Smashing Community Icon Set: Comment and Win!
Ready for this? Here’s how it works: you tell us what icons you need, and then we design them together with SoftFacade (which recently created the beautiful Smashing Retro Icon Set) and release them for free. And to make it a bit more interesting, we’ll smash six commenters and forum participants with original nerdy gifts.
To participate, just suggest an idea for a great useful icon set in the comments to this post or in this forum thread. Details are below.
How do I participate?
Participating is very easy: just let us know what icon set you would like us to design (and, if possible, what specific icons the set should contain) in the comments to this post or in this forum thread. The set may contain at most eight icons.
On the 20th of March, we’ll select the most popular ideas and requests and publish a poll in our magazine, inviting our readers to vote on their favorite theme. Once it’s done, the creative minds behind SoftFacade will carefully design the set and submit drafts of its work in progress to the forum, documenting the design process. Hence, you can observe how the set is created and, if there is something you would like to change, communicate with the designers directly. You can keep track of updates on Twitter @smashingmag and @softfacade.
Awards
A total of six commenters and active participants in the forum will be awarded Mac Dock Icon Throw Pillows (see images below). The winners will be picked randomly and announced in the forum and on Twitter after the theme of the icon set has been chosen.
Finally, we’ll release the set as a free download, which you can freely use for personal and commercial use.
Smashing Magazine Is All About Our Readers
At Smashing Magazine, our readers have always been our highest priority. We respect our readers; we listen to them; we are always open to their suggestions; and we always appreciate constructive criticism. This is why we created a number of ways to interact with our readers:
- We created a friendly Smashing Forum to make it possible for our community to exchange ideas and help each other in problem solving.
- We are using Twitter to share useful resources and knowledge with, and get feedback from, our readers (e.g. deciding which article should appear next), and we now have almost 20,000 followers.
- We are preparing the Smashing Book, in which our readers can decide what topics will be included.
And now we would like you to decide what icon set we should design and release next, especially for you. We hope to get great feedback from you, and we would like to thank SoftFacade for its cooperation in this event! Please spread the word, too; we would like the design community to decide what would be most useful and interesting for designers out there!
So, what icon set is it going to be, folks?
(al)
Elias Castro
March 18th, 2009 2:50 pmI’m developing a nice financial application for a credit company, I’m not a designer, so I do really appreciate, if you create a nice Financial Icon set, with a safebox, a bank icon, and stuff like that. That would be great!!!!!
Veneretio
March 18th, 2009 3:07 pmA medieval icon set :D Swords, Shields, etc!!!
Jigga
March 18th, 2009 3:09 pmsome straight to the point, normalt icons, ut with a touch of post-war/cold war thing to them. that theme would be awesome. truly an achievement..
Cas
March 18th, 2009 3:13 pmMedieval, Steampunk & Grunge have all been great ideas! I would also love to see some icons for portfolios, like many others.
I think something a little ambiguous would be fun. Maybe the bodies 5 sense or something. Ear, eye, nose, tongue, touch. These would be useful for more than one thing.
Cheers!
David
March 18th, 2009 3:17 pmI would like a blog icon set in an art style other than the web 2.0 cute and shiny. Grunge, art deco, or something unique.
Luis Mora
March 18th, 2009 3:21 pmI suggest an iconset for a web app for an specific business… Maybe a hardware store… For example it can includes an invoice icon, an order icon, a product icon, a category icon, and others icons like customers and suppliers,etc…
Maybe could be a good idea join all these in one set because I didn’t found in internet.
Well.. Is only a suggestion :)
samuel Eglington
March 18th, 2009 3:28 pmi think a portfolio set is needed.
home,profile,photos,artworks,design,web design, illustration,animation,music,blog, contact detail, mobile,home phone, email,mail Address.
these icons need to be in a range of sizes, form 32×32, 46×46, 64×64
and a range of colours so the users can mach any layout to the icons,
also a full social icon set including.
myspace, skype, facebook, twitter, IM, youtube, beepo, digg, and of course smashing magazine
these also need to be in a range, form 32×32, 46×46, 64×64
i think the icon design needs to be adaptable to any site layout,
its no good if you have a site that uses mostly dull colours like browns and grays
to only be able to find bright “red” icons. so the icon colour range needs to be considered to mach any page colour layout.
also the look of the icon needs to be match be able to site so perhaps a as well as a clean neat icon with nice gradients one to be developed with a more grungy/ hand drawn look and aswell as a basic one without any gradients.
the perfect icon set is within reach, and you could be the ones to do it.
Samir Tuladhar
March 18th, 2009 3:29 pmMake a icon from the followings:
1. Graphic design
2. Portfolio
3. 3d creation
4. RSS feed
5. Website
6. Add to Favourite
7. Link me in
These should be sleeky and a bit 3d look on top of that shadow on the bottom will be best.
Therapix
March 18th, 2009 3:45 pmThe firefox one, definetely
Sean McCambridge
March 18th, 2009 3:50 pmBody parts icons could be fun and useful. I’ve been working on a doctor’s website, and it would be fun to keep a theme going with noses, ears and feet, etc. :)
Tom van Altena
March 18th, 2009 3:50 pmI think we can all agree that Apple has done quite a good job overall in designing their icons for our docks, so to really test the Smash skills: I would like to see you try to re-design and better the current standard dock icons!! But still in a general theme, so no weird horror or grunge or easter or christmas theme.. good luck!!
In short: re-designed apple dock icons.
Beefcake
March 18th, 2009 4:02 pmI would love an icon set based around tufts of grass on little chunks of soil with icons poking through to use on WP theme…
bgreinfeld
March 18th, 2009 4:25 pmGreat idea! I like icons of:
* GIMP
* Twitter
* Notepad++
* Firefox
* Inkscape
* Ebooks
* Pictures
* Chrome (I like one!!)
* OpenOffice / Office
* uTorrent
* IM
* Songbird, Spotify… Music
Thanks a lot!!
Louella
March 18th, 2009 4:43 pmooo wouldn’t mind some music and musical instrument icons.
louella
March 18th, 2009 4:44 pmor wouldnt mind some sport icons… swimming, cycling, running, etc
Michael Julson
March 18th, 2009 4:46 pmI would like to see shopping icons built for a mobile web environment. Large enough to touch, but not so big that you can’t get 4-6 on a screen.
Specific icons would be:
Find Product (That doesn’t use the standard magnifying glyph)
Browse
Find Store (Store locator)
My Account
Order History (Or track order)
Login/Logout
Shopping Cart
Wishlist/Shopping List
Please provide a blank version to continue theme.
Ray & Danielle
March 18th, 2009 5:03 pmHi, congratulations on an amazing site and your great communications!
Would love a Tourism Icon Set…
1 – Accommodation
2 – Dining
3 – Attractions
4 – Activities
5 – Directions
6 – Wineries
7 – Shopping
8 – Tours
Would be willing to offer any advice and suggestions
Best Regards,
Ray & Danielle
Peter
March 18th, 2009 5:15 pmA blogging icon set would be smashing.
tikabanget
March 18th, 2009 5:25 pmi need some cute icon about animals..!! pets especially..
pig, cow, dog, cat, sheep, or anything..
better if any doctor icon with them..
thanx… ^^
tikabanget
March 18th, 2009 5:27 pmoh..
and i’ve looking for the music metal icon for my blog..
the vocalist, the guitarist, the drummer, the spirit, anything..
but i never find ‘em..
Mini0n
March 18th, 2009 5:33 pmI would like to see some fancy yet simple navigation icons, for a vehicle tracking website.
Like two or three vehicles, a placemark/house, some traffic signs and traffic lights, a warning sign… They would fit nice on my current project.
catherine
March 18th, 2009 5:37 pma charity iconset would be a good idea, to set a new trend. eg. take action / become a member / donate… other request is for ‘step’ based icons… eg step 1, step 2, step 3 with a house theme to it.
Vidal Graupera
March 18th, 2009 5:48 pmIcons for a trouble ticketing or issue tracking system. Example, ticket, milestone, issue, comment, etc.
sylph
March 18th, 2009 5:50 pmhey i’d like to request an icon set for a custom xmb theme for psp, although that disagrees with the requirement that we can only request at most eight icons. too bad
so how bout a gaming icon set for a gaming site then?
with sections for
gaming news
game reviews
game previews
top games
game rankings
gaming forum
downloads (wallpapers,gallery etc..)
mrxempz
March 18th, 2009 6:45 pmWoooooo super cute pillows…
Brownspank
March 18th, 2009 6:59 pmMy ideal icon set of gadget geekery:
1. Game console + controller
2. Digital SLR
3. QWERTY smartphone
4. iPod Touch
5. Netbook
6. Gaming Mouse
7. Portable gaming device
Jennifer Chiappisi
March 18th, 2009 7:00 pmAs WordPress is used moreso for CMS applications by web designers, I’d love to see either an icon-set for the inward facing WordPress, ie. icons for their menus in the case that you decide to customize the inside of WP for your clients.
Another great option I’ve seen posted here has been ECommerce icons. Most web designers will need to use that type of icons every now & again and it would really be helpful.
I would say, since these Icons are available for commercial usage, I’d rather see them actually be able to be used in web or graphic design rather than just for replacement dock icons or things to replace your standard icons for the Adobe line.
Sonali Agrawal
March 18th, 2009 7:01 pmI would vote for community based icons. For social websites, like, myspace or facebook. Those are the most difficult icons to get a grab of.
Jordan Humphreys
March 18th, 2009 7:13 pmA fashionista icon set.
Example Icons include designer suit, stylish dress, cologne/perfume bottle, scarf, shoes, pants/jeans, tie, and a bathing suit.
fermie
March 18th, 2009 7:14 pmI’m currently doing a project management system (which I’m planning to make an open source version), and since I’m more of a programmer (back-end, logic) rather than a designer… I’m having a freaking hard time with the graphics that I need, specially icons. So a project management icon set will surely be useful!
anyBlair
March 18th, 2009 7:37 pmGoing to go with an “anti-Internet Explorer” icon that I can link to Firefox 3 download.
Only
March 18th, 2009 7:39 pmFollowing sets would be awesome:
1. Food items in a grocery store e.g. cabbage, corn, chicken, onion, tomato, potato, cheese and peanuts (out of the web context, but will be fun)
2. Web Design Process e.g. CMS, Graphics, Content, Designer, Client, Tech guy, Hosting, Freelance & Designer’s invoice
3. Designers icons e.g. icons for Typography, Digital art, Painting, Illustration, Graphic Design, Character design, Web Design & Graffiti arts.
These are just off the hat random thinking. Nice idea Smashing.
Kerrick
March 18th, 2009 7:40 pmI think I’d really like to see some nature icons… Either forest/plant or ocean/sea creature ones would be amazing.
Ashish Bogawat
March 18th, 2009 7:42 pmA set based on the education. Examples could include:
- Blackboard, chalk, duster
- Pile of books
- Mechanical pen & pencil
- Graduation hat, certificate
- Rulers, t-square & other geometry tools
- Calculator, abacus
- Lab equipment (test tubes, microscope, etc.)
- Globe (of the table-top kind)
Skinny.
March 18th, 2009 7:46 pmI reckon a set of icons based on graffiti and vandalism would be great, loads of different things like a fat marker could be for illustrator or a graffiti writer as the icon for msn messenger, something along those lines!
well done guys, this is a great idea.
Nick P
March 18th, 2009 7:54 pmI would love to have a set of Alternative Energy icon set.
1, Solar power
2. Wind power
3. Bio fuels
4. Fuel cells
5. Wave power
6. Clean coal
7. Geothermal
8. Energy conservation
etc.
trendez
March 18th, 2009 8:13 pmSince most of SM readers are designers (I guess :p), so it would be a great idea to design custom icons for designers portfolio. By custom I mean wouldn’t it be great if we can change colors, self picture (from my works icon, or about me icon), etc. If the icon will be provided in psd, ai format, that would not be a problem. And about the theme of the icon, I think sleek/smooth icons would be great.
Cheers!
Tweetizen
March 18th, 2009 8:14 pmWe would love to get an custom icon set for http://www.tweetizen.com – all twitter related.
thumbshit
March 18th, 2009 8:36 pmthose pillows are super cute!! where can i buy them?
sirisha
March 18th, 2009 8:45 pmHi,
I need some icon sets to be used regularly by my friends and colleagues and seeing which they should be reminded of power saving, fuel saving, ozone deplition efect, save plants and plant more trees :)
Thanks
Nidhi
March 18th, 2009 8:49 pmhow about a set of icons for sign-in, sign-out, sign-up, and icons for the contact page like telephone, fax, email, printer…
i dont see these too often… atleast not good ones..
Abdulsalam Alasaadi
March 18th, 2009 8:51 pmGREAT…
champ
March 18th, 2009 9:07 pmSome mini icon sets perhaps?
I always thought that there wasn’t so many sets of mini icons (16×16,32×32) and all just look the same, we didn’t have many choices when it comes to building a real application. (famfamfam, milk icon, etc) It starts to get boring in the process. :-D
Those geeky pillows are so tempting.
Eric Kelsey
March 18th, 2009 9:10 pmSocial icons :)
Marta Feio
March 18th, 2009 9:11 pmI would like to see social icons made of plant’s roots, worms, and other underground beings.
azneXPERIMENT
March 18th, 2009 9:30 pmSomething different, something original, like book icons!
You could have a Book with any kind of insignia on it, ie: PS, DW, ichat icon, etc.
gaurav
March 18th, 2009 9:40 pmI think of them :-
Green earth icon set
Peace icons
Confectionary icons
Save Time icons
Contact – telephone,fax icons
Web 2.0 terminology icon set eg. RSS, tagging,bookmarking etc
Stationary icon set
Thanks Smashing magazine.
Matt
March 18th, 2009 9:46 pmSpoil yourselves and create a social networking/smashing icon set for Mobile!
Jenkky
March 18th, 2009 10:15 pm1. Car parts (sport, tuning)
2. Dog related icons
3. Plant, flower icons
4. Forum icons
5. Mobile and communications icons
Bronson
March 18th, 2009 10:43 pmHi there!
I think a great icon set would be Real Estate. There is not much out there.
Real Estate Icon Pack would be great.
Regards,
merlinvicki
March 18th, 2009 11:07 pmHow about a set for an ecommerce application. We dont have much here viz. cart, add to cart, checkout etc.
Allahverdi Sefihanov
March 18th, 2009 11:20 pmwhere it is?
Azmi Uzun
March 18th, 2009 11:27 pmContainer Transport
1.Container
2.Vessel (Container Ship)
3.Port
4.Crane
5.Forklift (Container Handler)
6.Locomotive (Rail Transport)
7.Truck
8.Globe
DonRonito
March 18th, 2009 11:28 pmI want an Adobe CS4 pillow set! NOW! :)
Azhar Madia
March 18th, 2009 11:29 pmHow about icon for each specific application, like: music, graphic editor, text editor, etc. with vintage looks?
Roy
March 18th, 2009 11:34 pmI’d really like to have some cool ecommerce-icons like carts, some arrows, “money”, more details-icon, creditcard-icons, etc. I know there are millions of them already but really no’one has created a “full package” yet.
Graafvis
March 18th, 2009 11:44 pmI’m working in a scrum enviroment since a few weeks and i need to create a visual workflow of this scrum method. No icons to be found anywhere though. Icons i really could use are:
- scrum master (person)
- sprint
- breakdown chart
- backlog
- daily scrum meeting
- product owner (person)
- product
- time estimate
George Fratila
March 18th, 2009 11:48 pmi want a finder pillow please
Jasper Kennis
March 18th, 2009 11:55 pmmini file and folder icons, 8×8
Maarten
March 18th, 2009 11:59 pmArcade icons!
woodshed
March 19th, 2009 12:00 amI’d like to see a set for “COLLABORATION”
The icons would be
1. Project (ie select a project)
2. Publish (upload a document)
3. Library (a place for reference documents)
4. Team (manage your team)
5. Search (through uploaded documents)
6. Processes/Workflow ( link to area of site that manages workflow)
7. Cost (are of site that controls financial implications of change)
8. Milestones ( manage key dates in the project)
Chris
David Verhulst
March 19th, 2009 12:03 ame-commerce iconset would be great…
Demedes
March 19th, 2009 12:08 amIcons for cms system will be awesome! Thx.
racoonwise
March 19th, 2009 12:16 amPerfect! Good idea!
i’d like some beautiful web2.0, social media, blogging icons. it’s better to be more cute and cartoon.
Thanks.
racoonwise
Stefano
March 19th, 2009 12:18 amIcon for
1. My Homepage
2. My Blog
3 . My Social page (twitter, facebook)
4. My photo&video portfolio
5. My Calendar
6. My Links
7. My charts
8. My Contact
hi guys good job!!!
PrabhakaranG
March 19th, 2009 12:21 amSince most of the user here are designer & some Developers/Writers, I would recommend for designing next-generation icon sets for displaying in their portfolio:
1. Home
2. Portfolio
3. Services
4. About me/Profile/News
5. Design
6. Development
7. Art
8. Contact
speedcu
March 19th, 2009 12:23 amhy! what a cute pillow set, very nice :) i like them.
I`d also need a set for a CMS. We`ve created a new one and some pretty icons for the web backend would be great. What do I need …
- edit
- new page / new image
- delete
- folder
- arrow (next, previous)
- login
- logout
- save
:) thx and have a nice day!
Niklaus Gerber
March 19th, 2009 12:28 amPlease please please Smashing Magazine – Design an icon set treating the subject of magic (card magic, slight of hand etc) with playing cards, rabbits in hats etc. It is not existing anywhere so far and I did not get arround to do them myself.
That would be sooooo cooool
Samuel Milton
March 19th, 2009 12:31 am* New item
* Edit item
* Delete item
* Print
* User
* Sort up/down
* login/out
vlad
March 19th, 2009 12:48 amHm… I’d like some basic phone function icons for my blackberry :D Like settings, messages, media, memopad, alarm, calendar, address book :)
Thanks!
Edmund
March 19th, 2009 12:49 amIcons on Dress
e.g. nice skirt, t-shirt, i like this dress, etc.
Will be very useful set for many fashion-style websites.
In fact, I am looking for such a set for a long time, anyone knows any good place for these icons?
thx. keep up the good work smashing!
Andrea
March 19th, 2009 12:57 amOooo, they look so cool!!
The apple logo, but maybe in different colours like the ipods :)
I like the idea of the adobe creative suite icons (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash…)
Gerd Wippich
March 19th, 2009 1:03 amI agree with Megan (#42) and would like to see some project organising icons:
1. works
2. inspiration
3. knowledge base
4. text tutorials
5. video tutorials
6. [future] projects
7. private
8. downloads
Dries
March 19th, 2009 1:04 amSome cool artistic icons pleazz :)
Simon
March 19th, 2009 1:12 amA nice web developper icon set would be great (PHP, CSS, XHTML, XML etc)
Lewismc
March 19th, 2009 1:19 amI think a practical web set would be useful. e.g. site-search, download, information, email, external link, user, error/warning and a calendar icon.
Chris
March 19th, 2009 1:22 amEcommerce icons. Create/Add, Read/View, Update/Edit, Delete, Confirmation (that something has been changed), Warning for validation messages, A what does this mean icon, usually seen by the side of forms such as your bank CV2 number, Basket, Save, Payment cards etc.
David Hellmann
March 19th, 2009 1:23 amIcons for all Social Webpages,
- Twitter
- MySpace
- Facebook
- Xing
etc….
And than the basics like
- mail
- mobile phone
- home
etc.
same style to all the icons
Steve Ranford
March 19th, 2009 1:24 amI DJ and would like an icon set to use on my website – one icon for each main section:
1. Info
2. News
3. DJ dates
4. Charts
5. Podcast
6. Gallery
7. Contact
8. Links
I realise there are lots of music icons about but I have never seen any that target DJing.
Just a thought…
Snorri -Css
March 19th, 2009 1:27 amTwitter / Facebook
artlover
March 19th, 2009 1:28 amfuuu super :)
cem
March 19th, 2009 1:28 amI want to car icons :)
Pavel
March 19th, 2009 1:31 amI would like to ask for cool menu set icons (main page, about author, contact, archiv, fotogallery, price list,…)
thanks a lot
dragos
March 19th, 2009 1:35 amI’d like a cool icon set for a web design portfolio site.
Thank you.
Nils
March 19th, 2009 1:38 ami would be happy about these positiv/negative icons:
- newsletter subscribe / unsubscribe
- Login / Logout
- Yes / No
- Submit / Delete
also a general homepage set would be nice:
- Home
- About
- Contact
- Imprint
- Links
- Gallery
- Shop
- Blog
- News
And last but not least a CMS backend set as mentioned before.
mmalaka
March 19th, 2009 1:38 amMSN Icons would be perfect
dragos
March 19th, 2009 1:41 amI’d like to have a icon set for a psd slice service. (slice icon, order icon, work example icon, testimonials icon, contact icon…)
Thank you.
I hope I’ll win this. Good luck to everyone!
Robert Heine
March 19th, 2009 1:43 amWhat about huge (240×240 and of course the small variants too: 64×64, 16×16) Icons with transparent Background for download-categories on Web2.0 Sites?
The Categories could be:
“Programming”,
“Web-Templatedesign”,
“Blog”,
“Feeds”,
“Extensions”,
“Plugins”,
“Downloads”,
“jQuery” or “Joomla”
The jQuery-Icon would be cool, because i think there is not really an icon existing for it.
Italo
March 19th, 2009 1:46 amOld games pixel art icons.. please
Enk.
March 19th, 2009 1:46 amWow, Great Idea.
I’d love some Fruits, Food related colorfull icons.. Icreams, drinks.. Yummy! :P
Another idea will be Icons of Social Networking sites which are not much found like Orkut, Facebook, Linked In, etc.. People need that and much aren’t available in beautifull art. =)
Flo
March 19th, 2009 2:14 amwow!!!!! thats great. i would love to have:
1 – A sheet of paper with a pen
2 – A fax machine
3 – A scanner
4 – An Email icon
5 – An upload icon
all of the should look good next to each other > navigation
thanks so much!!!
Alexander Poliakov
March 19th, 2009 2:14 amHi! I’d like to have an icons for multitouch devices: tables, walls this could be well used by NUI Group community.
Thanks.
Rob
March 19th, 2009 2:18 amIcons for specific content would be great.
Best Seller
Featured
Premium
Special Offer
Limited Edition
expressions
March 19th, 2009 2:22 amI would love to see and use following icons
Alphabet icons(Typographic).
Sepia toned icons
Valeriy
March 19th, 2009 2:25 amPillows are nice!
I’d like CMS icons
Cathyt
March 19th, 2009 2:29 amThis comes bang on time. I have to design an icon that expresses “EMBED”, as in embed that video link on your pages. I’ve looked around and so far have found: a cinefilm with an arrow pointing down (CNN) and the code “</” from Vimeo. But we need an EMBED ICON that can become a standard!!
thank you Smashing People!
c.
seazon
March 19th, 2009 2:43 amI would really need myspace, facebook and weather icons to use with Samurize as a real time updater on your desktop, that would need designing the whole shabbang to it ;)
Lollo
March 19th, 2009 2:51 amGreat Icons!
kapalika
March 19th, 2009 2:55 amHow about some set for photographers as: fashion, portrait, beauty, retouch, portfolio, commercial etc.?
Sledziu
March 19th, 2009 3:00 amIcon set for menus. Like Contact, Home, About us, etc.