Freebie: Nice Things Icon Set (128 Icons, PNG Plus AI Source)

Inspiration strikes at funny times. Chris Behr was just watching TV and playing around with the Shape tools in Illustrator. His mind wasn’t focused on either task. He casually divided a square into a grid, then randomly colored it. Something about the colors inspired him to combine the grid with a couple of icons that he had been doodling the night before. Thus, Nice Things was born, a set of 128 original, beautiful icons that we are honoured to present to you.

A preview of the lovely Nice Things icon set

Chris wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to hit the ground running. So, you get three PNG sizes: 100×100, 400×400 and 800×800 pixels — all available with and without backgrounds. In addition, the set includes the original source AI file, complete with named layers, to help you find what you need.

Nice Things includes 128 carefully drawn illustrations of all kinds of pretty things around us — a bike, birthday cake, watch, traffic light, game console, doughnut, speaker, rollerskate, starship and much more. You may freely use it for both private and commercial projects, without any restrictions, including for software, online services, templates and themes.

The vector-based files are easy to edit and break out individually. (Sneak peek)

Hit the ground running with three different PNG sizes! (Sneak peek)

A preview of all of the icons in this set (View larger preview)

Download The Icon Set For Free

• Large preview


• Download the free Nice Things icon set (ZIP, 11.7 MB)

Insight From The Designer

Here is some insight from Chris Behr himself:

It would be easy to say that I started working on Nice Things in the belief that I’d actually finish it. Like most designers, my computer is littered with the remains of half-finished projects. I decided to make this a project that I actually finished, and I set in place some very simple rules:

1. Every week, I had to finish at least one new icon.


2. I could draw only what I considered to be a nice thing. No guns, bombs or the like.


3. I had to restrict the color palette. In this case, I chose the “Russian Poster Art” swatches in Illustrator.

At first, it was easy to think of what to draw. But as the weeks wore on, it became more and more difficult. Thankfully, my wonderful colleagues at Skyscanner were only too happy to help; and with the creation of a quick Google Doc, I had enough ideas to last me through Christmas.

I don’t have any noble goals with Nice Things beyond it being of help. Since starting college eight years ago, I’ve enjoyed the fruits of the design community without really giving anything back. Fonts, icons, templates — each and every one of them has helped me where I’ve needed it, and I hope that I can offer that same help to a designer or developer in need.

While I don’t have any noble goals, I do have a selfish one. I’d love to see my icons used as widely as possible. And if you happen to see me in a list of conference attendees, well, I can guarantee a “Hoorah!” from the audience if you use one.

Thank you, dear Chris, for the fantastic icon set. We sincerely appreciate your time and effort!

(ea, il, al)

© The Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2013.