At Magnolia Consulting, we use icons in a variety of ways to illustrate key ideas and takeaways in our reporting. Icons provide a quick visual reference for readers of infographics and written reports. Once we began incorporating icons into our various reporting methods, we quickly learned that there are a lot of available icons. To streamline our process for selecting and using icons, we created the Magnolia Icon Gallery. This tool saves time and ensures a consistent icon style across reporting methods.

If you spend a lot of time hunting for icons, it might be useful for you to create an icon gallery of your own. Below are some tips to consider when creating an icon gallery.

  • Locate icons on the web. We recommend checking out The Noun Project and IconFinder. While some of these resources offer free icons, others require a paid account for full use of the icon collection. When looking for icons, always pay attention to the citation and license requirements of the icon.
  • Use the right file format. If you download icons in PNG file types, they are easy to resize and have a transparent background. This makes it easier to insert your icon on any color background. If you use Inkscape or Illustrator, you can also download them in an SVG file. This format allows you to change the color and design of the icon (again, pay attention to copyright requirements).
  • Consider icon style. When putting together an icon gallery, remember to be mindful of the style of icons that are being used. It will look more professional to have a consistent style of icons across all of your reporting. For example, some icons are simple outlines, while others are filled in or block style. Identify your organization’s preferred icon style and try to stick with that when downloading icons.
  • Identify commonly used phrases for icons. To determine what icons are needed, try working collaboratively with colleagues to identify key words and phrases that are commonly expressed as icons in any reporting. This decreases the need to search for icons every time they are required. For example, we regularly use icons to represent the words “student,” “teacher,” and “school.” We recommend having a few options for each key word to prevent repetitive icons.
  • Download icons. Create a process for combing through the key words and downloading icons. At Magnolia, we divided up the key words between team members, downloaded three to five options for each word, and then voted on our favorites.
  • Organize your icon gallery. Once the icons have all been selected, organize them in a readily accessible location. Ours are available in shared folders for quick access.

If you are regularly using icons, you may want to consider creating an icon gallery to save time and ensure consistent icon style and usage. Try out the tips above to get started on creating your gallery!