Your blog's not the only place you blog, right? If you need to link your Twitter feed and your Flickr photostream and your Facebook page and your StumbleUpon bookmarks, then you need some cute icons to link from your blog's sidebar. Here are some free ones (check the terms of use because they're not all free for commercial sites and some require backlinks).

Square

The most popular shape, and understandably so: it's the easiest to fit together into a block, and therefore probably to be recommended if you have a lot of sites to link. There should be something here to fit anyone's style.

• 14 lovely clear icons; taking requests for additions.
• 12 glossy icons in true Web 2.0 style, up to 256x256.
• 30 icons in my favourite set: gradients are interesting without distracting from the icon content. Perfection.
• 30 icons with a slightly metallic matte finish.
• 23 icons up to 256x256, in really fresh colours.
• 13 simple icons with square corners at 50x50.
• 65 icons in yummy wet colours: just lovely.
• 154 icons in lovely black and white: this could be the only set you ever need.
• Marcofolio's set of 25 stamps is a nicely informal take on the square shape.
• There are 65 icons in Studiom6's set , so many logos you won't see anywhere else.

Circular

• Gorgeously simple, 17 icons up to 128x128.
• 154 black-on-white icons up to 256x265. Just about everything you'll ever need.
• 12 "turned over edge" icons up to 128x128.
• 108 black and white round icons: just gorgeous.
• 25 slighly domed-effect icons, up to 256x256
• 19 wood-effect icons in 70x70 and 40x40; I don't normally like wood-effect on the net but these are quite cute.

Cubes

• 5 sites only; 3 versions of each one, but very, very nice.
• 6 sites might just be the ones you need, or inspire you to make your own.

Heart

• 22 heart-shaped icons: nice job that pushes the icons to their limit rather than tidying them up with white space.
• 12 glossy hearts: Web 2.0 graphics with a hearty twist.
• Chocolately heart goodness that might work with any luxury-based theme.

Alcoholism

What can I say: these icons refresh the parts others can't even reach.

• 26 pretty bottle tops from Tydlinka.
• 14 grungy bottle tops by Lenka Meleakova.
• Fancy a glass of Twitter or a pint of Facebook? Very innovative.
• If a tinny's more your style, here are 28 of them from Icontexto.

Stars

• 26 icons: though they tend to lose the logo - stars aren't very conducive to being anything other than stars - they could work well if you only want to use a couple together.

Free Shapes

• Juan Pablo Armstrong's 12 icon set has Colour Lovers and Deviant Art, and has strong cohesion while largely leaving the logos alone.

Hand-drawn

I'm surprised how much I like these: I thought that "hand-drawn website" thing had been and gone, but now I'm having sneaky ideas about a WordPress theme based around a hand-drawn Kubrick. If anyone can draw and fancies a collaboration on this, gimme a shout.

• Mfayaz's set has 22 icons - and seems to be taking requests for additions via comments. Stylistically they're a nice compromise between informal and non-scruffy.
• The G Force's set of 18 icons have super-saturated colour that oozes off the screen: more icons are promised.
• Janko's Handy Icons 2 pack has 21 square icons including PayPal and Skype in a painted finish.

So which do you pick?

You pick the ones you like, of course. But some more thoughts that might influence your liking:

• Square icons are nice if you're using a lot, because they fit together in a block.
• Non-standard shapes are always risky, and the further the graphic is from the standard logo, the greater the risk of it not being recognised.
• The more icons you're using, the more you need a standard shape - probably round or square.
• If you only have one or two icons, you can afford something more quirky that your readers have to give a second glance.

Tags: Facebook, graphics, Linkage, social media, Twitter

Posted by Sue on July 21, 2009 in Blogging, Linkage.