DevBlog: Our Icon Production Process

All Anno games feature a substantial number of icons, more than most might expect! For 117, we made an incredible amount of 1700 icons (not counting discarded variations). Our icons come in a variety of styles. The ones we use the most can be split into 2D & 3D icons.

2D icons are simple graphic images designed to remain readable even on a small scale. You can find them throughout the game: info-tips, in descriptions, or next to values.

Our 3D icons are small life-like paintings (also called skeuomorphic). These are commonly used for items and specialists as well as for buildings, ships, and resource icons.

2D Icons (Glyphs)

• Simplified and stylized drawings in a single color
• What we use it for:
  • Works for small icons
  • Works with a single color
  • Abstract concept
  • Categories
• Limitations:
  • Similar objects can be difficult to differentiate by shape alone.

3D Icons (Skeuomorphic Icons)

• Realistic depiction of an object
• What we use it for:
  • Great for differentiating similar objects, e.g., between the several types of ships.
  • Color can be used to distinguish the rarity of objects.
• Limitations:
  • Requires a bigger size due to the high amount of detail
  • Best for objects rather than concepts.

The Planning and Ideation Phase

Icons are part of the UI team’s responsibilities, with multiple team members contributing to their creation, export, and ongoing management. One UI team member oversees the overall planning and coordination, working closely with the team to define icon needs and determine which icons are produced in-house and which are created by our long-term freelance icon specialist, Sebastian Erb, who has been part of the team since Anno 2205.

2D Icons – Glyphs

Glyphs are used to represent abstract concepts or categories. To make them easily recognizable, we reference real world objects or rely on established visual concepts conveyed through ideograms or mix of both.

Pictogram

This icon resembles a real-world object.

Ideogram

The meaning of this type of icon must be learned.

Mix

Often pictograms and ideograms are combined to help clarify meaning.

2D icons might appear simple, but a great deal of discussion often goes into the creation of even a single icon. We must balance the “Roman” of the icons with clarity and recognizability. The “floppy disk” is still the go to symbol for saving but maybe we should go with something more roman? How detailed do we want to be?

To find the right design we create several alternatives. The variations are then discussed with the requesting designer and the icon team to pick the variation that works best

Since 2D icons are usually displayed at a small size, we have to keep the level of detail fairly low. We have to ensures that icons remain easy to tell apart at a glance, usability is our most important criteria. Because of this, our 2D icons mix roman and more modern elements. More detailed roman elements are mainly used on larger painted 3D icons, where they can be easier to see and read.

We decided to reference the Anno “A” from 117 for the arrow icon. The left hand icon was chosen for the game.

3D Icons

Painting detailed 3D icons allows us to add a lot more flavor and tell a story within each icon.

To keep our 3D icons consistent, we pay close attention to lighting direction, proportion, and level of detail.

Even though the scrolls are similar objects, they are made to look distinct through arrangement, shape, and angle.

The rarity and value of these scrolls is communicated through materials from dull to shining, paper to gold, and an increase in intensity and variation of colors.

Production Chains & Buildings

Production chain and building icons have a high priority in the game, as players interact with them constantly. These icons are most often seen in the construction menu, where many options are displayed side by side while players browse, compare, and plan their layouts.

Because players spend a long time looking at and working with these icons, we pay extra attention to readability, clarity, and visual balance. Icons need to be easy to recognize and distinguish at a glance, while remaining comfortable to look at over extended periods. This often takes multiple iterations to ensure each icon stays clear, consistent, and recognizable even at a small scale. We try to visually relate the input goods to the final good by keeping colors similar.

Ships

At the core of every Anno game is the exploration and trade with the outside world. Ships are the vehicle to achieve the dream of endless expansion and naval domination. Our ships are first created by the art department. They evolve quite a lot during the game’s production. Once the finish line was on the horizon, we collected renders (screenshots) of the game’s ships to hand them over to our icon specialists to create beautiful 3D paintings of each. Since these icons have to work on a small scale, they are not just a simple copy of the original 3D object but highlight the unique features of each ship. Emphasizing details such as railing and ropes to make them distinguishable.

Specialists

The wise residents of the villa are quite a colorful bunch. They represent all residents which were part of the Roman empire: from the Celts to the Egyptians, the vast diversity of the Roman empire is represented though their faces and clothing. Though it can be a challenge to find information on historical dress, we look for sources like frescos to create clothing that might resemble what was worn back in the time of the empire. When working on the specialists, we had a list with name, ethnicity, and sometimes a little description about them. With each specialist, we try to tell a story through their design.

This specialist was inspired by the fresco “Mycenaean Lady.”

For the dress and hair of this Minoan woman we referenced the fresco “Dancing Lady” which was discovered in the excavations of Heraklion.

The base game features about 400 specialists! It would have been a huge effort to hand paint all of them individually and taken many months of work time which we needed to create other icons as well. Therefore, we adopted an approach that has already proven successful in Anno 1800.

We developed a system similar to the toy ” Mr. Potato Head”. Interchangeable parts are utilized so we can mix and match based on the need of each specialist. Sebastian Erb also built a modular library of eyes, beards, hairstyles, noses, brows, clothes, scars, and items. The base bodies come in a variety of skin colors and shapes that help us create a huge library of specialists in the same style and in a short amount of time.

After the elements are chosen making up our specialist, we add a few finishing touches such as shadows, age spots, and body hair.

From posh patrician to rugged wetland walker, these outfits cover a range of the attire worn by the empire’s population. By adding dust and adjusting color, we can further add depth to the characters. This is only a small selection of the clothing created for our specialists.

A witty smirk, a disgusted frown, a content smile. This small selection of face parts hints at the variety of faces that can be created from this base.

Special Icons

If you pay close attention to our icons, you might encounter Easter eggs and references. Happy hunting for these little surprises in the game.

This is the Anno sheep that was on display during Gamescom 2025 and has found its way into the players’ and team’s hearts alike. You can encounter Gaius Schafus III. as an easter egg.

Thank you for reading this article! The Icon Team on Anno 117 are Farah Mahadon, Benjamin Clendon & Eva Kaup. Our freelance artist who created most of the wonderful icons featured on this blog is Sebastian Erb (https://sebastian-erb.de/).