Download the icon set for free!

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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Behind the design

As always, here are some insights from the designer herself:

All of us designers need graphics and icons for our own sites, not just for client’s sites, so we designed this icon set with that in mind. The set contains 12 big icons in 256×256 format. Both layered PSDs and transparent PNGs are included. We like to call it our ‘designer portfolio icon set’. The set includes the following icons:

Avatar

Portfolio

Brushes

Mail / Envelope

Color Palette

Colored Pencils

Tablet

Laptop Computer

Moleskine Notebook

DSLR Camera

Easel With Canvas

Coffee Cup (who said designers drink too much coffee?)

Thank you very much, Jon & Co.! We appreciate your efforts.

Smashing EditorialThe team here at Smashing Magazine. Mostly Sven & Vitaly.

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Official Twitter badges are boring, let’s put something fresh in your design!

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What’s a Pictogram?

A pictogram, or a pictograph is an ideogram that conveys it’s meaning through it’s pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Today we use the term casually for a broad sweep of icons. I personally use it as a reference to the flat-styled, often uni-colored, simplistic portrayal of ideas and objects.

The classic standardized ISO 7001 DOT Pictograms

A history in pictures

While lately popularized by handheld interfaces like the iPhones tab control, Pictograms have never been out of style. Infact, some of the earliest written languages where based on the idea of conveying meaning through simple pictures.

This blog post is not an attempt at a history lesson, but there are some very interesting lines stretching all the way back from the earliest mesopotamian language of Cuneiform and Egyptian Hieroglyphs, through the coats of arms in the middle ages and all the way up to the invention of the printing press. All contributing to the idea of icons and pictograms.

Today we use pictograms in all sorts of situations. Looking for the toilet in the Airport? Or are you following laundry instructions? We interpret any number of pictograms every day.

Pictograms are everywhere around us.

The International Standard

A set of pictograms was defined in the international standard ISO 7001, championed by Roger Cook and Don Shanosky in the seventies with their ‘Department of Transportation’ sanctioned (DOT) pictogram set of fifty universally acknowledged icons. Other known and recognized sets of pictograms include laundry instructions and chemical hazard labels. Many of the well established pictograms are hailed for being universally understandable, crossing language and culture boundaries.

But other than the fact that even people from rural China understands the international symbol for ‘toilet’, what other qualities (and pitfalls) does pictograms hold?

So what are they good for?

Pictograms are in many ways the core of icons. They strive to communicate as clearly as possible by removing details and focusing on the simplicity of the likeness between a physical object and how they are most easily recognized.

This makes pictograms incredibly potent at delivering clear messages as long as the receiver understands the simplified representation. For the average designer, this means that if you’re looking for the most direct route to communicate a known convention – pictograms could be the right tool for the job.

Pictogram-styled icons are all about peeling away layers of details until the simplest recognizable shape remains.

Understanding Context

Pictograms have flourished in the physical world where the context of the message is obvious. Holding your sweater in your hand, the laundry instructions on the inside seems that bit more tangible. That little box with a circle inside crossed out, is fairly easily deciphered as being a warning that you can’t dry tumble this specific clothing item. The box with the circle obviously being a domestic appliance that dries your clothes through centrifugation. See, it’s all about context – the situation you are in helps you interpret the pictograms and their intended meaning. This becomes slightly more fuzzy when taken out of the physical world, which brings us to some of the pitfalls of pictograms.

With Context we can more easily decode the pictograms.

The spawn of a million pictograms

What we need to consider when opting for these simplistic solutions is how well the message will be carried in this style. While the established conventions for pictograms are easily identified in the physical world, the new age of digital conventions are constantly evolving and becoming more numerous. Designers and developers are finding new situations and functionalities where this style of communication is being applied. This basically means that we’ve gone from a few universally understood and recognized pictograms to hundreds of thousands of icons employing the same simple visual vocabulary.

We’re absolutely swimming in these today

In mobile and desktop interfaces as well as corporate branding we see these stylish flat icons reaching for new and fresh ways to illustrate a much wider range of concepts. This isn’t merely confined to the physical representation of objects interacting like many of the older pictograms. This new wave of simplistic icons embraces abstract concepts and multi layered conventions, covering everything from e-commerce to cloud computing. The fact remains that the sheer amount of icons in this style has severely diversified something that used to be very clear and easy to read.

We’ve moved away from the universally understood to much more complex conventions and abstractions.

When to be careful

With all these new and budding pictograms, the landscape has changed. The viewer will need to get familiar with a much wider range of pictograms and flat-styled conventions. This means that unless you’re communicating something within the very obvious digital conventions, you could end up confusing some of your users – especially if you’re trying to communicate something that’s out of the ordinary.

What makes pictograms so powerful is also what makes them so fragile. If you don’t recognize the image being depicted, the convention being communicated or the context it’s being presented in, the icon leaves you very little in terms of contextual hints. All it’s fidelity and details have been shaved away to make it streamlined to deliver a certain message. If the message fails, you’re pretty much screwed.

Why so popular?

Pictograms have seen a surge of popularity in modern interfaces, perhaps partly because our interfaces have grown more advanced and intricate. The simple shapes and subdued colors feel right at home in an interface that might otherwise be filled with content boxes, panes, rows of data and other control elements.

Notice the use of pictograms in modern interfaces. I bet there’s some in your browser right now.

In many ways, pictograms are incredibly easy to work with. You can add them to your existing design without causing too much of a disturbance. Often they are to the point and doesn’t attract attention away from the rest of your design. They certainly cater to the ‘helvetica generation’ of designers that enjoy clean lines and a balanced approach to visual hierarchy.

So what should you take away from this?

It’s not a new trend or a very surprising one. I’m sure one could argue that these icons aren’t even within the confines of ‘pictograms’ any longer, as most of them have moved beyond the universally understood. My point is not to stir debate on the naming conventions. I only ask you to consider the pro’s and con’s when choosing the best vessel for your communication. In some cases higher fidelity icons will do a better job of portraying a more abstract or out-of-the-ordinary convention due to the amount of contextual information build into the detail. Sometimes a clean and neutral pictogram will be the optimal route to deliver a well known message.

Get a powerful set of Pictograms!

I actually use pictograms in my work on a daily basis. I got tired of constantly having to reinvent and redraw known conventions, so i decided to create a very large icon set of highly usable vector pictograms. The set is called Vital Vector and i’m selling it over at iconpark.net for an industry-shaking value price of 29 bucks. Get it and you’ll be sitting on the same powerful resource i am, and the weather is quite nice up here.

Head over to Iconpark to get a hold of this awesome set.

During my research i kept bumping into the official ISO 7001 DOT pictogram set. Below i’ve collected the authorized 67 pictograms from the standardized DOT pictogram set. I’ve gathered them in a single illustrator (and svg) file – they are under an open license so anyone can benefit from these. Click the picture below or here to download and use the conventions we all know and love.

If you made it all this way through this long article, leave a comment and tweet about it.

post by pixelresort.com

Big 10

The Big Ten Conference is the United States’ oldest Division 1 college athletic conference. Since Penn State joined in 1990, there have been 11 schools in the Big Ten. They revamped their logo by placing a hidden number 11 on either sides of the letter T to stand for the actual number of schools in the division.

Goodwill

Goodwill is a nonprofit organization that helps disadvantaged people in North America. The letter G in the logo is a smiling face, conveying the notion that Goodwill provides happiness and relief to those in need.

Sun Microsystems

If you look at the diamond icon on the left of the company’s name, you will see that it spells out Sun starting from any corner. It is a wonderful example of symmetry.

Amazon

This logo has been around for over a decade, but many people do not know that there’s a hidden symbolism in Amazon’s logo. The arrow from A to Z represents that the website sells everything from A to Z, and doubles as a “smile” to suggest satisfied customers.

Toblerone

In the company’s logo, you will see a bear hidden in the mountain. The bear is the symbol of the city of Berne in Switzerland where Toblerone is produced.

Baskin Robbins

At first glance, this logo looks simply like the initials for Baskin Robins but if you take a second look, you will see the number 31 in the acronym (highlighted in a pink color). This stems from the idea that Baskin Robbins sells 31 types of ice cream, one for each day of the month.

FedEx

The hidden rightward-pointing arrow in the negative space between the letter E and X conveys the speed and precision of the company’s delivery service.

Hope for African Children Initiative

At first glance, this logo looks like a map of Africa, but if you take a closer look, you will see two people facing each other.

Milwaukee Brewers

The old Milwaukee Brewers logo uses the team’s initials (B and M) to form a catcher’s glove holding a ball.

Northwest Airlines

The old Northwest Airlines logo has a very clever icon. Not only does the icon on the left of the text spell out N and W, but the arrow and circle symbolizes a compass pointing in the northwestern direction.

Article by sixrevisions.com

50 Common Symbol Signs – DesignWorkPlan

This is a collection of 50 commonly used professionally designed signage symbols. The symbols signs are free of charge available as an OpenType font format, allowing you to easily add symbols and icons to your sign and wayfinding designs.
The pictograms are all commonly used signs for public services such as Toilets, Telephones, First Aid, Elevators, Information, Restaurants, Coffee Shops, Smoking, Baby, Recycle Icon, Shower, Reception desk and much, much more.

50 Symbol Signs – AIGA

This system of 50 symbol signs was designed for use at the crossroads of modern life: in airports and other transportation hubs and at large international events. Produced through a collaboration between AIGA and the U.S. Department of Transportation, they are an example of how public-minded designers can address a universal communication need.
To develop such a system, AIGA and DOT. compiled an inventory of symbol systems that had been used in various locations worldwide, from airports and train stations to the Olympic Games. AIGA appointed a committee of five leading designers of environmental graphics, who evaluated the symbols and made recommendations for adapting or redesigning them. Based on their conclusions, a team of AIGA member designers produced the symbols.
You can download the pictograms individually, in either EPS or GIF formats, or you can also download the entire package.

28 National Park Service Map Pictograms

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102 PICOL – Icons and Pictograms

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The PICOL library is free to use and open to alter, sized at both 16px and 32px, and available in PNG format.

100 Scalable Vector Pictograms – Pictoico

Pictoico is a visual initiative with the goal of defining a uniform, globally accepted, contemporary yet modern, unique yet highly recognizable symbol style. With over 100 icons, all of these icons are free, so, no watermarks and no limitations. The icons are all in major, industry standard scalable vector formats.

27 Pictogram Warning Signs

In this collection of pictograms there are 27 authentic warning signs, and come packaged with a full PSD and a Photoshop 8 brush set.

125 Pictogram Collection from Ecomo.com

This pictogram library is a collection of 125 icons of Public Information Symbols from Japan.
The icons are split into the following categories: Public Facilities, Transport Facilities, Commercial Facilities, Tourism and Culture, Safety and Warnings. Each set can be downloaded in either PDF, EPS or GIF formats.

Symbols.com – Online Encyclopedia of Western Signs and Ideograms

Symbols.com contains, an impressive, 1,600 articles, 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. This is an amazing repository of almost every possible symbol you could think off.

By speckyboy.com

If you’d like to recommend the icons please feel free to link to this page!

The icons have been released exclusively by us and can be used for both personal and commercial use without credit.

Preview:

Download

Please click the link below to download a ZIP file (AI, EPS and PNG versions) – 941kb

Free Twitter Bird Speech Bubbles