Website designers are always looking for that extra piece of spark to liven up their pages. This often comes in the form of background images, vector artwork, and more recently popularized icons. Small icons give your user interface an extra boost in usability and clarity. It helps to categorize links and portions of your webpage without using text.
For those creative enough I’ve included 33 exclusive icon tutorials below. These are prominently targeted for Adobe software such as Illustrator or Photoshop. Adobe Fireworks can also be used for some, but can be more difficult if you’re not familiar in the tools palette.
On a similar note I’ve included a few free icon sets towards the bottom. These are 100% free to download and use anywhere on your websites. Feel free to include links to similar icon sets you know and use in your daily projects.
Roll of Film
Battery Core
Suitcase in Illustrator
Create a 3-D Lollipop
Mailbox
Photoshop Trophy
Cute Piggy Bank
Twitter Badge
First Aid
Drink Glass
Vintage Television
Chinese Food Carton
Paint & Paintbrush
Gamepad
Circus Tent
Making an Icon Tutorial
Open Book
Glasses
Juicy RSS Feed
iTunes Icon
DesignFloat Logo
Military Cap
XP-Style Monitor
Magnifying Glass
Magic Wand
StumbleUpon Icon
Pencil
Panda Bear Face
Magician Hat
Chalkboard Screencast
How to Design Mini Icons
Shiny Metal Buttons
Creating Social Media Sets
Freebie Sets
E-commerce set
Designer Icons
Mobile
Replacement iOS
Payment Set
Coded
Hand Sketch
Glyphs by GSIX
Conclusion
This brief collection should get your mind drifting towards abundant creation. Building icons from scratch can be difficult and requires a lot of precision. Even skilled digital artisans spend years of time working on complete icon sets.
Although this isn’t a complete list these tutorials are great for beginners and intermediate designers. Those interested should really spend some time studying to grow their imagination. After all, in the field of web design practice truly does make perfect.
