The Noun Project Uncovers the Designers Behind Our Universal Symbols. Pop quiz: who designed the instantly-recognizable, universal symbol for "recycle"?
Yeah, we didn't know either -- until we consulted The Noun Project, a brilliant site that's part design utility, part history lesson. Not only can you download any of these icons and symbols for free, the site also pops up a neat little factoid for each one. ("Recycle" was designed by Gary Anderson in 1970, by the way.)
Edward Boatman launched The Noun Project via Kickstarter with a simple goal: to build a site for "sharing, celebrating and enhancing the world's visual language. " Apparently it was an idea the web was waiting for, because Boatman has already received more than double the project's original budget of $1500. The just-plain-usefulness of the site is obvious to anyone who's ever used CopyPasteCharacter, a similar compendium of typographical symbols. Load more? Not all icons have designer credits, but many do. Visualizing Change: An Interview with The Noun Project. Posted by Valerie Casey | 16 Jul 2012 | Comments (2) The mission of The Noun Project is to collect, organize and add to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world's visual language so they can be shared in a fun and meaningful way.
The symbols are free, simple, and high quality—not to mention truly delightful. In this conversation with the Designers Accord, we learn from The Noun Project founders, Edward Boatman and Sofya Polyakov, how a shared visual language can be the connective tissue across disciplines and geographies, and why you don't need to be a designer to be an effective communicator and change-maker. Designers Accord: The Noun Project strikes a perfect balance between function and folly—providing amazing quality scalable icons for everything from the universal human icon to a sasquatch. Share the background of how your initiative came about—what was the initial inspiration and who's involved? DA: You've already built amazing momentum—from sketchbook to meme. Noun Project: The "Icons for Everything" Marketplace. As we’ve said, pictures often speak louder than words, and if you take a look at the way-finding symbols that surround any given urban area, you’ll see how visual representations can reach beyond cultural and language barriers, communicating ideas instantly.
The Noun Project has been building a catalog of these types of symbols for quite a while now, and has built up a massive collection of public domain and creative commons-licensed icons for downloading. Now, for situations when these CC icons can’t be credited, users can purchase full licenses from designers for a small fee (~$1.99), turning the entire site into a marketplace for every icon you could ever need. These icons aren’t like what you’d find on iOS or Android — they’re simplified down to their most basic elements, which makes them incredibly useful as a base for any design. Of course, they’re also perfect for use in signage and navigation on their own.
The Noun Project. Building a Global Visual Language.