Apple’s iTunes App Store has approved more than 500,000 apps since launching in July 2008, making it maddeningly difficult for a new app to stand out.

Your best advertising tool is your app icon. You’ve got less than a square inch to work with here, so it’s got to be to-the-point, shamelessly populist and stupid obvious.

It must follow the pack; it must follow the hell out of it.

Thanks to Tumblr’s Creative Director Jacob Bijani for the original observation.