Custom icons give your course a polished, intentional feel — distinct module symbols for navigation, visual markers for different lesson types, or a consistent icon set for your sales page features. AI image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E can produce these in minutes instead of hours. The key is generating them as a set, not one at a time, so they actually look like they belong together.
What you’ll walk away with:
- Consistent custom icons matching your course’s visual identity
- Icons sized for lesson headers, navigation, and materials
- A prompt template for generating additional icons as needed
Why custom icons matter for courses
Stock icons are fine for a blog post. For a course your students will spend weeks or months inside, they feel generic. Custom icons — even simple ones — create a sense of place. They signal that this learning environment was designed with intention, not assembled from defaults.
I've noticed this pattern across thousands of courses on our platform: creators who invest in visual consistency tend to build stronger brand recognition with their students. It's not about polish for its own sake. It's about making your course feel like yours — distinct from every other course on the internet. A unique icon set for your 8 modules does that in a way that generic checkmarks and lightbulbs never will.
The grid-then-split workflow
This approach, recommended by e-learning designer Christy Tucker, is the most reliable way to generate a consistent icon set. The idea is simple: instead of generating icons one at a time (which produces inconsistent styles), you generate them all in a single grid, then use the best one as the visual anchor for your set.
Generate a grid of all icons at once
Write a single prompt describing all the icons you need. Something like "8 simple flat icons for an online course: brain, lightbulb, compass, book, target, handshake, calendar, trophy." Midjourney will produce a 4-image grid, and each image in that grid will show the icons with internally consistent style — same line weight, same color palette, same level of detail.
Pick the best and extract it
Upscale your favorite grid image. Look for the icon that best represents the style you want across your whole set: clean lines, appropriate complexity, a color approach that works for your course brand. This becomes your style reference.
Regenerate individual icons using --sref
Now generate each icon individually, adding --sref [URL of your best icon] to every prompt. The style reference ensures each new icon inherits the visual DNA of your chosen reference — same color temperature, same line weight, same artistic treatment. Adjust --sw between 200-500 for good consistency without making every icon look identical.
Clean up
This is the step people underestimate. AI-generated icons typically need background removal, resizing to consistent dimensions, and sometimes edge cleanup. I won't pretend this is zero-effort — budget about 5-10 minutes per icon in a free tool like Canva's background remover or remove.bg. For a set of 8 icons, that's roughly an hour of cleanup total.
SVG icons with Brushless
If you need actual SVG files — scalable vector icons that stay crisp at any size and can be colored with CSS — Midjourney and DALL-E won't help. They produce raster images. Brushless is a newer tool specifically designed to generate SVG output from text prompts. The icons are simpler (think line icons, not detailed illustrations), but they're vector-based and need far less cleanup.
For web-based courses where your icons appear in navigation menus or sidebars at small sizes, SVG is the better format. For larger decorative icons in sales pages or module headers, Midjourney's richer output works well.
Prompts to try
Full icon grid
Set of 8 simple flat icons on white background: [list your module topics], consistent line weight, minimal detail, single accent color, clean modern style --ar 1:1
Individual icon with style reference
Simple flat icon representing [concept], white background, centered, minimal detail, clean edges --ar 1:1 --sref [URL of your reference icon] --sw 400
Watercolor icon set
Watercolor illustration icon of [concept], soft edges, warm palette, white background, centered composition, gentle and inviting --ar 1:1 --sref [URL] --sw 300
The human layer
AI can generate the raw visual material, but it can't make the design decisions that matter most. Which visual metaphor actually represents your module on "building resilience" — a tree, a bridge, a mountain, a shield? That's your call, and it depends on your specific teaching framework and your students' context.
There's also a practical design question: how complex should your icons be? I've seen course creators generate beautiful, detailed illustration-style icons that look stunning at large sizes — then shrink them to 40 pixels in a navigation menu where all that detail becomes mud. Start by deciding where your icons will appear and at what size, then match the complexity to the context. Simple is usually better for navigation. Detailed works for sales pages and module headers.
What it gets wrong
- Inconsistency across separate generations — without the grid-then-split workflow, generating icons one by one produces wildly inconsistent styles. Even with
--sref, expect some variation. Generate 2-3 options per icon and pick the closest match. - Background removal — "white background" in a prompt doesn't mean perfectly clean. You'll often get off-white, subtle shadows, or texture. Plan for background removal as a post-production step.
- Fine detail at small sizes — AI-generated icons often have more detail than they need. A line that looks elegant at 400px becomes a smudge at 32px. Test your icons at their actual display size before committing.
- No vector output — Midjourney and DALL-E produce raster images only. If you scale them up, they blur. If you need true SVG, use Brushless or trace your raster icons in a vector tool like Figma or Illustrator.
- Text in icons — don't try to add text labels inside AI-generated icons. For readable text in images, use Ideogram instead.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI-generated icons be used commercially in my course?
Yes. Both Midjourney (all paid plans, starting at $10/month) and DALL-E (via ChatGPT Plus) include commercial usage rights. You can use generated icons in course materials, sales pages, and marketing without additional licensing.
Do AI-generated icons need cleanup before using them?
Usually, yes. Expect to spend 5-10 minutes per icon on background removal, resizing, and edge cleanup. Brushless (for SVG output) needs less post-production. The cleanup time is still much less than designing icons from scratch or commissioning custom work.
How many icons can I generate in a consistent set?
The grid-then-split workflow reliably produces sets of 8-15 icons with strong visual consistency. For larger sets, regenerate your style reference periodically to prevent drift.
Display your icons where students learn
A polished icon set works best when it's part of the learning experience, not just decoration. Ruzuku's course builder lets you organize modules and lessons with custom imagery, so your students navigate your course with the visual identity you've built.
Related guides
- How to Create Consistent Course Imagery Using Midjourney's Style References — the full --sref workflow for all course visuals
- How to Create a Course Logo with Canva — logo design alongside your icon set
- How to Create a Course Brand Kit in Canva — the broader visual identity framework
- How to Build a Visual Brand for Your Course Using AI — comprehensive AI branding strategy