> Download The Good Bird Sticker Pack
This is a sticker pack I have designed and built for the iOS messaging platform. I wanted to challenge myself to learn more about apps, and I decided to create something from scratch to learn with. Making a sticker pack seemed like a good way to get some experience with Xcode and the process of submitting apps.
I was inspired by the Simaenaga Bot Twitter account that posts photos of some very sweet, innocent looking long tailed tit birds and the desire to be able to send pictures of these birds in messages (who wouldn’t want to see their little face in conversation?!). These little birds are so sweet, they’re clearly never naughty or do bad things which is why I have called the pack ‘Good Bird Sticker Pack’. Simaenaga is much harder to type too.
About the Sticker Pack:
Add some cute magic to your message conversations with these sweet little bird stickers! They are inspired by the popular simaenaga bird (a long tailed tit).
This sticker pack features a selection of little white birds. They come in different poses and with different expressions. Make them come alive by adding them to photos. Why not make up little stories featuring these sweet birds?
Features:
– 13 unique good bird stickers
Screen Shots:
Process:
I hand drew some sample bird characters before diving into Adobe Illustrator and creating the stickers as png files. This took about an hour from start to finish. I then created a set of icons to use in the Xcode project which took a lot longer than the stickers themselves as I thought I could use a Photoshop template… but it turned out it overcomplicated the process and I ended up making my own template in Sketch. This was much easier and quicker. Xcode requires 12 icon sizes plus an additional icon when you create the app in iTunes Connect.
I was unable to submit the first version of the app I made because I had used a Beta version of Xcode. After downloading another version of the software I proceeded to re-make the app and after some frustrating minor issues I’ve now submitted it for review (Friday 9th December 2016). It has been accepted and is now available on the App Store! (Monday 12th December 2016).
The complete process (including fiddling with downloads) has taken me about eight hours. It feels like it should have been quicker – I will time myself if I do this again and see how much faster I can make it.
Learnings:
- Tutorials make things sound easier than they are!
- It is worth persevering even though a problem is outside of my area of knowledge
- Lots of skills (like illustration) have many different uses
- Having a go at something new is time well spent
