In our Meet the Maker sequence we meet with designers who push Sketch’s limits, and discover out what drives and conjures up them of their work. Right this moment we’re chatting to Matthew Skiles, an icon and visible designer.
How did you get began utilizing Sketch?
I began utilizing Sketch again in 2017. On the time I used to be designing lots of web sites, and was listening to from everybody about how a lot better Sketch was at designing for the online than utilizing Photoshop.
I used to be fairly resistant as first, as I didn’t fairly see why I wanted a brand new device. However as soon as I truly tried designing in Sketch, I pretty shortly realized how a lot better and quicker of a device it was for creating not solely web sites, however all types of designs.
From there, I discovered increasingly components of my design course of might be carried out higher in Sketch than in different apps. For years now I’ve used Sketch day-after-day — and wouldn’t need it another method.
What impressed you to create the work you’re sharing with us?
We would have liked an app icon design for a Mastodon app known as Radiant. After exploring a bunch of concepts, the campfire caught out probably the most: a mixture of semi-3D components that don’t draw an excessive amount of consideration to themselves, so they appear proper at dwelling in your cellphone.
Matthew’s icon for Radiant – made in Sketch.
I needed to have the icon really feel each cozy and heat, and have a vibrant power to symbolize the communities you’ll find and work together with on Mastodon.
Gradient Fills and Gaussian Blurs — a lot magic can come from these two.
What recommendation would you give to anybody seeking to create one thing just like your designs?
Begin with good base shapes. If you happen to’ve obtained badly drawn or in poor health thought out groundwork shapes in your design, no quantity of layer results or fancy gradients can repair it. So spend some further time on shapes early, ensuring that you simply’re pleased with the canvas that you simply’ll be making use of layers of paint to.