We asked 20 of today’s top designers and illustrators what advice they’d give to fellow creatives just starting out. Here’s what they said.
The Best Creative Advice from Today’s Top Illustrators and Designers
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Jeremy Elliott
Building a global visual language that unites us.
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What Makes a Great Icon Set?
If you’re contributing multiple icons to Noun Project around a certain topic or theme, here are the top design considerations to help you create a cohesive and unified set.
Grouping and Proximity in Graphic Design: The Art of Visual Organization
Learn how the principles of grouping and proximity can help make your graphic design compositions more scannable and clear.
7 of the Best Color Palette Generators
These online tools will help you quickly find beautiful, harmonious color schemes to use in your designs – without all the guesswork.
Graphic Design Fundamentals: Alignment and Grid Systems
As part of our “Design Fundamentals” series, learn how to utilize alignment and grid systems to bring order and cohesion to your compositions.
8 Productivity Tools for Creative Freelancers
Check out our roundup of top tools for staying organized, tracking tasks, and managing projects for peak personal productivity.
Graphic Design Principles: Rhythm, Repetition, and Pattern
Learn how rhythm, repetition, and pattern can make your designs both more digestible and more dynamic.
Graphic Design Principles: Balance and White Space
Learn how to use balance and white space in your designs by distributing your elements to promote visual flow.
The Principle of Hierarchy in Graphic Design
Learn how to effectively use the principle of hierarchy to direct the viewer’s focus.
How to Use Icons in Notion: A Guide to Visually Organizing Your Life
Learn how to use icons in Notion to visually organize tasks, projects, and notes for everyday use.
Create and Print Custom Valentines with Canva
Use Noun Project icons to create your own custom Valentines, then print and send them all from within Canva.
Easy, Customizable Holiday Gift Ideas
Check out these quick and simple ways to create your own gifts and crafts with Noun Project icons.
Free 2024 Marketing and Social Media Content Calendar
Use Noun Project’s 2024 Content Calendar to plan all your marketing and social media content needs.
Icon Design Fundamentals: Mastering Vector Editing Tools
Learn how to set yourself up for success with grid systems and vector editing tools.
Find Icons, Win Prizes: The Halloween Scavenger Hunt is Back!
Our Halloween Scavenger Hunt is back! Find 13 hidden icons on our site for a chance to win prizes.
Halloween Icon and Photo Collections
Ring in the season with creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky icons and photos deep from the Noun Project vaults.
Design Made Simple: Getting Started with Canva and Noun Project
Canva is a free, beginner-friendly web-based design tool that allows you to quickly create amazing graphic designs with icons and other elements.
The Best Free Tools and Resources for Entrepreneurs and Startups
We’ve rounded up some of our favorite FREE tools and resources for design, branding, project management, and more.
Fall Icon and Photo Collections
Browse through thousands of cozy autumn photos and icon collections to get into the spirit of the season.
Top Summer Icon and Photo Collections
Celebrate the sunny season with our favorite summer-themed icon and photo collections.
The Importance of Brand Illustrations
Learn how to use Noun Project to create your own illustrations and add a more personalized, expressive touch to your brand.
Check Out These Design Freebies for Your Next Project
From Public Domain icon and photo collections to free editable templates, here are our top graphic design freebies to ring in the summer of 2023.
What’s New in API v2 and How to Migrate
Check out all the new features of Noun Project’s upgraded Icon API v2 and migrate to the latest version.
How to Create a Design System in Figma
Save time by tracking and organizing your most common design assets and making them components in Figma.
Explore the Unusual: Noun Project’s Most Wild & Whimsical Visuals
We’re opening a new Pandora’s Box of possibilities this April Fool’s Day, with only the most wild, weird, and whimsical of icons and photos from our collection.
How to Create a Brand Style Guide
Learn how to store and organize your assets with clear usage rules – and how Lingo can make brand management a breeze.
How to Design a Typeform Survey with Noun Project Icons
Learn how to design better surveys, quizzes and forms with Typeform using our Icon API.
Easily Create Trendy Designs with Adobe Express and Noun Project Icons
Web-based design platform Adobe Express offers a streamlined way to make design accessible to everyone.
Collaborate Visually with Mural and Noun Project Icons
Learn how the visual collaboration platform Mural uses our Icon API to help teams unlock their creative power.
Craft and Hobby Inspiration: DIY Design Beyond the Screen
We’ve been rounding up our favorite examples of creators stepping beyond the screen and getting crafty with icons.
Happy Holidays! Top 10 Design Freebies
Ring in the holidays and celebrate the spirit of giving by scoping out these freebies from Noun Project!
DIY Holiday Gift Boxes
All you need is a printer, glue, and a precision knife to make these delightfully minimal paper gift boxes.
Holiday Icon and Photo Collections
Celebrate winter holidays and ring in the New Year with festive icons and photos.
How to Make Custom Designs on Zazzle with Noun Project Icons
Add a more personalized flare to your holiday shopping this year by customizing gifts on Zazzle with icons!
How to Create Easy DIY Halloween Luminaries
Get creative by making your own print-at-home luminaries with paper bags (or jars) and Noun Project icons.
How to Use Icons in Design: UX and UI Best Practices
Here are the do’s and don’ts of using icons effectively in your user interface designs.
How to use Auto Layout in Figma with Icons
Learn how to use Figma’s Auto Layout tool to quickly add padding and alignment rules to standardize your design elements.
How to Create Minimalist Geometric Designs with Tim Boelaars
The Amsterdam-based designer and illustrator shares his tips for making clean, consistent, minimal geometric designs using grid systems in Illustrator.
Representing Disability with Jake Hytken of Snap Inc.
Jake “JP” Hytken, DEI & ERG Engagement Manager for Snap Inc., helped Snap introduce the first wheelchair Bitmojis – and shares his tips on how people can better represent disability in design.
DIY Easter: Stamp Your Own Custom Easter Eggs with Icons
Ordinary white glue and a printed icon are all you need to “stamp” your favorite icons onto an egg using this unique method.
April Fools: Nothing But Cats
We’re celebrating April Fools’ Day by getting back to what the internet was originally built for: all cat content, all the time.
Creator Spotlight: Ian Matty of Project Makerspace
Ian Matty runs a Makerspace at a local library so students can discover new ideas and technologies. We caught up with Ian to learn how Noun Project icons help students explore projects like 3D printing and apparel-making.
An Introduction to Sketchnoting with Jen Giffen
Learn how to create visual notes for deeper learning and retention.
Microinteractions in UI Design: How to Animate Icons in Figma
Animate your user interface design with Noun Project in Figma using these tips.
How to Make Free DIY Valentines with Adobe Express and Noun Project Icons
Design your own creative (and free) Valentine using Adobe Express with Noun Project icons.
Hobby Month: Show us Your Iconic Craft to Win 1 Year of Skillshare & Icon Pro!
Celebrate National Hobby Month in January by showing us a creative craft you’ve made with Noun Project icons. Two entrants will be selected to win a free annual Skillshare membership!
Creator Spotlight: Denis Sazhin
The illustrator, designer, and “Cat Artist” shares his tips on making design more personal and expressive.
The Golden Rules of Presentation Design
Read our tips about how to make your presentation designs more visually powerful, using PowerPoint, Google Slides and more
Creator Spotlight: Michael A. Salter
Corporate logos of the absurd: Artist Michael A. Salter reacts to visual culture through his uniquely surreal icon designs.
How to Create Icon Effects in Figma
Step beyond flat design and add dimension to your icons with neumorphic effects in Figma.
Your Cat Horoscope✨
Celebrate International Cat Day by reading your custom kitty horoscope.
Nature & Outdoor Photo and Icon Collections
Celebrate nature and outdoor recreation with stunning photo and icon collections on Noun Project.
Master the Basics of Icon Design with Adrien Coquet
Learn icon design basics in Adobe Illustrator from French Graphic Designer Adrien Coquet.
Creator Spotlight: John Caserta
John Caserta is a Graphic Design professor at RISD and the founder of a design-centered coworking space. Learn about John’s creative path and advice for budding designers.
Types of Illustration Techniques
Learn about the history of illustration and different analog or digital illustration techniques.
Creator Spotlight: Kadi Franson
The artist, designer, and citizen scientist illustrates the natural world around her and spreads ecological messages from her Bryce Canyon home.
Spotlight: Women Creators of Noun Project
Celebrate Women’s History Month and use one-of-a-kind visuals year-round with these icon collections and photographs from outstanding members of our Creator Community.
Using the Rule of Thirds in Graphic Design
Learn how to use the rule of thirds in design as a simple way to bring a greater sense of visual balance into the frame, while consciously directing the viewer’s attention to key elements.
How to Make a Pattern in Photoshop
Discover how to make a repeating pattern in Photoshop with icons, gradient fills, and other Photoshop effects.
Using Icons for Education in Book Creator
Book Creator is a simple tool for creating awesome digital books for any subject and grade level. We spoke with Book Creator’s Dan Kemp about how students can combine text, images, Noun Project icons and more to make engaging digital books that demonstrate their learning.
How to Use Stock Photos for Social Media
Eye-catching visuals are key to your online presence, and using stock photos for social media is the perfect time-saver for boosting engagement.
Noun Project x Inkbox: Iconic Tattoos for Valentine’s Day
Create custom temporary tattoos to celebrate the things you love with millions of Noun Project...
Creator Spotlight: Luis Prado
Luis elevates the familiar pictogram style to dazzlingly witty, socially incisive new heights.
A Guide to Using Images and Photos For Powerpoint
Learn some of the best tips for using images and photos in PowerPoint to make better presentations.
Creator Spotlight: Olena Panasovska
Learn about Olena’s approach to designing icons successfully, and the methods she uses to turn her well-researched subjects into concise yet elegant icon forms.
Creator Spotlight: Zack McCune, Director of Brand at Wikimedia Foundation
Creator and Wikimedia Brand Director Zack McCune designs unique icons which begin as rubber stamps featuring the rich details of world cultures.
Educational Icon Collections
Create visual lessons and augment student learning with these classroom-friendly icons.
Free Resources for Teachers
Use these free templates to create engaging, highly visual educational materials with Noun Project icons.
How to Design an Effective Infographic with Icons
You don’t have to be a professional designer to create engaging, educational infographics with attention-grabbing icons.
How to Make a Repeating Pattern with Icons in Illustrator
Make an eye-catching repeating icon pattern using Adobe Illustrator.
Explore Digital Coloring
Want to make your icons pop off the screen? Use Adobe Illustrator to add your own custom color palettes and add multiple hues to a single icon with this method.
Tutorial: Make a DIY Mandala Coloring Book
Choose from over 3,000 mandala icons to print out and color at home. Adult coloring books have...