Flat design be damned! Stunning photorealistic app icons

Everyone's going flat design crazy right now, with Apple rumoured to be ditching skeuomorphic design, Facebook's icon going 2D, and everyone asking 'what is flat design?'. As a result, designers have been falling over themselves to showcase their 2D talents, with flat design concepts of everything from Instagram to iOS 7 appearing online.

Not everyone is bowled over by this most clean and primary of graphic design trends, however. We get as many correspondences slating examples of flat design as praising it, so it would be no surprise to find a counter-movement in the industry - and it could well be headed up by California-based design studio CreativeDash.

Photorealistic icons

These stunning photorealistic icons created by the San Francisco studio show what is left in the world of skeuomorphism to explore. "An app icon is the face of an app just as a book cover is the face of a book," the team says. "Even though people try to teach themselves to not to judge a book by its cover, it is still a very simple and efficient way to quickly assess something.

"We produce a very clear and attractive 'face' for your app," they continue, "which intrigues a potential user and entices them to download." Does a plain, flat app do that? Let the debate continue...

See more of CreativeDash's work on their Behance page

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Is skeumorphism over? Is flat design the future? Let us know your views in the comments below...