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We have a web application with a dozen or so icons for various functions. The icons were provided by a web design company during a redesign of the site two years ago. The company no longer exists.

We have a growing need for new icons as new functionality is added. If at all possible we want to avoid replacing all the existing ones.

What is a good way to find a set of stock icons that matches the existing icons?

I know there are countless libraries out there and I have gone through a few of those listed on http://ui.stackexchange.com/questions/956/what-are-good-stock-icon-packs. However, nothing really matched.

Any advice on a better approach than clicking through dozens of libraries would be appreciated.

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closed as not constructive by JonW May 15 '12 at 7:37


4 Answers 4

up vote 9 down vote accepted

I would recommend contracting a good designer, perhaps even the individual who designed for the now defunct web design company. For an icon pack, it shouldn't cost much more to commission the icons versus buying stock icons.

The advantages are that you can perfectly match your existing icons (any good designer should be able to match the style), you can get exactly the icons that you need, you have a contact for future icons you may need, and your icons will be unique to your web app, rather than used in multiple places around the web.

The disadvantages are that you need to find a good designer, cost, and your icons will be unique to your web app, rather than used in multiple places around the web.

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I'm a visual designer so completely agree with Virtuosi Media. But your question was about a good way to find similar icons.

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Instead of finding a matching pack for what you have, you can find or design a pack that has all the icons you want, and then replace the old icons with ones from this new pack. Current users will need to re-learn them, but it should not be difficult if the only thing changing is the icon style and not the concept/representation.

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Think of designing an icon as a two step process. The first one involves developing the concept, and the second one is the actual implementation.

I recommend that you find a good designer. It shouldn't cost you much if the designer doesn't have to develop the concept for you. You can always give him a pre-existing icon or image that you found on the web and ask him to implement it in a style that matches what you are already using.

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