Design a Textured App Icon with Fireworks

App icons are often the first thing you see before making a purchase. In this tutorial James Parker is going to use Fireworks to create an app icon for a fictional basketball game. Because realistic textures can really enhance icons, he’ll show you a quick and simple way to replicate a brushed metal effect, along with some simple lighting techniques that will really make your icons stand out from the herd.

Open the file Canvas.png. To help get you started it’s been pre-ruled and James Parker has also added a dark textured background. This isn’t integral to the icon itself so can be removed at the end of the tutorial, but for now he’ll leave it locked in place so he doesn't accidentally select it. Draw a circle with a diameter of 750px. Set the color to #000000 and center it on the canvas using the Align tools. In the Properties panel apply a Mesh texture with 100% opacity. In the filters drop-down choose Blur>Radial Blur and set attributes amount: 45; quality: 100.