Forget favicons. In a world ruled by smart phones, the power of an iPhone website bookmark icon is becoming more recognized and utilized. Custom-designed iPhone icons are a valuable opportunity for brand exposure and a well-designed icon can earn you a coveted top spot in your user's palm. So, don’t have one? Want to make yours better? Here are some ideas.

Without a customized website bookmark icon, when a user saves a link to your site on their home screen they’ll end up with a miniature version of your website scaled down to the standard 57 x 57 pixel iPhone icon size. These standard icons render your branding unrecognizable and fall flat next to thoughtfully-designed icons. Customized website bookmark icons are a must-have item on your online marketing to-do list.

When creating a concept and design for your icon, simplicity is key! You’ve got a small footprint to make a big impression, so choosing your pixels wisely is imperative. Similarly, leave text out of the design equation and let your graphics do the talking. Don’t forget that the name of your homepage will automatically show up underneath your icon once a user adds it to their iPhone home screen.

You’ll be competing with a whole screen-full of other icons for your user’s attention, so make sure that yours stands out! Keep the iPhone user interface aesthetic in mind but take care to not just ‘apple-ify’ your icon. Glossy reflections and squares with rounded corners are great but probably aren’t staples of your company’s brand identity. Adopting this aesthetic may actually help your icon blend in too much with the interface and it will be completely overlooked. When we designed the Silverscape website icon, we broke out of the traditional icon template and used the distinct shape of our building at 75 Broad instead. The icon’s unique footprint is eye-catching and effective. The “Chomp” icon is another example of a stand-out design. The icon also breaks the bounding box and incorporates a clever visual play on the application's title. While it utilizes the traditional iPhone icon footprint, Mint.com proves that a mere two colors are all you need to be eye-catching. Their black and green icon manipulates the negative space of the mint leaves to form a dollar sign, symbolizing the company’s mission statement.

Stay tuned for more tips when we start designing the 228x228 pixel icons for the iPad!