We recently needed an icon designer for a quick job and it was far more time consuming that we thought to find a good freelancer portfolio for this kind of work. So we spent a few more hours and came up with this awesome list of icon designers and UI professionals.
Have any other recommendations? Leave a link in the comments!
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totushi June 8, 2009
check out a theme i just released for iphone / ipod :)
http://tinyurl.com/kvq4ml
Kate June 8, 2009
Nice list.
I’m a ninja too!
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Icon-set-Primo-PDF–PDF-Download/82022
http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Icon-set-Nitro-PDF-Software/82160
Andrew June 8, 2009
Kind of surprised Sebastiaan de With of Cocoia wasn’t on here, by far one of my favorite Icon gurus (otherwise, great list!)
Danh ba web 2.0 June 8, 2009
Very beautiful icons for me. Thanks a lot !
See more: http://tr.im/nCEm
andystewart June 9, 2009
shiny buttons are dead…
http://www.andystewart-design.com
pire June 9, 2009
perfect iconss thank you…
martin June 9, 2009
Jonas Rask, Michael Flarup…
@oliverflorez June 9, 2009
Laurent Baumann, this guy is a master! http://www.flickr.com/photos/avetenebrae
kolouker June 9, 2009
The icons on Brian O’Neil’s site, are mostly rip-offs. The leaf icon on home page is made by Panic, and there are some drive and folder icon designs stolen from Jonas Rask’s pry icons. Not nice.
Chris June 9, 2009
Bryan O’Neil’s website seems to just be composed of stolen icons. :|
j June 9, 2009
No offense, but this list is hardly accurate. You’re missing most of the greats, and on top of that, you’re mixing well respected designers with mediocre ones.
Brooke June 9, 2009
Laurent Baumann, Na Wong, Susumu…
Catalin Zorzini June 9, 2009
Got it!
O’Neil is OUT! Now I will update the list with the other suggestions.
If you have more, please shoot!
Thank you!
Dark June 9, 2009
This is Bryan O’Neil.
I noticed that I was first placed in your article, and now removed because of a few comments.
First off, all of the work in my gallery is stuff I have done, and all mods (like Jonas Rask PRY folder) were done with permission from the original author, and posted showing what was done. If you notice, there are no download links available. It was merely as a showcase of what little design things I do in my free time.
As far as the main page. Yes some icons were made by others, but again with permission. For example, I got explicit permission from Panic Inc for the leaf Icon before the site ever went live.
Also, next time I am to be featured, you might want to give me a heads up. I’ve been working for weeks on a new design for my site that is all original, and if I had known people were actually going to see the current site, I would have at least made some changes, and put up a new splash screen.
I have since removed some of the “modification” works from the gallery, and am working on a quick splash screen reflecting that the site is be undergoing a major UI overhaul. Sorry if some of you were confused. The site is merely my digital playground for my stuff so I can access it whenever.
Thank You.
Joshua Blankenship June 9, 2009
While I’m certainly happy when anyone likes my work and sends traffic my way, I have to side with a few of the commenters. I know outrageous blog post titles get Digg/SU/Etc. to hump your metaphorical leg, but “the best” carries a weight that requires some paperwork to back it up.
Nonetheless, thank you for the polite nod.
Agnis June 9, 2009
Thanks Bryan..for setting this point right. I know the designs you have created for my company over the past 5 years have always been original, ethical and Top notch. OWNER DOS!
andystewart June 9, 2009
woops i ment to leave a link to leave a link erlier to the sneaker icon set iv been working on…
http://www.andystewart-design.com/index.php?/project/trainer-icons/
William Wilkinson June 9, 2009
Thanks so much for featuring my work!
Kate June 9, 2009
Just throwing in another 2cents – As a creative director at a software company I spend a large proportion of my time looking at other peoples icons.
One of the issues we come across is that most of the part time or hobby creators make icons that look brilliant on a large scale but rarely translate to a smaller one.
You may have a fantastic looking desktop but can you easily navigate your folders?
Andystewart has a point – Shiny icons ARE dead, for the most part. What’s important is creating icons that have an easy to understand metaphor (envelope for mail, folder for folder etc.)
An icon of a shoe (sorry Andy) or a bag of fat (Mischa) is where the role of icon changes from function to form and is therefore nothing more than a small scale illustration – which in themselves can be outstanding – but are of no use beyond desktop customisation.
This is a quick list of creators I’ve come across lately and – after dissecting their files pixel by pixel – really liked.
http://yingjunjiu.deviantart.com/art/Arzo-Icons-81354404 – Clean, bright and comprehensive.
http://raindropmemory.deviantart.com/gallery/#Iconset – Fun, unique and lots of sizes!
http://www.iconka.com/works/ – This guy is a master! Very professional and considered work.
http://iconfactory.com/freeware/preview/somaapp – Excellent set and a talented illustrator too.
And don’t forget…
http://www.kare.com/index.html – Creative Director for Apple from 1982 to 1985 and pioneer of icon and UI design. She invented the Smiling Mac, Paint Bucket, Lasso, Command symbol, Grabber, Trash and many, many more icons we use today.
Respect!
Chad Engle June 9, 2009
Some serious talent as well as some serious inspiration up there. Kudos.
Dee June 9, 2009
Nice collection. Thanks.
Gant found in deviantart by Mattahan missing frm list. :(
andystewart June 10, 2009
kate your completely right! and your links are fantastic, i agree my trainer icons are just self indulgent illustrations, but its nice to have a little fun, i spend way to much time making functional ‘intuative’ ‘tangable’ bla.. at work :)
andy June 10, 2009
wow – great icons and comments – feel like i’ve been educated!
Christopher Downer June 10, 2009
Thank you for the feature, I’d like to leave a few links to a few of my personal favourite artists…
Susumu Yoshida – http://www.mcdodesign.com/
Pinky Von Pout (Natalie Nash) – http://www.jellylabs.com/
Olivier Charavel- http://charaveldesign.com/
128×128 – http://128×128.livejournal.com/
Eugen Buzuk – http://www.icondrawer.com/
Iiro Jappinen – http://iirojappinen.com/
:)
kolouker June 10, 2009
@Dark,
I took the pain of going through your website and there is not a single place where you would acknowledge that your “mods” are actually mods of someone else’s work, or acknowledge that some elements on your website (like the coda icon) are not your work. So, a random viewer may think these are your own and have a wrong impression of your design abilities.
Josh T. June 10, 2009
Thanks for the mention!
Dark June 10, 2009
@kolouker
The mods are credited where they were actually released. Usually over at MTF.
As far as the rest, like I said, my site is getting a major overhaul, and as is was never meant for anyone but myself for storage and testing. I’m not going to bother adding all the credits and stuff on that site because… well… it won’t be there for much longer, so it’s a waste of time. The new site will be completely in order.
But even so, I have enough original works on there for people to understand what I can do.
There is a reason I don’t actually promote my site. I know it’s not general public-ready.
Kate June 11, 2009
@andystewart “I spend way to much time making functional ‘intuitive’ ‘tangible’ bla.. at work” Me too! I still really like your icons ;)
Keep an eye out for some social networking icons/mini illustrations/button things by me and some of my fellow illustrators.
http://www.bloodsweatvector.com/
Michael Flarup June 15, 2009
Thanks for featuring my work Catalin.
Igogo-design June 19, 2009
Hi,
Here is the list of nice icons
http://www.igogodesign.com/portfolio/icons.html
free vector June 22, 2009
nice list! Thank you so much.
Radic June 27, 2009
very nice and usefull collection, thank u
sohbet odalari September 23, 2009
nice icon set thank you
chat odaları September 23, 2009
Here is the list of nice icons
vacanze in albania January 25, 2010
nice icons
Dekvip January 25, 2010
very nice and usefull collection, thank u
Brad May 27, 2010
I’d really like to learn how to do this.
Is Illustrator the industry standard tool of choice?
Thanks,
Brad.
Melih November 25, 2010
i was wondering if there is anyone who can help me out here? i have been doing some research about `well-known 5 icon designer in history`. i know that susan kare is very famous.
Thanks
Melih
Jarod Luebbert December 12, 2010
Check out Mac Tyler http://mactyler.com
Benjamin December 13, 2010
Can’t believe http://kinaj.com isn’t featured :x
Lj December 13, 2010
Just wondering, will you do an audit that presents mostly female designers next time?
Dutch icon designer September 4, 2011
For everyone who likes minimalistic icon design you should check out dutchicon.com.