40+ Hand-picked Photoshop Icon Designs [Photoshop Tutorials]

We know we can always count on the Internet for free quality icons, but that being said, free icons sometimes might have it’s limitation too. Here’s few we can quickly think of:

Copyright. Most free icons restricts usage on non-commercial product/website only.
Size. Don’t you just hate it when you found your favorite icon but it’s only a 32×32 and you wish they have a bigger version?
Colors. You found the exact icon you want, but the color is just not right.
Transparency. Some author did not distribute their free icon in .PNG or original source. That makes it hard to implement their icons on our design.

Creating your own icon not only overcome above mentioned problem, at the same time you gain and brush up your Photoshop skills. Nothing beats the satisfaction of creating things on your own. We’ve crawled the net, searching from sites to sites and here’s a 40+ hand-picked Photoshop tutorials that guide you through icon designing. Have fun.

You might also be interested in these following Photoshop articles we’ve previously published.

Full content after jump.

	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Icon How to quickly make a slightly altered looking Adobe CS3 Icon.
	Angry Emoticon Learn about special effects while converting an ordinary orb into a fantasy art piece.
	Create a Glossy Home Icon Learn how to design your very own glossy home icon in Photoshop
	Perfect Shine Button or Icon How to create a cool looking button or an icon to suit your need.
	Create a High-Gloss Graduation Hat Icon Design How to make a professional, shiny, clean graduation hat icon.
	Create a Jaguar Style Folder Icon How to cover an object in a Jaguar style fur texture.
	Create A Mockingly Smiley Simple way to create a glossy mockingly smiley in Photoshop.
	Create a Shiny Lock Icon Design Wherever you wish to place a lock icon, this tutorial will show you how to create an attractive one for you to use!
	Create Icons tutorial Create a glossy looking icons.
	Creating a Cool Yellow Helmet Icon Create a helcom icon from photograph.
	Creating an XP Style Monitor Icon Create a simple monitor icon in that style.
	Design a Glossy Download Icon You want the graphic to be eye-catching, yet smooth and small enough so it doesn’t dominate your layout. This tutorial will teach you how to create a graphic that does just that.
	iTunes Icon in iPhone This tutorial will show you how to effectively create the iTunes icon found on all iPhones and iPod Touches.
	Draw magnifying glass Learn how to create magnifying glass, which you can use it as button or as icon
	Vista Aero Thumbnail Icon Create the glossy border around most of Vista’s icons.
	World Icon Tutorial Create world icon in Photoshop.
	Glossy RSS icon In this tutorial we are going to create a colorful RSS icon for your blog.
	Glowing Orb With Dial Experimenting with layers and styles to create a cool glowing orb and dial effect.
	Home Icon In this tutorial, you will learn to create a home icon.
	How to Make a Folder Icon Learn how to create a nice folder for your desktop or a website.
	Illustrate a Traffic Cone Icon in Photoshop Drawing a traffic cone, another handy icon for "under construction"
	iTunes Icon The challange of this tutorial is to use various Blending modes and blending techniques to replicate the iTune icon.
	Mac Os X Mail Icon Style Learn how to make the Mac OS X Mail’s icon in a easy way.
	Making a Photoshop Shield! Use the Path Tools in Photoshop to draw a shield-like shape.
	Designing a Safety Icon Design safety icon in Photoshop.
	Pyramid Icon Design How to use your pen tool to create a simple and easy triangular icon design that can be used as your logo or a bulletin.
	Custom RSS Feed Icons Two ways to make your Feed Icons custom.
	Photoshop Video Game Mario Icon How to Create Photoshop Video Game Mario Icon.
	Recreate the Famous Yahoo! Smiley How to recreate the famous Yahoo! smiley face.
	Skype Buddy Icon Learn to draw skype buddy icon with this tutorial.
	Skype Logo Learn how to create in easy steps logo for Skype.
	Stylish Search Icon Learn how to design a professional stylish search icon.
	QuickTime Icon Design Quicktime Icon in Photoshop.
	Clock Icon Create simple clock icon.
	Mac Sphere icon Create Mac Sphere icon.
	The Making of an Icon Insights into the process of making icons.
	Creating a clock icon Yet another clock icon tutorial in Photoshop.
	TV Icon In this tutorial, you will learn to create a tv icon.
	Vista Error Icon How to create Windows Vista icons using a few basic layers, creative layer styles and some web 2.0 gradients.
	Vista Firewal Icon Design a Vista Firewall Icon
	XP Style Woman Icon Learn to draw a xp style woman icon.

Comments

Htoo Tay Zar August 1st, 2008

Really Amazing Collection!! I wonder you read a lot blogs about photoshop and others… Thanks for sharing
Reply
Johnson August 1st, 2008

Mind Blowing Collection…

Really worth a Digg..
Reply
Ramy August 1st, 2008

Dugg. :)
Wonderful collection.
Reply
Wendy August 1st, 2008

Nice collection. It will take me a lot of time to try them all *wink*
Reply
Keith Dsouza August 1st, 2008

Great set of icons, I am sure that I would use this quite a few of these :)
Reply
Brian August 2nd, 2008

Thanks for mentioning my iTunes icon tutorial on Elite By Design! Great list of some incredible tutorials.
Reply
Luigi August 2nd, 2008

Great tutorial, thanxs!!
Reply
Pavan Kumar August 2nd, 2008

Wow! That’s an amazing set, all are good… Really useful…

Stumbled to make it more popular…
Reply
dlv August 2nd, 2008

ou thanks, i’ve waiting for your post in this date !!!
The last entry abour firefox’s tabs has a lot of time in the top…I know…maintain up to date a blog it’s not easy…
Thanks for this post, for this collection !
I think that I jumped to here when a i saw you in pdstuts…and i’m still loving this blog..i love “Most +Nº…” entries !!!

thanks, adeux from Argentina
Reply
hongkiat August 2nd, 2008

Thanks, I’m glad you like it. :-)
Reply
Mohsen August 2nd, 2008

Great Collection.
I have a same post here
http://acomment.net/learn-icon-designing-the-best-of-tutorials-and-articles/63
Reply
ashvin August 2nd, 2008

lovely.. thnx
Reply
Sumesh August 2nd, 2008

Good work on the roundup – stumbled :)

Could you compile a list of tuts for other programs like Illustrator ? :)
Reply
hongkiat August 2nd, 2008

@Sumesh Thanks. I’ll keep that suggestion in my to-do list :-)
Reply
United Voices August 3rd, 2008

Wow, these are good looking tutorials. Humm… now i’ve got to try these out. Let’s hope I’ll these asap.
Reply
Syahid A. August 3rd, 2008

Wonderful list as always HK. You must really have tons of bookmarks! :D
Reply
joyoge August 4th, 2008

Photoshop’ta ikon yapmakla ilgili 40+ özel ders
http://www.joyoge.com/oku/571/Photoshop-ta-ikon-yapmakla-ilgili-40-ozel-ders-tutorial.html

thanks a lot…
Reply
Yucel Eroglu August 7th, 2008

great collection, thanks =)
Reply
irgd knzrtuv August 7th, 2008

acsh csvgoujrd imgwkzhap zloxyb vnlhx libakx itbedpraz
Reply
Gastón August 22nd, 2008

Gracias :D

Hay que practicar uno por uno…
Reply
Online hry August 28th, 2008

Beautiful collection. I use one of them.
Reply
Shashi September 19th, 2008

Awesome Collections!!! Thanks!
Reply
Puneet October 15th, 2008

Cool Collection! :D
Reply
tshirtclipart November 26th, 2008

This tutorial will show you how to create cool affliction and modern fashion designs in Adobe Photoshop
Reply
Sanny Rizky Jatnika December 5th, 2008

Dugg Digg Dugg Deer!! Design Shared Reveal Huh! ;)
Reply
sukru December 25th, 2008

ochen haroshaya rabota. Spasiba daragoy.
Reply
kadir February 3rd, 2009

very Thanks for share (I’m Turkish) ;D
Reply
maravanravi April 20th, 2009

Cool Collection! very thanks
Reply
Jiri Mocicka June 8th, 2009

great source! some of these technique are pretty complicated.
In some cases you can simplify the process to half.
Great to see how other works and share.
Nice
Reply
dropped shadow June 19th, 2009

Good source..
Check this one out
http://bevelandemboss.net/free-psd-sources/free-icons-psd-source

You can download a fully editable PSD with a set of icons, that shows how these icons are made…
Reply
BERKAN July 2nd, 2009

yaw benim dilimde yokmu sizi anlamıyorum.. :D
Reply
3d game creation August 9th, 2009

very nice tutorial,very good job mate
Reply
taktka.com September 16th, 2009

thaaanks
Reply
kavitha September 16th, 2009

your icons are glossy, classic and beautiful.
Reply
andrew October 1st, 2009

thanks. was great
Reply
Adventure games November 22nd, 2009

Great tutorials, making good looking icons can be really useful to stay in the game in web designs. A good icon plays a big role in the look of a website!
Reply
videoizle January 9th, 2010

Cool Collection!
Reply
maq January 19th, 2010

Oh My God, I love this icons. I work usually with flash but I can’t remain indifferent to such beautiful works
Reply
deepak kumar February 2nd, 2010

Great tutorial, thanxs!!
Reply

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