Being Social Icon Set: A Practical Asset for Design Workflows
Every design project, whether it is a website, a presentation, or a printed brochure, relies on a consistent visual language. Icons are a fundamental part of that language. They communicate ideas quickly, reduce cognitive load, and add a layer of professionalism that text alone cannot achieve. The Being Social Icon Set offers 70 meticulously crafted social-themed icons designed to streamline this process. This article explores how this icon set fits into real-world design workflows, from planning and creation to delivery and long-term maintenance.
Understanding the Being Social Icon Set
The Being Social Icon Set is a collection of 70 vector icons centered around social concepts, interactions, and connectivity. It includes two distinct color versions—blue and black—giving you 35 unique icons per color variant. This duality is not just about aesthetics; it is a practical decision that supports different design contexts. Blue often represents trust, communication, and digital interaction, while black offers a neutral, high-contrast option suitable for print or monochrome layouts.
Each icon is provided as a fully editable AI file, an SVG file at 128x128 pixels, an EPS file at 256x256 pixels (version 10), and a transparent PNG at 256x256 pixels. This multi-format approach ensures you can work with the icons regardless of your preferred software or output medium. Whether you are a web developer who needs SVGs for scalable graphics, a print designer who requires EPS for high-resolution output, or a marketer who needs PNGs for quick deployment, the set covers the bases.
Where the Icon Set Fits in Your Design Process
Icons are not an afterthought. They are a resource that should be considered early in the planning phase of a project. If you are designing a website, for example, you might start by mapping out the user interface components: navigation menus, call-to-action buttons, social media links, and feature highlights. The Being Social Icon Set can serve as a visual reference during wireframing. Even in the early stages, placing a relevant icon next to a headline or button helps you evaluate layout proportions and visual hierarchy before you invest time in custom illustrations.
During the execution phase, these icons become drop-in assets. Because they are vector files, you can resize them without quality loss, adjust stroke weights, or recolor them to match your brand palette. The AI files are fully editable, meaning you can open them in Adobe Illustrator, modify anchor points, combine elements, or integrate them into larger compositions. This flexibility is valuable when you need to adapt an icon to a specific context, such as flipping it horizontally for a mirrored layout or scaling it down for a mobile view without losing clarity.
After the project is complete, the icon set remains useful for maintenance and updates. When you need to add a new social feature or revise a landing page, you can pull the same consistent icons rather than creating new ones from scratch. This consistency saves time and ensures that your visual identity remains intact across all touchpoints.
1. Organize Your Icon Library Early
Before you start dragging icons into your design files, take a few minutes to organize the set. Create folders for the blue version and the black version. Within each folder, separate the SVG, EPS, and PNG files if your workflow requires them. Many designers use a cloud-based asset manager or a local library to tag icons by category—social media, sharing, interaction, community, and so on. This upfront organization pays dividends when you are under a deadline and need to find a specific icon quickly.
2. Leverage Vector Editing for Customization
The AI files are your best friend when customization is needed. Suppose your brand uses a specific shade of teal rather than the provided blue. You can open the AI file, select the icon group, and apply a global color change. Because the icons are vector-based, you can also adjust opacity, apply gradients, or add drop shadows without degrading quality. If you are building a design system, you can export customized versions of the icons as SVG sprites for web use, ensuring consistency across every page.
3. Match Format to Output Medium
Each format in the set serves a distinct purpose. Use SVG for web and screen-based projects because it scales perfectly and supports CSS styling. Use EPS for print materials like brochures, posters, or business cards, as printers prefer vector formats for crisp reproduction. Use the transparent PNGs for quick mockups, client presentations, or social media posts where you need a ready-to-use image without opening a vector editor. Understanding these format roles prevents workflow friction and reduces last-minute conversions.
4. Test Icon Legibility at Small Sizes
Social icons often appear in small spaces—footer links, share buttons, or notification badges. Before finalizing a design, test the icons at the actual dimensions they will be viewed. Even well-designed icons can lose detail when scaled down. The Being Social Icons are built with clarity in mind, but it is still wise to check that thin lines remain visible and that the icon’s meaning is unmistakable at 16x16 or 24x24 pixels. If needed, you can use the vector files to simplify complex shapes or increase contrast.
Web Developer
As a web developer, you often receive design files that need to be translated into production code. With SVG files for each icon, you can directly embed scalable graphics in your HTML or use them as inline SVGs for better performance. The consistent 128x128 pixel base size makes it simple to set a viewBox and then scale via CSS. You can also combine the SVGs into a sprite sheet for efficient loading. Because the icons come in two colors, you can use the blue version for interactive elements and the black version for static labels, reducing the need for additional CSS styling.
Print Designer
Print projects demand high resolution. The EPS files at 256x256 pixels are designed for exactly this scenario. You can place the EPS files into Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, scale them up or down, and export at 300 DPI without pixelation. The blue icons work well for digital-focused print materials like social media strategy reports, while the black icons suit monochrome documents such as whitepapers or internal guides. Having both color options in vector format eliminates the need to recreate icons from scratch for each print project.
Content Creator and Marketer
When you are producing social media graphics, blog post images, or promotional materials, speed matters. The transparent PNGs give you a ready-to-use asset. Drop them into Canva, Photoshop, or any image editor, and layer them over background images or text. The consistent 256x256 pixel size means you do not have to resize or worry about transparency issues. For recurring campaigns, you can create templates that incorporate these icons, ensuring that your visual branding remains uniform across weeks or months of content.
Entrepreneur and Small Business Owner
You may not have a dedicated design team. In that case, the Being Social Icon Set becomes a time-saving resource for creating professional-looking materials on your own. Whether you are building a simple landing page using a website builder or preparing a pitch deck for investors, these icons add polish without requiring advanced design skills. The fully editable AI files allow you to hire a freelance designer for custom modifications if needed, but the out-of-the-box icons are already production-ready.
Integration with Other Tools and Assets
No design resource exists in isolation. The Being Social Icon Set works alongside typography, color palettes, photography, and other icon sets. If you are building a design system, you can integrate these icons as a dedicated social media module. They pair well with UI kits, wireframe libraries, and brand style guides. Because the icons are provided in standard vector formats, they are compatible with software like Illustrator, Figma, Sketch, Affinity Designer, and Inkscape. They can also be imported into prototyping tools such as XD or Framer for interactive mockups.
If you maintain a library of stock photos or illustrations, these icons can be layered on top to label key features or call out specific actions. For example, placing a social sharing icon next to a product image on an e-commerce site guides users toward sharing functionality. In an infographic, icons can replace bullet points, making data more scannable and visually engaging.
Quality Control and Long-Term Use
Before deploying any icon set across multiple projects, take time to review quality. Check that all vector paths are clean and that there are no stray anchor points or overlapping shapes. The Being Social Icons are designed with precision, but it is good practice to inspect each file after importing it into your software. Consistent stroke widths, aligned centers, and balanced proportions contribute to a cohesive look when icons are used side by side.
For long-term use, maintain a master copy of the AI files with your brand colors applied. When you update your brand palette, you can regenerate all icons at once rather than editing each file individually. Because the set includes 70 icons, you have enough variety to cover most social scenarios without needing to source additional assets. This reduces dependency on third-party icon libraries and ensures that your visual language remains unique.
Archiving the original files in their delivered state is also wise. If you ever need to revert to the base colors or share the raw files with a collaborator, you have a clean starting point. Store the SVGs in a version control system if you are working on a web project, making it easy to track changes and roll back if necessary.
Observations on Consistency and Efficiency
One of the underappreciated aspects of a dedicated icon set is the visual consistency it enforces. When you pull icons from different sources, they often vary in style, stroke thickness, and level of detail. The Being Social Icon Set is designed as a cohesive family, so every icon shares the same visual weight and design language. This uniformity makes your final product look more polished and intentional.
From an efficiency standpoint, having 70 pre-made icons saves hours of design time. Creating custom icons from scratch for every project is impractical, especially when you are working under tight deadlines. The set eliminates the need to search through multiple free icon databases, where quality and style can be inconsistent. Instead, you have a reliable, curated collection that you can reach for again and again.
Another practical benefit is the inclusion of both blue and black versions. This might seem like a small detail, but it allows you to switch between color schemes without editing each icon. For instance, if you design a dark mode interface, the black icons may work better than blue ones. Having both options ready from the start reduces the temptation to use a generic icon that does not quite fit the context.
Finally, the transparent PNGs are a blessing for quick turnarounds. Not every project requires vector editing. Sometimes you just need an icon that works immediately in a slide deck or a social media post. The PNGs deliver that convenience without sacrificing quality, as long as you use them at or near the provided resolution.
The Being Social Icon Set is not just a collection of graphics. It is a practical tool that fits into the planning, execution, and maintenance phases of design work. Whether you are a web developer, print designer, marketer, or entrepreneur, having a reliable set of consistent, editable social icons streamlines your workflow and elevates the quality of your output. By organizing the files, matching formats to use cases, and planning for long-term reuse, you can extract maximum value from this resource across many projects and years of work.
