The Noun Project

The Noun Project is a website created to build a free collection of symbols. These free icons are useful for all types of design projects including websites, user interfaces and print design.

The large collection of symbols on The Noun Project are all available for free download in SVG format. Each comes along with a title and credit line. It can often be very difficult to track down even the simplest of symbols, and time consuming to create them from scratch. If successful, The Noun Project's goal of a single, free online library of commonly used symbols (and beyond) could potentially change the web icon game significantly.

There has been a good deal of discussion on the project's Kickstarter page about whether or not the symbols can legally be made available for free, but creator Edward Boatman states "all the symbols on the site are licensed under creative commons attribution, or are already in the public domain."

Currently, The Noun Project's website is a simple grid of symbols in one giant list. According to the Kickstarter site, the money raised (now over $14,000) will go towards enhanced functionality including a search and category breakdown. Until then, the site is a nice place to browse but not a quick stop to find that perfect icon for your design projects. However, with the backing behind the project and responses from the creator, my impression is that The Noun Project website will in fact grow into a user-friendly, searchable symbol library.