Icon Progression 2025

[setsuntamew]

I did this last year and swore I'd make icons every month of 2025, but...well, having a 6 month long depressive episode really puts a damper on that. But instead of giving up entirely, I wanna do a progression of what I did make!

January

I was still getting back into the swing of making icons regularly, but I still had a more specific goal in mind: to improve my use of text on icons. I'm really proud of the Mika icon I made, since it felt like I truly "leveled up" my text skills with it. I also completed my first ever mood them and wrote an updated version of an icon tutorial I wrote in 2006. While I didn't make a ton of icons this month, I'm proud of all the other graphics-related resources I did make!

February

Once again, Ensemble Stars! has a death grip on me XD I played with different animations for icons, both subtle ones and ones that were the focus of the icon, and kept working on my never-ending quest to find a happy medium between grungy and sparkly graphics. Also, this marked killiansicons's 21st anniversary, dating back to its beginnings on GreatestJournal!

March

I made so many icons this month, I had trouble picking just three! I branched out by trying different icon challenge communities and it paid off. The first is from a retro_icontest challenge that involved using two screencaps eight different ways, and it really proved to me that sometimes limitations make your creativity flourish. For me other faves from this month, I'm proud of the composition; I sometimes default to more close cropped images and I wanted to try to break out of that. Meanwhile, killiansicons got a fresh layout! I started posting screencaps for download, since I take so many for icons, and I found more of my old resources to share.

April

Another busy month!! What can I say- I was very inspired by the challenges in quite a few icon communities~ I don't have much to say about the Raika icon besides that I just really like it. The crop, the colors, the animation...they all came together to make the exact kind of icon I would use all the time (and I do!). And I finally had an excuse to make myself some Aerith/Sephiroth icons, so no complaints there XD I still felt like I was struggling with text on icons, but I'm wasn't ready to give up! I also started vogliaa this month, with the hope of bringing back the concept of a freebie community with more than one maker. I'm still the only maker, but hey! Dreams will never come true if you don't at least try~

May

I love a good random challenge; something about it makes me really think about what I'm doing and create with purpose. Which is why I think these icons came out so good, especially the Leo one. I need to figure out how to make text look that good all the time~

June

Much like in 2024, June was the month I fell off from making icons- though this year it was largely because I was deep in job hunting hell and spent a lot of time working on my resume :T

July

I got a job (yay!) and it kept me very busy (boo!). I was also dealing with some mental health issues + my cat's health very suddenly declining, so...I wasn't on my computer much or up to making icons. I posted a "new" freebie at vogliaa, but I wouldn't call filling requests for an icon I originally made in 2007 anything new.

August

I was super inspired by UNDEAD's pirate event, made a single icon, and then went back into an even deeper depressive state after my cat passed away.

September

Still feeling creatively blocked, I started ensemblerefs to provide enstars outfit references. The icons for its layout are very simple, but hey- something is better than nothing, right?

October

I took a long road trip to celebrate my 10th anniversary with my wife and...thought really hard about making icons, probably? XD

November

I started working on a new tumblr layout, and by that I mean I cropped one (1) image to be the sidebar icon D:

December

idk I don't have anything to say here; the holidays kinda suck when you're trying to pull yourself out of a bad headspace, you know?

Goodbye, 2025

Okay, so I definitely didn't hit my "post icons more consistently" goal I made for myself, I did well at basically everything else I wanted to do in 2025. I participated in a lot of icon challenges, plenty of which pushed me out of my comfort zone. I still don't feel like I've mastered using text in my icons (and I definitely don't use it as often as I'd like), I've improved enough that I can be proud of where I am now. I love giving back to the icon making community, and I really committed to that goal in 2025. I wrote multiple tutorials, shared new and old resources, and tried to help anyone who commented when they were struggling. Also, I made 229 icons in 2025, up from 109 in 2024, and I think that's pretty damn cool. In 2026, I want to keep improving, pushing myself to be the best I can be, and...hell, I'll try again. I want make icons more consistently, so that some year I have something to show for every month!!! thank you to rocketgirl2 for the awesome icon progression post template!