Here is the icon suite you’ve all been waiting for. Icon design is something I really enjoy but have yet to cover on the blog. It’s often the part of a project that has to take a backseat, because the website or publication is on such a tight timeline that a unique set of custom illustrations just isn’t in the cards. However, icon design is a powerful tool to raise the visual level of any project from good to great.

At NFIDM, we recently launched our new company website, electing to design a suite of icons to go with content headers and subnavigation. We ended up marking almost every paragraph in the site with a unique icon, and developing a simplified or streamlined version of especially complex icons for the matching subnavigation, leaving us with two versions of a handful of them.

Sidenav Icons

Content Icons

Icon Guide:

Contact Us         Launch the App        Previous Project        Clients
Marketing              Download                  Next Project              RSS
Project PDF                Staff                        All Projects             Process

The Order               Strategy               Wallpapers              Challenge
Manifesto            Technology           Whitepapers           Exploration
Modus Operandi   Design                Project PDF               Solution

You can peruse the icon suite here at nfidm.com, and you’ll get to see the adorable sidenav buttons that were created with the icons (see screenshot below).

Even an average set of icons will raise the level of any mobile application, brand identity system, publication or website by a significant margin, but a bespoke set of illustrations designed to match your unique content and efficiently guide your users where they need to go is an invaluable addition to any interface, digital or not.

The next time you begin an interactive or content-heavy design project, evaluate the effect an icon suite can have on your user experience. Your information architect or UX/UI person will really appreciate having those powerful visual tools, and your users will appreciate the ease and beauty with which they interact with your product.