icon't do it captain!

With the Web 2.0 design-influx, one of the aims of web designers across the globe is to create the slickest new icons for their site. I, too, have fallen prey to this silly ideal, and wasted too much time creating custom icons in GIMP for several of my sites. In some cases, I can justify it, if I am getting paid for my time working on it. Other times, my extensive noodling around isn't going to pay off, and I'm just spending too much time trying to make it look pretty. Instead of breaking out Carrera 3D and trying to relearn the interface once again, I sometimes have to just use someone else's creations.

Enter IconPlant, home to the slick-n-pretty XP Icons. Check out their free samples to see if they might save you time and money, as well. Sure, you can find standard "alert" and "user" icons just about anywhere, but these guys offer up tons of specialty icons, too. And by specialty, I'm not referring to "special alert" and "user add" icons, but rather the "unique-est" of the unique, including XP-styled bananas and blenders, tricycles and trucks, and flaming discs. Best of all, they're sorted into concise groups specific to your industry or application.