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Birdies: Cute Free Twitter Icons For Your Blog

In this post we release Birdies: A Free Twitter Icon Set, a set of 12 beautiful and lovely Twitter icons. This set was designed by IconEden and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. All the icons included in the set have clean shapes and neutral colors that can be used for various contexts, from a "Tweet it" button for your blogs to desktop wallpapers.

The set is available in both pixel and EPS vector format so the icons can be rescaled to any size while retaining their original details. As usual, the icons are free for both personal and commercial projects.

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Freebie Release: Quartz Icon Set

Today we are glad to release Quartz Icon Pack, a set with 90 clean, sharp and (hopefully) useful icons for your project. This set was designed by our friend, a Romanian designer Andy Gongea especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The Quartz icon set contains 90 semi-transparent .png-icons in the resolution 64×64px.

The icons can be used without any restrictions for any type of composition – text- or graphic-based. The icons cover a wide range of designs – e-mail icons, software icons, general web application icons and blog icons. The set is free to download and use in any projects.

You may want to take a look at the following related posts:

• Flavour Extended Icon Set
• “Magazeen”: Free Magazine-Look WordPress Theme
• Typography Keyboard Layout

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50 Fresh Useful Icon Sets For Your Next Design

Beautiful and free icon sets always come in handy. Used properly and moderately, icons can be helpful to provide users with memorable metaphors and illustrations that would provide a visual support for otherwise unspectacular text blocks. For instance, in web-applications memorable icons can be very helpful as they can make it easier for users to memorize how to perfom some specific task or where to find some specific functions.

This large collection of recently released icon sets is supposed to help designers improve their designs on their web-sites and in web-applications. All icon sets are free. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the icons — the license can change from time to time. The icons provided below may turn out to be useful and helpful in corporate designs, portfolios, blogs, magazines and in Web-applications. Please feel free to suggest more icon sets in the comments to this post.

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Flavour Extended: The Ultimate Icon Set For Web Designers

A couple of months ago we released the beautiful Flavours Icon set that was designed by Oliver Twardowski, a graphic designer from Bonn, Germany, the set aimed to help designers in their Web and user interface designs, containing 177 icons in a resolution of 48×48 pixels. In this post we release the updated version of the icon set, now with 452 icons, freely available to use in private or commercial projects.

The files are transparent PNGs, and the source file (.psd) is available for download as well (see the links below). As always, the set is completely free and may be used for any private or commercial project without any restrictions whatsoever.

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Retro Toys: A Free Icon Set

Today we are glad to release "Toys", a retro icon set that was designed by Helen Gkizi and released with Smashing Magazine for its readers. The set contains 9 "toys" icons (png, 128×128px) that may come in handy in a variety of settings – e.g. in projects related to children and family.

The files are transparent PNGs, and the source file (.eps) is included as well. As always, the set is completely free and may be used for any private or commercial project without any restrictions whatsoever.

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Acorn Icon Set For Free Download

In this post and in the previous one we release two beautiful professional icon sets that will hopefully meet your expectations and will come in handy in your projects. This icon set was designed by Monica Corduneanu and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

The set contains 17 beautiful icons-illustrations: an envelope, book, home, laidy and the tramp, magnifying glass, mister, mister and misses, newspaper, paperclip, pencil, rain, the French, the gangster, the kids, the reader, twins and, of course, the Smashing addict.

You can find more excellent freebies in our site section Freebies.

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Project Icon Set For Free Download

Over the last months we've heard numerous complaints about the lack of quality in our freebie releases. We are aware that our readers have high expectations and we try to do our best to meet them in our posts. In this post and in the following one we release two beautiful professional icon sets that will hopefully meet your expectations and will come in handy in your projects.

This icon set, designed by Navdeep Raj and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers, contains 18 beautiful icons related to project management. The set includes the icons address card, bar graph, calendar, clock / time, conference device, contact, documents, draft, mail, marker, milestone, notes, portfolio, project plan / gant chart, search / find, sitemap / flowchart, todo and user / resource.

You can find more excellent freebies in our site section Freebies.

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Friday Freebies: Photoshop Brushes, Vector Graphics, Icons

Over the last months we focused on releases of icons and themes, so we thought that it may be useful to release Photoshop brushes and vector graphics for a change. Hence, in this post we release a set of Photoshop brushes for space effects, a set of brushes to simulate the effect of a painted canvas, a hand-drawn vector illustration set and a Moleskine icon set.

You can use the sets (except the bonus set) for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

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Smashing Community Icon Set: Vote Now!

Two days ago, we invited you to participate in the Smashing Community Icon Set event, in which you would tell us what icons you want and we would design them for you together with the design agency SoftFacade of Russia. We express our sincere gratitude for the engagement of our readers, the useful feedback and the support. Thank you!

Indeed, we were overwhelmed by the amount of ideas and suggestions. Overall, we received over 430 comments in our announcement post and in the forum. We identified over 120 (!) various ideas, combined them according to similarity and ranked them in order of popularity. We ended up with the seven most popular ideas.

And now it is your turn to decide which icon set we should design. Please vote for your favorite set in the poll below. And please spread the word so that as many users as possible can participate, so that the set that is truly most wanted by the community is chosen. You have 48 hours.

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New Smashing Freebies For Designers and Bloggers

As you may or may not know, we love to smash freebies around. Today we are glad to release the Web Developer icons set, designed by Pedja Rusic, a WP Smashing WordPress theme, designed by Greg Johnson and a Cafe icon set, designed by Enk. All icons and the theme are available for free download and can be used without any restrictions whatsoever. Please feel free to suggest ideas for next icon sets or single icons in the comments to this post.

We have noticed Pedja Rusic from Serbia over a year ago, when we presented his icon sets in our free icons round-up. A while ago we contacted him and commissioned the design of icons dedicated to designers and developers. The icons should pay close attention to the smallest details, look original, cool and still remain recognizable.

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How To Use Icons To Support Content In Web Design

Why use icons? Design is all about communication: it doesn't matter how important or exciting the information that you're sharing is if you fail to hook your visitors. When initially viewing a website, most users will first scan the page for visually interesting content, and only after something grabs their attention will they actually begin reading. Icons are a simple, effective way to draw users into the content of your website.

Icons serve the same psychological purpose as paragraph breaks: they visually break up the content, making it less intimidating. A well-formatted page, with text broken into easily accessible paragraphs and accented by icons, is easy to read and visually interesting enough to sustain the user's attention. So, stop wasting time writing so much content that no one will read, and start using icons!

In this article we showcase beautiful examples and best practices of using icons to support content in web design. Please feel free to take a look at the showcases of navigation menus, search boxes, blockquotes and web forms.

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50 Free High-Quality Icon Sets

When it comes to freebie designs, beautiful icons sets are tops. Designers scour for these free treasures more than anything else. You can use icon sets in Web applications, website designs and on your desktop. If well designed, they make a great impression on others. Beautifully designed icons also prove the quality of a designer's work, so many designers make theirs freely available online, thus giving their work more exposure.

In the overview below, we present 50 beautifully designed, free and professional high-quality icons for desktop and Web design. All of them can be freely used for private projects, and some are available for commercial use as well. Regardless, always read the licenses -- they may change from time to time.

You can also scan through our other icon-related articles:

• 40 Professional Icon Sets for Free Download
  Download some fresh, professional icon goodies.
• 35 (Really) Incredible Free Icon Sets
  Spice up your posts with nice illustrations, or enrich your desktop with outstanding dock icons.
• Icons for Your Desktop and Icons for Your Web Designs
  High-quality free icons that you can use for your desktop and Web designs.
• 20 Free and Fresh Icon Sets
  Over 20 free beautiful sets and links to other free icon libraries.

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Smashing Retro Icon Set

Over the last few months, we have extensively covered the influence of retro and vintage style on modern Web design. We have looked at recent vintage Web designs, showcased posters and typography and presented vintage tutorials. In fact, we are confident that vintage is still in, and that many designers are experimenting with this style to achieve unusual, creative and (hopefully) effective results.

So today, we are pleased to release the Smashing Retro Icon Set, a set of 10 beautiful, high-quality "vintage" icons, created by the talented Russian design agency SoftFacade especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The set contains 10 original icons: search, sign-up, calendar, news, RSS, comments, email, ads, home and address.

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Friday Freebies: Flavours Icon Set And Cute Tweeters Icon Set

We continue to deliver fresh high-quality freebies to our readers and we continue to pursue the diversity of subjects that we are going to cover on Smashing Magazine. From the beginning of the year each icon set is supposed to be dedicated to some specific theme or topic that may turn out to be useful for your next project. Today we are releasing 2 free high-quality icon sets.

Oliver Twardowski, a graphic designer from Bonn, Germany, has put a lot of time and efforts to release a handy icon set especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. His set, aimed to help designers in their web designs and user interface designs, contains 177 icons in the resolution 48×48px. The files are available for free download as .png and .psd-sources, so you can modify the files as you wish.

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Stationery Icons, Soccer Icons And Atlantic WordPress Theme

Last year some of our readers complained about the lack of diversity in the sets we have released in 2008. We've heard you, we came up with new ideas and we decided to offer our readers a wide variety of different sets. From now on we are going to release more specific, more practical and (hopefully) more useful icon sets — not just social icons or RSS icons.

We start 2009 with a stationery icon set, a soccer icons set and a fresh Atlantic WordPress theme. Please let us know if we are on the right track.

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Smashing Christmas Icon Sets

In December we asked few designers to come up with some creative, beautiful, memorable yet usable icon sets. Some designers had a tight schedule and couldn't get work done in time, but three designers agreed and delviered their high-quality Christmas icon sets — right in time before the deadline. In this post we are glad to release three beautiful high-quality Christmas icon sets — you can use them for free without any restrictions whatsoever.

You can use all sets for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

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Girl Avatars: Free PSD Vector Icon Set

Today we are glad to release Girl Avatars Icon Set, a set with 21 original avatar icons. This set was designed by Navdeep Raj, the designer of On Stage Icon Set, especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The set was created using Photoshop [shape/style based] and contains 256×256px transparent PNG icons and vector and layered PSD sources.

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

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Dellifeed: A Free Icon Set

Today we are glad to release Dellifeed Icon Set, a set with 8 tasty and appealing social icons in the format .png. This set was designed by Dellustrations.com especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The icons perfectly fit to the coming Christmas atmosphere and there is also always a reason to offer the readers of your blog a delicious RSS-cake icon!

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

You may want to take a look at the following related freebies released on Smashing Magazine earlier:

• Feed Me Animals Icon Set
• RSS/Feed Icons
• Smashy The Alien Icon Set
• Cheers: A Free Social Icon Set

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Office Mouse Icons Set

Today we are glad to release Office Mouse Icons Set, a set of 15 unique icons, in .png and in the resolution 128×128px. The icons are designed by Niki Brown, especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

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DressUp! Avatars Icon Set

Today we are glad to release DressUp! Avatars Icon Set, a set with 16 original avatar icons in .png. This set was designed by Dante Michael Afrondoza especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The set was created from scratch using Adobe Fireworks — the .png-sources are available for free download as well. The icons are available in 128×128px.

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