If your blog needs a face lift, the creative types who power the web are here to help. Sometimes a few well-designed, tastefully placed icons can add a little class or creativity to an otherwise neutral theme.
Social media links, which we’d argue are a priority for any blog, are a great opportunity to add some texture. You could always roll with the standard-issue glossy, rounded-edge fare, but for those who want to distinguish themselves, there are more creative options out there.
To help, we’ve rounded up some of the most impressive works of social icon art circulating the web lately. The sets below all feature high-quality, high-detail icons that are easy to download and manipulate, thanks to their high resolutions and transparencies. Best of all, they’re free.
If you use a fun icon set that didn’t make our list, be sure to share the wealth in the comments section.
1. Bulb Social Media Icons
You don’t need a “science” blog to take advantage of these lovely beakers. Anything that evokes knowledge, creativity or experimentation would be a good fit. Nine large icons in this set hit all the hip networks and then some.
2. Latte Art Social Icons
These are just too cute to pass up. There are only four of them, and we wish they were a little larger, but the detail and the theme make them great for your foodie blog or caffeine-infused treatises.
3. Social Snow
These ice cubes are less practical, but they’re so nicely rendered we had to include them. Add them to your refrigeration industry news blog, or if you’re partial to the 3D icons without the ice, they are included in the download as separate PNG files.
4. Yammy Social Icons
Add these social pastries to any blog for a hint of the sweet updates you’ll be posting to Twitter and Facebook.
5. Moleskine Social Icons
Pining for the days when you’d scribble appointments into a book, rather than your Google Calendar? Show your readers that you remember penmanship with these sleek Moleskines.
6. Vintage Social Icons
There’s something about the texture of these swatches that draws the eye. They don’t feel like paper, but perhaps cardboard or fabric. They’d make a great fit for a grungier blog theme, but use them sparingly. Because they are all textured identically, too many of them in a row may detract from their casual, worn-out look.
7. Grass Textured Social Icons
Is your blog full of “nature” and “out-of-doors” things, like “plants” and “animals?” This beautifully textured pack is perfect for green thumb content.
8. Sleek Social Icons
If you’re tired of blue Twitter logos and orange RSS buttons, mix it up a little with these sophisticated, modern, and gradient-infused icons. Each logo comes in six different flavors, and the files are nice and big (420 pixels square). With this many color options and size possibilities, the set is a valuable asset for blogs of any style or hue.
9. Vector Social Icons
This bold set feels like a sticker book, but forgoes the “page peel” effect that can look redundant when you’re using multiple icons on the same page. They’re simple but clean, and the slightly raised look adds that dose of texture that many layouts crave.
10. Creature Social Icons
Short, pudgy social media creepers? Yes, please. There are only four in this set, but they hit the big networks (and an RSS logo), and would make an adorable addition to any fun-sized content.
11. Vintage Postage Stamps
If you added up the cost of all the stamps in this set at current USPS prices, you’d be looking at a hefty bill of $10.12. Fortunately, these virtual stamps are free, and they’ll harken back to ye olde days of yore, when you’d receive things in the mailbox besides piles of coupon clutter.
This set is a great fit for a paper theme.
12. Furry Cushion Social Icons
Do you ever just want to snuggle up with LinkedIn? Me neither. But if you’re blogging about kittens or Muppets, these are a great way to connect your content back to the social web.
13. Painting Social Icons
Even if the only painting you’ve ever mastered is the finger variety, you can still class up your social links with these oil-on-canvas masterpieces.
14. Picasso Social Icons
If Facebook was invented in Spain in 1903, you can bet that Pablo Picasso would have interpreted the logo during his Blue Period.
Or not. But these are still pretty cool.
15. 3D Social Icons
These 3D icons are large, crisp, and classic. The set also contains one of the best Foursquare icons we’ve seen on the web — a commodity that is still hard to find.
16. Breakthrough Social Icons
Place these cracking transparencies over any “surface” and the icon will appear to be busting through from the other side — no Photoshop mastery required.
17. PC Monitor Social Icons
Keep it simple with these elegant flat-panel monitors that display big, bold icons. We can envision these on the side bar of a tech or tech support site with a social presence.
18. Paper Social Icons
Get that “I wrote your contact info on a crumpled cocktail napkin” feeling in convenient digital form with these nicely textured social icons. Each one is rendered a little differently, so they’ll still look good in layers.
19. 3D Statuette Social Icons
These little trophies may not be all that versatile, but the eye-catching crisp 3D renders earned them a place on our list. The files are nice and big too.
20. Puzzle Piece Social Icons
If you’re illustrating a “connected” social presence, these smooth little puzzle pieces are a nice touch. We wish the files were a little bigger, but there’s a boatload of sites and services represented in addition to the social heavyweights.
