Tower replacement icon

Tower is one of my favourite Mac apps, and an app I use most days. I really liked the version 2 app icon, but I am not a fan of the new icon. So, I decided to make my own. Feel free to use it yourself, if you’d like.

Download the Tower replacement icon

The full Photoshop document is attached as well.

To replace the Tower icon, select the app in the Finder, Get Info (⌘I), then drag the ICNS to the icon area in the Get Info window.

Some background: I started with something very similar to the version 2 icon. I gave up on that concept fairly quickly, because I didn’t see the point — people can just use the old icon, if that’s what they want.

The icon was modelled in Cheetah 3D initially. That helped work out the main shapes and lighting. The 3 main sections are lathes from paths drawn in Illustrator.

The entire icon was then remade as shapes in Photoshop, which gives better control, and allows for easy scaling to other sizes. There’s no layer styles used at all in the document. There is a fair bit of mask feathering though.

Pretty much all the colour was applied with a few gradient maps. That keeps it all in a central place. It makes adjustments easier and more precise.

- An article about the process
- Download the Photoshop document