So, I needed a little icon for dim sum the other day. Not for anything super important, just messing around with a personal recipe collection I’m trying to put together digitally. Thought it would be easy, you know? Just find one online. Turns out, finding a simple, clean icon that actually looked like dim sum and not just generic dumplings was harder than I thought.
Most of the stuff I found was either too complex, like detailed illustrations, or way too generic. I wanted something instantly recognizable, something that screams “yum cha” without being fussy. After clicking around for a while, I just gave up looking.
Getting Hands Dirty
Alright, fine, I decided I’d just make one myself. How hard could it be? Fired up my usual vector drawing app – nothing fancy, just what I’m used to. First thought: Har Gow (those shrimp dumplings). They’re pretty iconic, right? Well, my first attempt looked less like a delicate shrimp dumpling and more like a weird, lumpy ghost. The pleats were the tricky part. Getting that translucent wrapper look in a simple icon format? Not easy.
Then I tried Siu Mai (pork and shrimp dumplings). A bit easier, shape-wise. It’s kinda cylindrical with stuff on top. I made a basic cup shape, added some dots for the roe or topping. It was… okay. Better than the ghost dumpling, but still felt a bit clumsy. It wasn’t quite right.
Simplifying Things
I realized I was trying too hard to make it look exactly like the real thing. Icons aren’t photos. They need to be simpler, just capturing the essence. So, I started again.
- Har Gow: Ditched the complex pleats. Focused on the crescent shape and just hinted at the pleating with a couple of curved lines. Made the base slightly flatter.
- Siu Mai: Kept the cylinder but simplified the top. Instead of lots of tiny dots, maybe just one or two bigger shapes to suggest a topping. Focused on a clean silhouette.
- Bamboo Steamer: Then I thought, why not represent the experience? A simple bamboo steamer basket! Drew a circle, added some lines for the lid and the woven texture. Much easier to recognize.
I played around combining these. Maybe just the steamer? Or the steamer with a hint of a dumpling shape inside? I spent a good hour just tweaking lines, adjusting thicknesses, making sure it looked balanced. Used simple, rounded shapes mostly. Nothing sharp or overly detailed.
The Result (For Now)
In the end, I settled on a super simple icon showing the top view of a bamboo steamer basket. Just a circle with a couple of lines suggesting the lid handle and the slatted base visible underneath. It doesn’t show specific food items, but it feels very “dim sum” to me. It’s clean, clear even when small, and gets the idea across without being messy.
It’s not perfect, maybe I’ll revisit it later and try adding a tiny, simplified dumpling shape inside. But for now, this little steamer icon works for my recipe project. It was a bit more effort than I initially expected, but kinda satisfying to make something myself instead of just grabbing whatever’s out there. A good reminder that sometimes the simplest representation is the most effective.