This post was originally published in 2009
The tips and techniques explained may be outdated.
As icons appear in larger sizes through appearances in Mac applications and rich user interfaces the icon designs themselves are becoming more and more detailed. Check out this collection of 40 of the best icon design tutorials from across the web, each covering the process of designing a highly detailed icon graphic in Illustrator or Photoshop.
Photoshop Laser Printer Icon Tutorial

Create a Custom Mac OSX Style Ring Binder Address Book Icon

Create an Adobe Box Icon in Photoshop

Create a Glossy Volt Icon in Photoshop

Create a Vector Film Slate Icon

Windows Vista Folder Icon Tutorial

Design a Detailed Compass Icon in Photoshop

Learn To Create A Padlock Icon In Adobe Photoshop

Create a Paint Roller Icon in Photoshop

Create a 3D Pyramid Icon Design in Photoshop

Create a Scissor Icon in Photoshop

Create an XP Style Woman User Icon

Create a Vista Error Icon in Photoshop

The Making of an Icon

Create a USB Speaker Icon in Photoshop

Design the iTunes Icon for the iPhone in Photoshop

Designing a Chest Icon in Illustrator

Create the iTunes Icon in Illustrator

How to Design Mini Icons

To to Create a 3D Isometric Vector Icon

Create a Cute Panda Bear Face Icon

How to Create a Transparent Battery Icon

Create an Aperture Style Camera Lens Icon

Illustrate a Traffic Cone Icon in Photoshop

Create a Shiny Lock Icon Design in Photoshop

Creating an XP Style Monitor Icon

How to Create a Super Shiny Pencil Icon

How to Create a Van Icon in Photoshop

Make a 3D Shopping Basket Icon in Illustrator

How to Create an Alarm Clock Icon

How to Make a Calendar Icon

How to Create a Vector Safari Compass in Illustrator

Translucent IM Style Icon Design Tutorial

Create an Envelope Icon with a Satin Feel

Create a Vector Home Cinema Design

Create a Design Float Icon in Illustrator

Designing a Sleek Pencil Icon

Icon Design Tutorial: Drawing a Pencil Icon

Sweet roundup Chris, you really selected all the high quality tutorials. I’m already working on a new icon pack an some tutorials listed here might give me some help.
Keep up the great work!
Nice tut’s, Simple, yet very effective.
Nice round up! The panda is cute :D
great list. nice tutorial. thanks
great work ,inspiration
Thanks for this list!
great list~! really enjoy the tutorials. thanks!
Very good collection. seems all in 1.
Awesome collection. Thanks a lot
See more Icons: tr.im/kpEX
really nice post..
i will bookmark this post..
thanks for share
Great list of tuts. Thanks for those.
Chris, that’s an awesome list, thanks a bunch, I know it takes a lot of time to compile something like this. I blogged it on my blog. ;)
You can never have too many Icons in your collection. Thanks for the links, Chris – there’s freebies and inspiration abounds for making some cool looking stuff…
perfecto :D
This is a great resource, thanks a lot Chris! Just what I needed today :)
Great stuff.
Excellent collection.
Awesome reference’s
Great list of tutorials, thanks.
Very nice!!
Thanks for recopilation :D
Cool post..I might have to dabble into the world of icon design now:D
Cool Roundup! That Van is amazing … the lines between icons and custom icons that can be used as graphics has become blurred with more and more icon sets being released in higher resolutions :-)
Great roundup. I can see learning a lot of great techniques from these!
Great compilation, Chris!
Nice collection of tutorials! Some good learning here.
Really good selection of tutorials
yay, awesome! :D
NICE AS MIAMI VICE!
great tutorials
Lovely set of tutorials , much appreciated.
Great tuts :-D
Wow, some really stunning design effects. Only been through a couple, but will certainly be trying more, as and when I get the time.
Thanks for the post, Keep up the good work!
nice icon designs, thanks for tut list..
excellent stuff and a great collection, thanks for sharing :)
awsome design tuts, great job, thanks
Absolutely brilliant post. They are all stunning. I’m gunna have a go at the usb speaker one :D
Hey, first time visitor. I actually found you on twitter doing a “graphic design” search. Your link was on your account, so here i am.
Thanks for the collection of nice icon tutorials. I have bookmarked this page, and will add your site to my favorites.
I’m a graphic designer who is new to the blogging game, so checking out sites like your own can be quite helpful and inspiring.
Thanks bro, your tutorial is very useful for me. :)
bravo http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk, your tutorial is very usefull for me
Very nice icons, great those are tutorials not only final effects.
Thanks again Chris. Your website is very precious
Very beautiful blog, really handy tutorials, perfecto!
Awesome Share, Thank you!
I’m now dedicating a day to finding a use for these…
If you use our lead generation website, expect to see new fancy icons as soon as we find a spare day!
Man these are great! no just for icons but i can apply them to all graphics creation.
very useful article. thanks a lot. u r making designers life simpler!!!
good collection, much of them are from psdtut
Thank you this will help me for my assignment . It will make it easier to do my own using these instructions
very nice roundup! lots of nice techniques over there! thank you for sharing!
great, very useful we are waiting for the next
Fantastic these guys really impress me and they deserve to succeed in business showing members of the public these great ways to create high quality icons.