Get Busy With Better Icons

Icons are a necessity for any digital project but creating a custom set for each project isn't practical as it's so involved. On the other hand, finding the perfect icon and icon set takes time. So where should you look to find the best icon sets available? 

As you might imagine, there are thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of icon sets on the Web - they come in a variety of themes, have varying degrees of quality, and posses their own unique style. But is it appropriate for your website? That's really the question - stylistically, does this work with my current or planned design vision? 

Is your website design modern? Minimalist? Flat? Do you need images to be big and bright or small and monochromatic? It's an important question to ask as many of the icon sets you'll discover are available not just in .PNG or .ICO formats, but .PSD as well. That means you'll be able to adjust color, size, etc. - and that's important to getting an icon set seamlessly integrated into your site or app design. 

Some recent icon sets we've come across, to give you an idea of what we're dealing with here, include: 

Modern Icons

Minimalist Mono Icons

Flat Icons

Metro Icons

Mini Icons

Again, there are thousands upon thousands of icon sets - some available only with a commercial license, some available freely for personal use. Icon sets are an easy way to style a website or application but where do you find them?

Search engines also offer access to, as well as an initial preview of, icon sets thanks to their powerful image search features. Both search engines provide suggestions as well (as seen in the screen shot below) which is useful in uncovering what others - like your competitors - might be finding out there when it comes to icon sets as well. For example, you might search for "social media icon sets" or "PNG icon sets."

If you're using Google Image Search, also considering filtering the image-based results based on a number of variables including size, color, recency, and perhaps most importantly - usage rights. Google provides the ability to see only those images are labeled for reuse with modification, labeled for general reuse, etc. Taking advantage of the filtering options will help you sort through the incredible volume of icon sets that are available.