First icon set Hard Reject

Hi there! I’ve spent the last few weeks designing an icon set of some houses in various architectural styles. Friends, family, and a lot of people on social media seem to like it, so I decided to submit it to Graphic River. Unfortunately, I was Hard Rejected on the basis that, “it isn’t at the quality standard required to move forward.” Maybe it could use some tweaking. But a hard rejection seems a bit harsh, especially when I compare the quality to a lot of the other icon sets I see listed for sale.

Any help you guys can provide would be much appreciated. Thanks!

It’s a creative idea, but I can see some issues. First off I’d say the colour scheme could be better, the current colours don’t make much sense, and it all looks very flat.

Some of the architectural choices don’t make much sense either, especially the one where the roof crosses directly over a window.

Some of them might have too many details, which make them look very messy. One of the main purposes of an icon is to convey an object, function, or idea in an easily readable way, which is often done using a clean and bold look, whereas with these everything is very thin with many small details packed into small areas.

The roofs seem to be lacking any sort of detail, even an outline which everything else has.

I would recommend reducing the details, keeping only those which are necessary to portraying the overall design. Pick a max of 3 colours which are used throughout the entire set, and use colours that are a bit more muted. Use a variety of thicknesses for the lines, and use them sparingly. For example, you have a few buildings/windows, with many horizontal/vertical lines, you don’t need a solid line to show that there’s a line there, using partial lines and colours in strategic ways can trick our brains into thinking a line is there while keep a clean look.

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Thanks very much for the reply. While I’m not excited about the idea of having to rebuild the entire set, I do appreciate your input and suggestions. I’ll have to think about whether it’s worth my time to do this.

If I do decide to rebuild them as extensively as you suggest, do you think Graphic River would permit me to submit them, or does that fall into the re-submission category?

When they say you can’t resubmit it, they just don’t want you to make a few small changes and resubmit something that looks similar. To be able to “resubmit” an item, you have to make many significant changes which essentially turn it into a whole new item.

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Ok, that makes sense. Thanks again!

hi for me the main thing is definitely the style, sorry to say just this but it looks retro or even old style and to be honest this is not either the kind of retro style that may look trendy if u know what i mean. There is a combo issues as regard to the drawing itself (looking old) and of choice and colors. the colors that u have selected look dull and reinforce the outdated idea that is being generated by your item indeed. U have some coherence issues about architecture as well as execution , by the way … hard to understand why u suddenly have a completely white rectangle for instance here and there when all the other shapes have a black stroke around … Why having a red roof in the same way and why is this red roof not being symmetrical to the other side? why putting blue color in the windows? (this is not realistic at all … )

Given that this is my first time trying to sell a design without it being a contracted client project, it’s clear I need to employ a different approach. I guess I was trying to cater to a target audience who would want something more photorealistic. I did A LOT of research and designed each icon in a certain style, based on reference photos. The architectural elements are pulled directly from those photos of real houses, as are a lot of the color choices.

Anyway, if I’m going to redesign these with a more limited color palette and a more minimalistic modern style, I’m assuming you guys mean something like this:

log_cabin_house_96px_icon
log_cabin_house_96px_icon copy 2
log_cabin_house_96px_icon copy

I just threw these together, so they aren’t very polished. But I don’t want to spend a bunch of time if I’m not on the right track. I’m also concerned that this barely looks like a log cabin, and that when it comes to more complex icons (craftsman, victorian, various colonials, etc.), they won’t translate at all. I’m probably overthinking it. Thanks again for all of your help.