in the fresh air while doing homework can be relaxing. If you have outdoor tables/furniture, even better!

4. A friends house. Be careful though. A friend can either help you focus and you can work together, or they can be your biggest distraction.

5. My living room. You don’t have to leave the house the change your study space. Just sit at your dining table or couch and get out of your room for a bit.

Snacks:

1. Fresh fruit. My personal favorites are apple slices, grapes, raspberries or cherries. They’re mess free, and good for you.

2. Nuts. I love cashews. They’re super easy. You can even find them it small, individual packages to throw in your bag if you’re leaving the house.

3. Popcorn. Just plain ol salted popcorn. Mmm

Noises:

1. White noise. My go to. you can find playlists of white noise on Youtube, Spotify, or Pandora stations. There’s also an app called Tide which acts as a Pomodoro timer with white noise in the background.

2. Piano. I listen to the Piano in the Background or the Piano Bar playlists on Spotify because there’s no words to distract me.

3. Movie soundtracks. I like the ones from superhero movies because they put me in a kickass mood.

Of course you don’t really need snacks or background noise or whatever but it can make studying a bit more enjoyable. Just do what you need to do to get stuff done.

1K notes View Post

daisy-zam

7 years ago

There are a ton of masterposts like this floating around, but you can never have to much advice for baby studyblrs!

Before we start, some studyblr terms + things: studyblr=study+tumblr (your blog) studyspo=study+inspiration (photos of notes etc) studygram=study+instagram studytube=study+youtube appblr=application+tumblr (college application blog)

this post probably answers any more questions than I can answer here

Step 1: create your tumblr

The most important step, obviously. Will you make your studyblr a sideblog or a main blog? Both have their merits:

a sideblog if you already have a main and don’t want to keep switching accounts

a main blog if your studyblr will be your main focus or you don’t already have a tumblr

Step 2: your look

This is basically your URL, your theme, and your icon. None on these are set in stone, you can change them whenever you want, but I like having consistency and it makes it easy for people to find you.

Tips for your URL:

make it related to studying~you can have things like stationery items, yourname+studies, anything! (probably a given but I thought I should say it)

make it short. coffeeandpens is easier to remember that the-boy -who-studies-ancient-greek-literature-257963. Of course there’s nothing really wrong with the second one, but it’s long and a lot harder to remember than coffeeandpens

make your URL the same on all your platforms so that it’s easier to find you

check out @studyquill‘s studyblr URL generator if you’re stuck!

Tips for your icon:

if you’ve gone through a few studyblrs, you’ll probably see that the most popular type of icons are vector icons. A ton of studyblrs have made free icons for the community (me included) and you can usually find them in the tag #studyblr icons and on @studyblr-icons

you can also find icons on flaticon (make sure you credit them somewehere!)

but it doesn’t have to be a vector! you can use a selfie, photos of your notes, a photo of a celebrity/something from a fandom you’re in, anything!

Check out these posts for more icon tips: 1 | 2 | 3

Your blog theme:

I prefer 1 column themes over multiple columns because it’s easier to read masterposts when they aren’t in super thin columns

don’t make your text super small (it doesn’t need to be huge but anything under 9px I think is too small for body font)

@roxiestheme

@neonbikethemes

@sorrism

@enchantedthemes

@acuite

or you can check out @theme-hunter and they have a million amazing themes!

Step 3: your content

Creating original content is hands down the best way to gain followers, but don’t refrain from posting because your notes aren’t aesthetic enough. No one will laugh or judge, and don’t be discouraged if your posts don’t immediately start getting notes. Post whatever you’re interested in and whatever you’re studying. There are (roughly) three types of posts to create for your blog: studyspo, masterposts, and graphics (and printables). Check out my studyspo, masterpost, and graphics/printables tags if you need inspiration.

Check out these posts for studyspo tips: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Look at this masterpost for masterpost tips

Step 4: getting noticed

Here’s the deal: we all want our posts and blogs to get noticed. It’s nice to get notes and followers, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That being said, it’s frustrating when your blog doesn’t grow as quickly as you expected, so hopefully these tips will help you:

the first post a lot of people make is an introduction post (check out intro posts I was tagged in for format ideas). They serve as a little about me and I love reblogging them!

a lot of studyblrs have tags that they track so if you use their tag (for examble #rhubarbstudies) they’ll see it and reblog it (look at this list for some studyblrs to tag)

use popular studyblr tags: #studyblr, #studyspo, #studyinspo, #new studyblr

post consistently. Posting every day will eventually add up to notes and followers, trust me.

Step 5: making friends

My studyblr friends are a huge reason why the study community has been so enjoyable for me. Making friends can be daunting, but it’s totally worth it

some networks: @homework-help-network @smallstudyblrsunite @studyblrindex @k-studynet @sapphicstudynet

my advice is to join a network with a theme and/or a group chat instead on just an index if you really want to meet people

some more posts like this: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Lastly:

Don’t be intimidated by the studyblrs with super aesthetic posts that get thousands of notes, they all started as new studyblrs. And maybe they’ve had their blogs for years, but literally every single studyblr has started off with 0 followers. What’s more, you don’t have to aspire to be those blogs at all. Perfect lettering and crisp lighting and a multitude of stationery is lovely, but don’t worry if you don’t have content like that. Your studyblr is about you and your journey. Good luck!

1K notes View Post

daisy-zam

7 years ago