Icons are the face of any operating system along with the interface and overall design. Personally, I have always been attracted by the icons that flaunt on the main screen of smartphones and tablets in stores and on official renders. Nobody wants to tap on an app with a bad and ugly icon.
As I said, icons in iOS literally want to "lick". Probably, it was with Apple's mobile OS that developers began to pay more attention to such a simple design element as logos for applications or games. Users, unlike iOS apologists, are free to install any set of icons. I decided to select the best and most interesting of them. Read about the best icon sets for Android under the cut.

There are really a lot of icon sets for Android. All of them are often made in similar styles - square and rounded with a background and no background. I decided to break down all the icon sets presented below into such categories. All icons will be presented in block of 3, because I have selected too many good sets. I hope this format will not be too awkward.

From left to right: TAY, Dark Synergy, Lyra

TAY is a set of icons in a square minimalist style. The icons themselves are enclosed in a three-dimensional frame with a shadow. The icons are flat, bright and neat. The set includes 1880 icons with a resolution of 192x192, as well as 24 backgrounds for a desktop with a resolution of 3200x2560.

The Dark Synergy icon set is designed in a dark style - each icon is superimposed on a black or dark blue background. The icons themselves are designed in a simple and neat style. This set contains 600 custom icons.

Lyra - slightly raised icons that look more like volumetric mini-tiles. They look like buttons, so you just want to press them. In a set of 768 icons, 37 backgrounds for your desktop.

From left to right: MIUI 5, Miu, Square

MIUI 5 is, as the name suggests, a set of icons in the style of Xiaomi's popular MIUI 5 shell. The main style is neat, bright icons with rounded corners. This set is one of the largest with 3,400 icons.

The Miu set is also dedicated to the MIUI shell, but already the sixth version. Local icons are more similar to those of the latter iOS versions- they are brighter and more simplified. In a set of 2,700 icons and 35 backgrounds for your desktop.

Square is one of the most minimalistic sets out there. The icons are superimposed on a square background with sharp corners, and they themselves are simplified to the point of impossibility. The Square icon set will appeal to those who love simplicity and neatness in everything.

From left to right: Lumos, Dekk, Belle UI

Lumos icons have a clean and simple design with shadows and muted background colors. Because of the cute shadows, many icons look voluminous and lively. In a set of 2 100 icons.

Dekk - volumetric icons on dark background with colored borders. Some of the icons in the set look especially nice. In a set of 2 100 icons.

Belle UI is a well-known set of icons, which are made in the style of those from the deceased operating system Symbian Belle. It is difficult to call these icons square - their corners are strongly rounded. The badges are made in the original style without hints of material design, which is now a rarity. The set contains 1,385 icons.

From left to right: PINN, Soul, Numix Circle

Now it's time for icons with a rounded background. PINN is a riot of material design in a round wrapper. Local icons are simplified, placed on a voluminous platform with muted colors. Shadows are also present. In a set of 1880 icons, 24 backgrounds for a desktop in high definition.

The Soul icon set is made in a dark style with a contrast of bright colors and black. The outlines of the icons are highlighted with black lines and are striking in good understanding. The set contains 2,300 icons and 13 HD wallpapers.

Numix Circle is another minimalistic icon, but not in the material style anymore. The icons don't really stand out - just neat, minimalistic icons set against a bright circular background. There are quite a few icons in the set - just over 250.

From left to right: Veno, Equinox, Aurora UI

The Veno icon set has an unusual style: a background with a clear border and a dark color scheme. The developers note that their icons pay a lot of attention to detail. Includes over 3,262 icons and 30 unique backgrounds.

The icons from the Equinox set resemble those of the Sailfish OS operating system: black and white colors and a droplet shape on a translucent background. In a set of over 3,700 icons and 10 wallpapers for your desktop.

Aurora UI - bright icons in slightly acidic colors. The icons themselves occupy almost the entire background, so they look a little convex and attract attention. The set includes 2,400 icons and 74 desktop backgrounds with Muzei support.

From left to right: Una, Erased, Matterhorn

The Una set is similar to the aforementioned Soul: against the background of muted shades, there are black icons. The set is not the most original and bright, but it will suit those who like simplicity and dark colors. There are over 2,700 icons and 28 desktop backgrounds inside.

The icons in the Erased set are a kind of "stamps" where the icon itself is cut out on a black matte background. The icons are large - the icons themselves are slightly larger than the original ones. In a set of 1,750 unique icons and 77 high-definition wallpapers.

Matterhorn - Icons with aggressive material design. Icons are greatly simplified, many do not have backgrounds. The local Angry Birds icon is especially cute. In a set of over 420 icons and 12 backgrounds for your desktop.

From left to right: Stamped Black, Lines, Zarys

Stamped Black are completely black icons with no background, so it's better to use them with bright wallpapers. It is worth noting that this kit will be useful for smartphones and tablets with AMOLED screens. The set contains over 1,000 icons.

Lines is a set of icons localized into Russian, which is even more minimalistic than the previous one. Local icons have only white outlines. Unlike Stamped Black, Line Icons require dark wallpapers and come with 3,200 icons.

The Zarys icons are a hybrid of the previous two - black outlines. These icons also come with matching bright wallpapers. There are over 2,040 icons in Zarys.

From left to right: Cutboard, Moonshine

The frankly beautiful CUTBOARD icons are made in a volumetric style with no background. You really want to touch them, because they are drawn neatly and in such a way that they seem as voluminous as possible. The set includes 2,000 high-resolution icons.

Popular Moonshine icons are not original in terms of appearance- simple "material" design, but more minimalistic and no background over the icons. Includes over 925 vector design icons with 28 handcrafted wallpapers.

From left to right: Leaf, Tiny White, Simply 8-Bit

Leaf icons can hardly be called too unusual - they just are not square or round, and they also have a background. Leaf icons are very similar to icons from Sailfish OS, so they are of some value. There are quite a few icons in the set - just over 200, and there are also 9 background images.

The Tiny White set is suitable for those who have too many icons on the desktop and in the menu. The icons are significantly reduced and are made in a simple style - white icons with no background. The set contains over 1,300 icons.

As the name suggests, the Simply 8-Bit icons are made in an 8-bit style. Fans of pixel art and retro games will definitely love this set. Some of the icons here look even slightly funny, for example standard icon SMS. The set contains more than 700 icons, as well as themed wallpapers with old games.
Rive's multi-layered icons have an unusual style: some are slightly cropped, others are piled up with some icons from the applications themselves, and still others look completely unusual (a rectangle with an intersecting inscription). The design is definitely distinctive and interesting. In a set of more than 1000 icons and 12 wallpapers without the need to download.

Glif icons are similar in style to the previous ones, but they would be more suited to some kind of open operating system based on Linux. Personally, I have this association with Glif icons. The icons have received a cartoon style and are framed with black lines. The set includes over 800 icons and wallpapers.

The funny Balloon icons are also made in a cartoonish bright drawing, but here inside each icon there is an application or game name, decorated in a comic style. It is recommended to turn off application names with Balloon icons. The set contains over 450 icons.

From left to right: Glim Dark UI, Octagons UI

Glim Dark UI is a minimalistic and contrasting set of icons in different styles - with and without backgrounds. Dark shades dominate here, combined with muted bright colors. There is a utility for requesting an icon from the developers if it is not in the set. Glim Dark UI has 3,700 icons and over 150 wallpapers.

Closing this extensive TOP will be the OctagonsUI set with octahedral icons in the same style and color scheme (black and red). Also, each icon in this set received volumetric shadows and edges. Includes 2,811 icons and 10 HD desktop wallpapers.

I hope that you liked at least a few of the icons from this set and that you downloaded them from the Threshbox. In the future, this collection will be regularly updated with new products.

As an example, I took an icon from the current project.
The Rizzoma service is a collaboration system, an alternative to Google-wave.
In the course of work on the site, the idea was born to make beautiful icons for each block with the benefits of the service. The snail symbolizes and is essentially an advanced @ symbol.

Sketch

Usually working on an icon starts with a pencil sketch, but this time there were enough inspiring pictures. It was decided to make our version of the turbine snail, beautiful and charming.

Modeling

The model is usually in 3D Max, but in fact the tool is not critical. You could just as well have done this in Maya or Blender.

Sink

Make the model a rough low poly, then apply anti-aliasing.

Slug and turbine

We make the soft part of the snail in the same way. For a turbine, smoothing is not necessary; you can immediately do it with a dense mesh.

Finished model

Putting it all together

Visualization

Render using Vray, it is better to take the fresher version, so that there are fewer bugs and everything goes faster.

Scene

I am using a fairly standard C-shaped scene with three lights. It allows you to get a render that is not too noisy with good reflections when high speed miscalculation. A lesson on creating such a scene can be seen, for example,. I added two more additional lights, one blue and the other yellow, to add colored highlights and add "drama."

Rendered model

I do a test render with a simple gray texture to see how the light is applied. Here you can see that the "strap" for attaching the turbine has been slightly modified.

Texturing

Find your favorite snail picture and disassemble it into organs into two textures. We convert the texture to black and white, slightly increase the contrast and get a bump (texture of unevenness). the model will not animate and the view will only be from one angle. We set the desired degree of reflection and transparency. There is a great site http://www.vray-materials.de with a lot of quality materials for Vray. You can use ready-made ones or take as a basis for creating your own.

Render

I calculate the picture in a higher resolution than required, so that later after processing it can be reduced and "dotted". This results in a better end result, less noise and sharper detail.

Masks

Additionally, the alpha channel and masks are rendered for different objects. In theory, masks can be considered one channel by giving the necessary materials (or objects) the corresponding IDs, but it's convenient for me separately.

Post-processing

Ready, rather dirty and untidy, the render is corrected in Photoshop:
- Using the alpha channel, we cut out the object from the background
- We make the background lighter and more contrasting, remove the excess leaving only the shadow
- Cut out objects into separate layers by masks
- We process each object, make it brighter, more contrasting, add highlights, adjust the shape, etc. It is difficult to compose an exact algorithm for these actions, everything is done "by eye" and depends on what kind of material is being processed and what you want to get

The final

Reduce and sharpen a little.
A large snail will be used for articles, a small one on the home page.

As an example, I took an icon from the current project.
The Rizzoma service is a collaboration system, an alternative to Google-wave.
In the course of work on the site, the idea was born to make beautiful icons for each block with the benefits of the service. The snail symbolizes contextual messages and is essentially an advanced @ symbol.

Sketch

Usually working on an icon starts with a pencil sketch, but this time there were enough inspiring pictures. It was decided to make our version of the turbine snail, beautiful and charming.

Modeling

The model is usually in 3D Max, but in fact the tool is not critical. You could just as well have done this in Maya or Blender.

Sink

Make the model a rough low poly, then apply anti-aliasing.

Slug and turbine

We make the soft part of the snail in the same way. For a turbine, smoothing is not necessary; you can immediately do it with a dense mesh.

Finished model

Putting it all together

Visualization

Render using Vray, it is better to take the fresher version, so that there are fewer bugs and everything goes faster.

Scene

I am using a fairly standard C-shaped scene with three lights. It allows you to get a render that is not too noisy with good reflections at a high rendering speed. A lesson on creating such a scene can be viewed, for example,. I added two more additional lights, one blue and the other yellow, to add colored highlights and add "drama."

Rendered model

I do a test render with a simple gray texture to see how the light is applied. Here you can see that the "strap" for attaching the turbine has been slightly modified.

Texturing

Find your favorite snail picture and disassemble it into organs into two textures. We convert the texture to black and white, slightly increase the contrast and get a bump (texture of unevenness). the model will not animate and the view will only be from one angle. We set the desired degree of reflection and transparency. There is a great site http://www.vray-materials.de with a lot of quality materials for Vray. You can use ready-made ones or take as a basis for creating your own.

Render

I calculate the picture in a higher resolution than required, so that later after processing it can be reduced and "dotted". This results in a better end result, less noise and sharper detail.

Masks

Additionally, the alpha channel and masks are rendered for different objects. In theory, masks can be considered one channel by giving the necessary materials (or objects) the corresponding IDs, but it's convenient for me separately.

Post-processing

Ready, rather dirty and untidy, the render is corrected in Photoshop:
- Using the alpha channel, we cut out the object from the background
- We make the background lighter and more contrasting, remove the excess leaving only the shadow
- Cut out objects into separate layers by masks
- We process each object, make it brighter, more contrasting, add highlights, adjust the shape, etc. It is difficult to compose an exact algorithm for these actions, everything is done "by eye" and depends on what kind of material is being processed and what you want to get

The final

Reduce and sharpen a little.
A large snail will be used for articles, a small one on the home page.