Flat Icon Set
A whole icon set on one page — eighteen flat marks in a grid, sorted into three bands so the set holds together at the level of meaning, not just line weight. Six fields.
We made two examples: one for a vibe library and one for a campus study-planning app. Both have the same three bands, and in both the ideas row has no fill: it is the row that has to invent shapes, and the one that shows a product has a vocabulary of its own.
You get one sheet of eighteen icons in three bands: six objects, six actions with a hand mid-gesture, and six ideas made from pure form with no fill. The bands hold reliably, and the ideas row doesn't turn into photographable objects. Similar gestures such as copy and paste can swap places, and close concepts like momentum and easing can come out very alike, so check them and sharpen the description if needed.
Generated for this library
Input
Subject Vibary - designing interfaces by describing them
Objects laptop · key · terminal · swatch · stopwatch · plane
Actions describe · scrub · copy · paste · publish · undo
Ideas motion · easing · version · draft · taste · momentum
Colour objects indigo · actions ochre · ideas unfilled
Returned 1 sheet · 3:4 · 3 columns x 6 rows · white ground
band 1 the six objects, rows one and two, indigo fills inside
one black contour - the easiest six, drawn plainly
band 2 the six actions, rows three and four, ochre fills - each
one a hand or an arrow doing the verb, never a noun
standing in for it
band 3 the six ideas, rows five and six, no fill at all - the
hardest six, and the unfilled row is where a set either
proves it has a vocabulary or admits it does not
line one contour weight across all eighteen, rounded ends
size one optical size, one visual weight, even gutters
verdict easing and momentum came back nearly identical, which is
the set telling you they are one idea, not twoYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The subject
- 2Objects — things you could photograph
- 3Actions — things someone does
- 4Ideas — things with no body
- 5The line and the fills
- 6The colour budget
Flat Icon Set
What this makes
A whole icon set on one page — eighteen flat marks in a grid, sorted into three bands so the set holds together at the level of meaning, not just line weight. Six fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Fill the three bands separately — the moment one band runs dry is the finding, and it is worth more than the board.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the sheet.
- Read it by rows. Icons that fail read as odd within their own band, which is far easier to see than judging eighteen marks against nothing.
What you swap
- The subject
- Vibary — designing and shipping interfaces by describing them
- Objects — things you could photograph
- a laptop, a keyboard key, a terminal window, a colour swatch, a stopwatch, a paper plane
- Actions — things someone does
- describe it, scrub a timeline, copy code, paste it in, publish, undo
- Ideas — things with no body
- motion, easing, a version, a draft, taste, momentum
- The line and the fills
- one heavy black contour on every icon, flat fills inside, rounded ends, no hairlines
- The colour budget
- objects in #5B5BD6 indigo · actions in #E8C468 ochre · ideas unfilled, black on white
Before it runs
- Six things in each band, and the ideas band is the honest one. If nothing abstract can be named, the product is a tool rather than a system, and the set should be twelve icons instead of eighteen.
- A stroke weight decided once. Icons drawn at different weights cannot be rescued by arranging them well.
- Willingness to rename. An icon that fits no band is usually a feature nobody can describe in one word.
When to reach for it
When a product needs its icons all at once rather than one at a time — a nav bar, a feature grid, an empty-state library. Also the fastest way to find out whether a product's vocabulary is a set or a pile.
What changes
- One board carrying the whole set at a consistent size and weight, so the icons are judged against each other rather than in isolation.
- The grid is banded by abstraction — objects, then actions, then ideas — which is the split that actually breaks icon sets, and the one every source of this kind leaves to chance.
- Every icon is drawn at one stroke weight with flat fills inside it, so nothing reads as borrowed from another family.
- Colour is budgeted per band rather than per icon, which is what stops eighteen marks becoming eighteen palettes.
- An icon that will not sit in any band is a naming problem surfaced early, before it ships into a nav bar.
Pairs with
- Brand Name Typography BoardGive it a brand name, get one silent black-and-white board back — the same name set fifteen ways, in five families of typographic levers.
- Building Facade Sign LettersA name mounted as dimensional letters on a real building, photographed from the street — where the material, the wall and the light are chosen as one set rather than picked separately. Six fields.
- Event Mascot FamilyA mascot family running as a team, with the event's logo locked beneath them — every character built on the same body so they read as siblings rather than as a cast. Six fields.