Ever tapped a heart icon, navigated toward a cart icon, or clicked open a tiny envelope instantly without trying to decipher what it means?
That’s the power of icons and your brain recognizing an action related to an image. Wherever they appear, those little symbols are doing more than pointing someone in the right direction.
Icons are everywhere. Wherever we look, we see some sort of icon – on the road, on store fronts, books, magazines, and even on our device screens. They are ever present, and there’s good reason why they’re so predominantly used.
So in this blog, we’re diving into how branded icons, especially thoughtfully designed custom ones, can be a powerful tool to strengthen your brand’s visual identity. From creating visual consistency to building brand memory, we’ll explore how something as small as an icon can make a big impression.
Before we talk branded icons, let’s zoom out for a moment. Let’s talk about the importance of branding. Branding is basically how your business shows up in the world. It’s the vibe people get when they come across your brand.
It’s what makes you stand out, helps people remember you, and builds that sense of trust that keeps them coming back.
Branding is brought to life by what we call a visual identity. Now your visual identity isn’t just your logo or tagline or your color palette. It’s the full sensory experience of your brand and how it looks, feels, sounds, and even behaves wherever it appears.
Similarly, there are so many visual and auditory aspects that build a brand. And in this sea of branding material, branded icons might seem like a small detail, but they carry a lot of weight. They help tie your visual identity together, offer users cues without words, and make every interaction feel uniquely yours. Whether on a landing page, app interface, or printed packaging, icons are tiny brand ambassadors that show up everywhere.
And brands that manage to pull off custom icons are the ones that will lead the way in creating seamless, memorable experiences that stick in the minds of their audience long after the first interaction. Let’s talk more about it in the next section.
When all your icons match your brand’s style with the same line weight, same vibe, and same color scheme, everything just clicks. It makes your site, app, or product feel polished and intentional rather than pieced together with random parts.
Seeing the same style of icons over and over helps your audience remember you without even trying. It acts like a visual signature, subtle but super effective in keeping your brand top of mind.
Generic icons do not say much. But custom ones can be fun, bold, classy, or whatever your brand personality is. They help set the tone and make your brand feel more human and relatable.
Good icons do not just look nice, they guide users. A well-designed branded icon can make navigation smoother and faster, especially when paired with thoughtful design and intuitive placement.
People process visuals way faster than text. A strong icon can say buy now or send instantly, no translation needed. It is quick, clear, and efficient.
Most brands stick with stock icons. So when you use custom ones, it instantly feels more premium. It shows you care about details, and users pick up on that more than you might think.
Let’s further look into the topic of branded icons.
One thing to note is that branded icons aren’t just for websites or apps. Let’s look at where and how they show up in the wild.
Think about how recognizable the icons are on Apple’s iOS or Samsung’s Android OS, or even the Google OS. Some of the icons for the calendar, camera, and settings icons are so ingrained in our minds that any variation stands out immediately. That’s because these brands have created a fixed, memorable visual system completely on branded icons.
Take a look:
These are so easy to figure out, even without indications as to which OS they belong to. That’s the power of branded icons!
Platforms like Slack, Notion, and Dropbox also use custom iconography to help brands and businesses reinforce their brand voice as either playful, clean, modern, or minimalist.
For example, Notion users can customize their Notion pages by using icons from the Notion Icons library.
Brands can choose between styles and customize various icons to suit their visual identity. Why do you suppose there’s an entire customizable icon library made available by Notion creators? It’s clearly because they understand that icons help simplify or replace boring texts – icons just make it fun!
Icons like hearts, magnifying glasses, thumbs up gestures, or checkmarks are everywhere. But smart brands make them their own, using custom color palettes, stroke styles, or animations. For example, a checkout icon on an e-commerce site might still be a cart, but with a bold outline and specific color tied to that brand.
Or else, if you’re not familiar, Spotify has a customized icon set for some of the universally used icons:
And here’s the best part: there are so many ways that you can get these types of custom icons done.
A good design service can take universal icon ideas and craft custom icon sets that match your brand guidelines perfectly. From icons on pitch decks to product packaging, these custom icons become subtle, signature marks that elevate every user touchpoint.
Now that we know why custom branded icons matter, let’s look at some more top brands that are already using them to great effect. These brands have taken icon design to the next level by creating sets that align perfectly with their visual identity and user experience.
Here are a few standout examples of custom branded icon sets in action.
We looked at Apple’s OS icons. But the truth is, the use of icons just doesn’t stop there for Apple. There are so many ways that they use it for, and one such instance we’d like to highlight is their use of custom branded icons for device indication.
This example of branded icons for various device indications is a perfect example that showcases how the use of icons can really vary based on different brand needs. That’s the versatility of icons – there are no boundaries to how you can incorporate them.
Humans are visual beings. We process visuals 60,000 times faster than text-based content. That’s probably why food delivery services love using icons on their apps, because it just makes filtering and choosing what you want to eat that much quicker. Imagine how han-gry we’d be if we had to rely on just text when placing a food order! Uber Eats uses many icons on its app to combat just that.
These icons below just scratch the surface when it comes to the icon selection available on Uber Eats:
AT&T went through a rebranding of its icon system in 2020, where over 1600 icons were audited and redesigned – something that reaffirms all that we’ve covered so far about the importance of effective branded icons.
Here are some of the icons they adopted:
Now, at a glance, these icons may look like the usual ones, but upon close examination, you can see how the Buck Creative Agency and Eric Talker, along with the AT&T internal branding team, created functional and practical icons for use.
One other part of this refreshing of the icons we want to highlight is how they created different types of icons for different platforms.
While the above is for general use, they created another set of icons named pictograms which were intended to be used at larger scales. Take a look below at a few of these:
And that’s not all, they wanted a much more complex design for their app icons, so they built upon the above icons and created much more detailed icons for the former. The approach was a combination of the above general design, the AT&T blue gradient and the iconic globe.
Take a look:
So you see, with the right designers and the right approach, there are many different ways you can go about it.
Whether you have 1000s of icons or just a few, the important thing is that you make the maximum use of the benefits that branded icons can offer you – we guarantee that it will make a world of difference in how your brand is perceived.
Let’s wrap up with some FAQs.
Not always, but they do come in handy. If you have a website, app, or any customer touchpoint where quick communication matters, even a few well-designed icons can make a difference.
There is no set number. Just focus on the key actions or ideas you need to highlight. Start small with the essentials like navigation, services, or products, and add more if you need them later.
You can use a good-quality free icon set and adjust the colors or style to match your brand. Some design services also offer simple customizations without the cost of a full custom set. Another great option is to work with an unlimited graphic design service. For a flat monthly fee, you can get not just icons but a whole range of designs like social media posts, ads, packaging, and more on top of other benefits. It is a smart way to get professional designs across different categories without blowing your budget.
