I am always being asked where to get the best icons, or where did I find the icons I used on some project. The answer depends on what the project is.

Is it web based?

Who is the audience?

What style or impression are you going for?

The answer to these and other questions will dictate the type and style of icons, and fonts for that matter, that are used for a particular project.

Below I have gathered links to many of the icons sets I like and have used in past projects. May are free sets, but some will cost you a little dough.

One in particular, which I use often, IconBuffet, has a type of token trade system for icons as well as a store to buy icons.

FamFamFam Silk Icons - Free

Icon Buffet - Some sets are free

IconFactory - Some sets are free

nDesign Studio Icons - Some nice inexpensive sets by Nick La

Icon Drawer - Some sets are free

Mezzoblue Chalkwork - Great set of icons from Dave Shea

IconShoppe - Some simple icons from Dan Cederholm of Simplebits.com

Ok, actually I’m going to give you more than just 7, because Smashing Magazine has also listed links to free icons around the web:

• 35 (Really) Incredible Free Icon Sets
  to spice up your posts with some nice illustrations or enrich your desktop with outstanding dock icons,
• Icons For Your Desktop and Icons For Your Web Designs
  with fresh high-quality free icons which you can use for your desktop; we also showcase free professional icon sets, buttons and vector graphics you can use for your web designs,
• 20 Free And Fresh Icon Sets
  with over 20 free, beautiful and fresh icon sets as well as references to further free icon libraries,
• Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates
  with fresh high quality icons, buttons, vector graphics, templates and layouts.
• 40 Professional Icon Sets For Free Download 40 excellent, free and professional icons for desktop and web design.

It’s not often you see a design contest that doesn’t involve days of design work and crappy prizes.

Lunarpages Web Hosting are running a second series of their WordPress design contest. The prizes are actually really fantastic:

First Prize is $1,000 cash and 5 years free hosting (Basic Plan)

Second Prize is 3 years free hosting + $300 cash

Third Prize is 1 year free hosting + $100 cash

And, they have changed the voting system for this series because previously there were some cheaters, spammers “designers” who were getting votes in a questionable way.

The voting is still open to the community where each week 5 designs are chosen and the winner of that round gets into the final 12, however now rather than just the community deciding the finalist, Lunarpages staff now also vote and choose the entry. This is good because it really will prevent cheating and ensure an honest result.

Next week round 4 of voting begins, however it’s not too late to enter your theme. New submission entries close on June 22, 2008 and the best part is, Lunarpages do not require you to edit your links, or mention them in the footer of your theme.

After the contest ends, Lunarpages will post your theme on a free themes page for their 150,000+ webmasters, so it’s a great way to get your design exposed.

So what are you waiting for? Enter now!