Prompt library
Brainstorm icon concepts beyond the obvious
Naming the clichés first makes the use-or-avoid decision deliberate instead of accidental. The four-approach split, misread-risk-at-16px, and silhouette-based ranking evaluate concepts the way icons actually fail: small, fast, monochrome, and next to their siblings.
Last reviewed July 17, 2026
The prompt
Brainstorm icon concepts for {{concept}}.
Context (the set it joins, size, style rules): {{context}}
Produce:
1. First, the obvious list: the 3 clichés every icon library uses for this concept, so we can consciously use or avoid them (clichés are legible; that is their virtue and their tax).
2. Twelve concepts in four approaches, 3 each, labeled:
- Object: the physical thing that embodies the concept.
- Action: the gesture or motion frozen at its most recognizable instant.
- Effect: the concept's visible result rather than the concept itself.
- Convention-remix: an established metaphor from an adjacent domain, transplanted.
3. Per concept: a one-line drawing description precise enough to sketch from, the recognition risk (what it could be misread as at 16px), and the disambiguation trick (angle, added element, negative space).
4. The legibility ranking: your top 3 for small-size clarity, with the reason based on silhouette simplicity, not taste.
5. The set check: which finalists match the existing set's grammar (stroke weight, corner language, fill vs line), because a beautiful outlier is a wrong answer.
Rule: nothing that needs color to be understood; icons must survive monochrome.Run in idaptOpens a new chat with the prompt prefilled. Nothing sends until you press send.
Fill in the variables
| Variable | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
| {{concept}} | What the icon means | shared with workspace |
| {{context}} | The set and constraints | line icons, 1.5px stroke, rounded, used at 16 and 24px |