Icons are some of the most impressive visual components of an UI. They’re responsible for capturing people’s attention when looking at an iPhone screen. In this Photoshop tutorial, we will show you how to create iPhone-like icons for your own use. You’ll learn to use layers, blending modes and options, and layer opacity.

1/3 The document

First of all, create a new Photoshop document with a size of 500 by 400 pixels. Create a new layer and name it “base”. This will be the base layer for your icon.

To create a new layer, go to the “Layer” menu, to the “New” submenu, and then pick “Layer…”. Another way to create new layers is by pressing the New Layer button {} located at the bottom of the layers palette

2/3 The button

Create a square using Photoshops “Rounded Rectangle Tool” {}. To create a square hold the Shift key while dragging. Use the same tool settings as we did. You can play with the settings for various results.

Right-click on the newly created shape, and then click on “Make Selection…”.

Use Photoshop’s “Gradient Tool” { }  to create a gradient that looks good to you. We used a radial gradient.

Next, create a New Layer {}  and name it “front”, or whatever you see fit. Go to the “Filter” menu, “Render” submenu, and click “Clouds”. This will give the icon a small grungy effect.

Set the blending mode of the layer to “Multiply”. You can skip these steps if you don’t like the way it looks.

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