Fugue – Free Interface Icons

As a web and interface designer I’m constantly looking for icons. I have my favorite set of standard email, logout, download etc.. icons, but every now and then I’ll find myself struggling to find an icon for some random, difficult to describe function.

More often than not I’ll attempt to find an icon rather than trying to create it from scratch and I’ll run to Google and do an image search for my random query (I can recall trying to find icons for ‘federal litigation’) and surprisingly not have much luck.

In doing one such search I came across Yusuke Kamiyaman, a Japanese icon and font designer who produces the fantastic and free fugue icon set.

The Fugue icon set is a collection of 2,225 (and counting) 16×16 PNG icons. He is constantly adding new icons to this set so whenever I’m looking for a specific icon, I always start there. The icons are licensed under a Creative Commons license, so they are free to use commercially as long as you attribute the author. If you prefer not to do that, then for only $50 you can get them royalty-free, which if you’ve ever bought an icon set, is pretty darn cheap.

What is great about this set (aside from the cost) is the depth of the package. With over 2,225 different icons it covers a range of interface elements and applications. Everything from database and UI controls to smiley faces are included in here.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any federal litigation icons yet…

You can Download the set here.