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Icons are a very important element of web design and play a big role in a website. Designing the perfect icon is definitely a challenge and is always good to have resources and tips in this matter. Today we decided to gather a few Icon Design Tutorials to keep your ideas flowing and to increase your resource library. From new and fresh tutorials to a little bit older but still classic ones, you will find a lot of tips and inspiration in this list, enjoy.

Create a Mobile App Icon in Photoshop

Design a Detailed Audio Receiver Icon in Photoshop

Create a Detailed Camera Icon in Photoshop

How To Draw a Vintage Polaroid Camera Icon

Create an Electrical Outlet Icon in Photoshop

How to Create an Envelope Icon in Photoshop

Create an Apple Safari Icon in Photoshop

Create a Mac Style Home Icon in Photoshop

How to Draw a Shopping Bag Icon in Photoshop

How To Create a Vibrant Cloud Icon in Photoshop

Design a Sleek Google+ Icon

Create a Cardboard Box Icon in Photoshop

Carbon Fibre Style Metallic Icon Design

Learn To Create A Glowing Google Plus Icon/Illustration

Stylish Metallic Button in Photoshop

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Here at WDL we really like to keep you posted on the best resources available out there, and of course we are also talking about freebies! Today we decided to gather 14 fresh icon sets for your designs, so check it out. Click on the images to be redirected to the website where you can download the icons. Enjoy!

Plastique

16 Free Sketch Icons

Monochromatic Iconset 1

Monochromatic Iconset 2

Hand Drawn Web icons

The Aristocracy Free Web Icon Set

32px social media icons

48px web iconset

Payment Icon Set

10 Mini Designer Icon Set

iPad 2 Icons

Mini tooltips

File Icon Set (PSD)

File Icon Set Continued… (PSD)

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Here on WDL we love icons! From Icon Tutorials to a list with the Best Free Icon Sets of 2010 and a 15 Must-Have Minimalist Icon Sets, we already showcased a lot of great icons around here to boost your inspiration. Today we decided to gather some examples of icon usage in web design to show you how icons can make a difference in a layout, giving a page a nice touch, in both interface and experience. Check out the examples we got and start to think about giving icons a new try on your next design.

Clarity – Clean Portfolio WordPress Theme

Movmt Studio

I am Tiago

B3 Studios

Worry Free Labs

Studio Nudge

Peter Nappi

iMyGarden

Cake Sweet Cake

AppVita

Keith Cakes

Square

photovine

enixel

Grégory Sujkowski

Syropia

Clases Inglés Madrid

claimtz

Pandr

Moredays

Source:

The Best Designs
Site Inspire
Sites of the Week – Abduzeedo

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Icons are an important element of an effective and attractive web design. An appropriate use of icons will help you to achieve a professional and solid website design look in your client eyes. Most of the icons are small and very detailed and often it can be challenging to create the quality ones. Designing icons by listed tutorials you will learn a lot of useful and trendy techniques and you will gain a valuable experience and skills in this field.

In this post you will find 20 newest Photoshop tutorials on creating beautiful and modern icons.

Create a Realistic iMac Icon in Photoshop

In this tutorial you’ll discover how to create a realistic iMac icon in Photoshop that includes a 27-inch screen, a keyboard, and a mouse.

Radar Icon in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create a Mac style radar icon in Photoshop.

Draw a Roll of Camera Film in Photoshop

Icon design can be a lot of fun. In this tutorial you will learn how to create a roll of camera film using Photoshop.

Create an Open Book Icon In Photoshop

This very detailed tutorial demonstrates you how to create an open book icon in Photoshop.

How to Draw a Classic Electric Guitar in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will see how to draw an electric guitar in Photoshop (with a bit of help from Illustrator). You will learn how to draw perfect highlights and shadows manually using the Brush Tool and the Stroke command.

Industrial Folder Style Icon

In this tutorial you will be guided through the process of creating an industrial style folder icon.

Create a Cute Twitter Bird Icon in Photoshop

This tutorial will demonstrate you how to create a cute Twitter bird icon in Photoshop.

Learn To Create A Safe Illustration

In this tutorial you’ll see all the process of creating a Safe Illustration. Number of tools used in this tutorial so there’s plenty to be learned.

New iMac Mini Icon Design Tutorial

In this detailed tutorial you will find out how to create a realistic looking new iMac mini, you’ll be able to use the iMac as an illustration or an icon.

Photoshop Tutorial: Create A HD Television Icon

In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial you will learn to create a HD Television icon.

Create a Download Folder Icon in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will find how to create a download folder icon using different shapes and reflections in Photoshop.

How To Design a Realistic Takeout Coffee Icon

This tutorial will show you how to design a realistic takeout coffee cup icon in Adobe Photoshop.

How to Create a Beautiful Printer Icon in Photoshop

Learn how to create this beautiful printer icon with reflections and shadows all within Photoshop.

Speedometer Design From Scratch Tutorial

In this detailed tutorial you’ll discover how to create a speedometer from scratch, you’ll learn such things as text on a path, using the pen tool, working with shape layers and much more.

3D Glassy RSS Icon Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to create a huge, glassy 3D RSS icon in Photoshop.

Create a Photo Realistic iPhone in Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create a photo realistic image of Apple iPhone4.

How to Create a Battery Icon in Photoshop

In this tutorial you will learn to draw a battery icon with 3D look in Photoshop.

Create a Microchip Icon Using Photoshop

In this Photoshop tutorial you will see how to create an isometric microchip icon using basic drawing tools and transformations.

Blog Writing Professional Icon Tutorial

Very detailed and beautiful icon tutorial in Photoshop. Lots of useful and modern techniques used.

Create a Camera Lens Icon in Photoshop

This tutorial will demonstrate you how to create a camera lens icon using Photoshop.

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We all love icons. They can help give life to a website, but it’s been a little while since we’ve rounded up some free icon sets for you. So, here we have a list of 25 fresh and useful icon sets that are professionally designed for various purposes. I’m sure you’ll find them useful when working on your personal and commercial projects in 2011. Enjoy!

E-Commerce Icons

Icon Sweets 2

Mobile Phone Icon Pack

2400 Flag Icon Set

Icons for Designers

Mobile Icons

Boolean

Linkdeck

Adobe Glass Dock Icons

Wireframe Toolbar Icons

Payment Icons

Gesture Icons

SocialShift

Coded Icon Set

iPad Icons

Album Cover Icon

Mobile Me Icons

iPhone Icons

Stylish Srink Icons

Aircraft Icons

Weather Icons

48 Pictograms

Cute Blogging Icons

Strabo Icon Set

Shopping Bag Icons

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Mobile iOS devices have seen some tremendous growth over the 2010 period. With the growing sales of iPads and the popular release of the new iPhone 4 Apple has had an amazing year. Not only in these two markets but all iPod Touch devices are also running iOS which can access the App Store.

Here we’ll be going over brief ideas of how to design icons for iOS devices. There are many sizes and scales which require careful attention to detail and focus. iOS designers are required to submit an icon with their app into the store during publishing.

The process may be time consuming but the rewards are outstanding and provide a true sense of empowerment.

iOS App Development

The main process for designing an app for iOS requires two bits. The frontend design concept requires a branding or icon design to fit in the Apple App Store. Designers are also required to craft UI wireframe concepts for each screen of the mobile app.

Developers then enter XCode and spend hours working with views and libraries to produce a fantastic final result. Combining the graphics and programming can produce amazing applications to stand the test of time.

Designers do not often consider how much work is put into development of a mobile application. The style is different with Android-powered devices where Google hosts an open platform for any and all to build on. The iOS App store is much more exclusive and also offers the greatest chance of reaping a small profit.

Graphics Split on iPhone/iPad

Each icon has a specific size which is used for a certain purpose. The large amount of devices currently running iOS means designers must be on their toes to incorporate a keen icon set with each mobile app.

iPhone/iPod Icon Sizes

• Application Icon – 57x57px
• iPhone 4 icon – 114x114px
• App Store Icon – 512x512px
• Spotlight Search – 29x29px
• iPhone 4 Spotlight – 58x58px

The iPhone doesn’t have many icon size variations. The official app icon which rests on one of your users’ home screens is 57 pixels length and width. The iPhone 4 supports higher resolution settings so it’s optional to include a 114 pixel icon, though not required.

The largest size necessary of an icon is 512 x 512 pixels. This is a fairly large graphic which is displayed throughout the App Store and when browsing apps in Cover Mode. When opening Photoshop to design a new icon it’s always recommended to start at 512 and scale your way down.

Spotlight search supports slightly smaller sizes for icons. 29×29 may seem downright puny but when you’re viewing the search results screen it’s a fairly intuitive interface. The iPhone 4 similarly supports a Spotlight Search icon refined to 58 x 58 pixels for the higher resolution screens.

iPad Icon Sizes

• Application Icon – 72x72px
• App Store Icon – 512x512px
• Spotlight Search – 50x50px
• Settings Icon – 29x29px

The application icon is slightly larger this time around. The app store and cover flow sizes are still the same with an increase in our spotlight search dimensions. The iPad boasts a fairly large tablet touchscreen so icons can fit nicely.

The 29px version previous mentioned can be re-used for iPad as a settings icon. If you create a settings page within the iOS general functionality it will display a small icon next to your tab. This can be nice to allow users to change themes, include different accounts/usernames, and also fiddle with smaller options regarding your app.

Basic Icon Rules

The App Store only accepts applications which offer PNG files for icons. For many detailed reasons PNGs are able to hold deeper colors while not requiring much hard drive space.

You may also notice that icons from the app store have a gloss over their exterior. This is an effect added at runtime and shouldn’t be added into your actual icon. There is a Boolean switch which any app developer can use to turn the glossy icon effect on or off. However most icons benefit from the effect when done properly, so it’s best to leave this setting alone.

The iOS platform also applies rounded corners to icons in most screens. When designing your icon set be sure to keep all corners flat at 90 degrees for a perfect square. This is very important because Apple will add the rounded corner effects for your icons by default. If you apply this beforehand your graphics may publish improperly.

UI Tips & Design Kits

Icon designers should also shy away from using transparency in designs. This is reflected poorly when apps get published to the store since iOS has a difficult time rendering areas from an icon as transparent. If you’d like some inspiration check out our best iPhone apps for web designers.

There are also many resources available to app designers today. Icon artists are fairly open about sharing their projects and love helping the design community with their contribution. Browse the many UI kits for iPhone and iPad development which are free of charge and easy to download.

This has been a developed overview for starting iOS icon design. The process will require months of hard work and dedicated practice to master such an art. However the skills and production value of iPhone apps is tremendous and surely icon design is a skill worth acquiring.

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A few months ago we posted a collection of icon sets for minimal style web design. It was quite the challenge finding high-quality icons of this style, but I was able to find some gems and the effort was greatly appreciated by our readers. Since several months have passed, I decided to scour the internet again for new sets and ones I may have missed the last go around. You’ll be pleased to see that I was able to find 15 Must Have Minimalist Icons Sets. These icons are perfect for designs that are focused on content and typography.

Default Icon

Goo-EE Icon Set

bwpx.icns

Munich

Sanscons

Wireframe Toolbar Icons

Eclipse 2

PICOL

Dortmund

UIDesign Icons

Symbol Signs

Mnml Icon Set

Only2 Icons (92 icons in set)

Devine Icons 2

Devine Icons

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I believe that everybody already understands the importance of social media, and incorporating it into a web design. To get the attention of your viewers to your social media links you need to use both strategy and good taste. To design a good call-to-action social media icon/link you need to think about its positioning, its color, approach, style, size, everything. You also need to keep in mind that you want to get the attention of your viewers to the social side of your website without distracting from what’s important, such as the content. In my opinion, a good social media link is one that you have no trouble to finding and when you find it, you like what you see.

To give you some ideas of how you might integrate social media links in your next project, I’ve put together a collection of 55 Examples of Well Integrated Social Media Icons in Web Design. There should be plenty here to inspire you.

What’s Up Cupcake?

Jason Howmans

Brett Chaney

dConstruct2010

The Waiting Room

Sky’s

Francesco Molezzi

veerle’s blog

danscotton

coolandtheguide

acosmin.com

Midtsommerjazz 2010

Taming the Wolf

The Pineapple Thief

precinkt

Aran Down

taami berry

brizk

The Many Faces of

Daniel Marques

Jonas Eriksson

Creative Soapbox

Poolga

the ship and the sea

Ricky Ryan

madewithlove

fullyi llustrated

freshlimesoda

monkeyworks illustration

Work at Play

AgencyNet 2.0

Healthy Harvest

shout

Crush + Lovely

The Walk

ok.cogaoke.com

Blissfully Aware

Andrew Greig

Oslo Internasjonale FilmFestival

Truf Creative

Behind my Scenes

Oliver James Gosling

Carl Rosekilly

They Make Apps

Behind the Websites

Vegas Uncorked

Foxtie

Zee

R/GA

Nocturn

Carsonified

EnviraMedia

ectomachine

Tapbots – Pastebot

Creanto

Sources:

• The Best Designs
• CSS Gallery – The CSS Awards

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In our continued effort to find and deliver to you the best free design resources, we’ve compiled a list of 20 excellent icon sets for application design. Just like fonts and textures, you can’t have too many icons in your design library. In this collection you’ll find a variety of icon styles that should fit any type of application design.

Basic Set 2

iconSweets

Mini Icons

Free iphone toolbar icons

Glyphish

Splashy Icons

Token

Basic Set

WooFunction

Vaga

Pixelated

Nixus

Vaga Icon Set

FAMFAMFAM – Mini

Free web development icons #1

Free web development icons #2

Tango

Led Icon Set

FAMFAMFAM – Silk

Pixel LED Icon Set

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Whether it’s textures, Photoshop brushes, or fonts, we love finding top notch free files and sharing them with our readers. We do the searching so you don’t have to. This saves you time and helps you focus on what’s important. For this article, we’ve rounded up high-quality icons that you can use in your e-commerce projects.

Checkout Process Icons

Shopping Bag

Money Back Guarantee Icon Set

Free eCommerce icons

Shop Cart Icons

Chalkwork Payments

CSS Globe e-commerce icons

High-Quality E-Commerce Icons

Weby Icons

Milky

Siena

Finance

Basket

Shopping Cart and Basket

Credit Cards

Fresh

Money Icons

E-commerce Icons

Shopping Cart

Business Icons